Oyster top-up

Joannef_2

I used to have auto top-up on my Oyster but I cancelled it when I was made redundant.

I have a small balance on my card and have just topped up online with £5.00 so I have enough to make a couple of tube journeys today. Can anyone tell me how quickly this £5.00 will be added to my balance - will it be as soon as I go through the ticket barriers? Oyster says the balance will be available from tomorrow, which isn't much help as I need to use it today! I thought it always used to do it as soon as you go through the barriers but maybe I am wrong.

Thanks.

Tinuel

Hi Joannef,

Usually it is as soon as you go through, never happened to me having to wait until the following day.
Try getting to the Tube station and test it, I am pretty sure you Oyster is fully loaded now.

nomoneytoday

AFAIK it's instant. The other alternate is to topup at a local newsagent or tube station

Joannef_2

Thanks for the replies.

hansi

I topped up at a newsagent a couple of hours ago and it hasn't shown on my balance yet. Should it go through overnight?

Joannef_2

When I topped up online last week it didn't go through until the next afternoon! Instead as I needed to use my Oyster, I had to top up using one of the machines in the tube station.

hansi

I thinks it's different if you top up online. I think you have to nominate a station where you have to put your card on a reader and it updates. May that's what will happen to mine too, topped up at a newsagent.

surreysaver

If you do it online, it has to upload during the night to the machines at the tube station.