London Oyster- free £5 credit

tigerminxy

I didn't get anything about activating my card at a station. My account just says it was done with 'online activation'.

YoBear

Old_Gold wrote:

Fair. Where do Oyster and fair come into anything. How about being able to check your usage online? I dont believe you can do that. How many people are gettin overcharged without realising it or not being bothered to spend time disputing it.
As far as the top up goes it looks as if there are quite a few restrictions, for example you have to nominate a station and activate your card at that station within a certain amount of days. So what if you use different patterns of travelling?

If you already have an Oystercard and got this from a station, then you need to register your Oyster online (using the number on the Oystercard)
You can then view up to 2 months usage online (if you email a request, they can send a pdf statement for three months) which I use for business expenses.

YoBear

littlemissmoney wrote:

I've no idea (sorry!) but when you find out please can you let us know as I would like to do the same. Thanks :j

No you can't; I had this problem with the original auto-top up offer. You HAVE to go through the barriers and lost the £10 credit offer

YoBear

SickStu wrote:

Do you realise that your Oyster cards are used to track you wherever you go. That's why there's such an incentive price-wise to get you to carry one. Big Brother Red Ken is watching you !

This comment always amuses me. Think about it. The logic.
Red Ken sits there looking up SickStu travel day and then mine - come off it - off course he doesn't. You = 1 statistic - absolutely useless to anyone there BUT where it CAN be used as a benefit is to see how many people are going through London Bridge and what routes they are taking - this all helps people traffic flow, connections, layouts. So the more the better - its a sort of auto-democracy.

starlit_2

littlemissmoney wrote:

I've no idea (sorry!) but when you find out please can you let us know as I would like to do the same. Thanks :j

I just spoke to a customer service bod about this, and he explained at great length all about it. He said that I should approach a member of staff and explain to them what I am trying to do. He didn't say how they would be able to help, but he said that if I was charged for a tube journey that I wasn't going to make, I should ring them up (don't forget to go through saynoto0898.com) and they will refund the tube cost.

I had a bit of a rant at him about information on their website being confusing and unclear. He said that if I popped into a tube station and collected a fares leaflet, that would explain everything.....

starlit_2

YoBear wrote:

This comment always amuses me. Think about it. The logic.
Red Ken sits there looking up SickStu travel day and then mine - come off it - off course he doesn't. You = 1 statistic - absolutely useless to anyone there BUT where it CAN be used as a benefit is to see how many people are going through London Bridge and what routes they are taking - this all helps people traffic flow, connections, layouts. So the more the better - its a sort of auto-democracy.

I'd agree with all that, but it was somewhat disturbing to have a stranger describing in great detail where I went and when all day on a Monday several weeks ago.
To be honest, I'm more concerned with satellites reading my brainwaves. They know that I'm writing this, and they'll probably cart me off for it.

SickStu

Not even I think Red Ken's got nothing better to do than analyse where I've been going on a daily basis, he's too busy jetting off to global warming conferences. However, if you come to the attention of any of the law enforcement/security agencies they'll download your movements from the database before you can say George Orwell.

dag_2

I might be wrong on all these things but:

I'm confused. I currently have 40p on my card and just set the auto top-up. Does this mean I have to just use my Oyster Card first at London Bridge and then it will be automatically topped up because I am below the £5 threshold?

If you want to activate auto-top-up on an existing card, then you need to nominate both a station and an initial top-up amount - as you have done. The initial top up amount is charged to your credit or debit card immediately.

London Bridge or your nominated station doesn't need to be the first station that you pass through - however, the credit you paid for won't be added until you do pass through the gates of that station. When you do, the credit that you've already paid for will be added, regardless of what the balance on your oyster card is at the time. Auto-top-up is activated on your card at the same time.

If your initial payment had bounced, then auto-top-up will not be set up. That's why you needed to give a day or two's notice before setting it up.

However, if you do not enter or exit your nominated station within seven days, then your auto-top-up request will be cancelled, and the initial amound you paid should be refunded to your credit card.

Once auto-top-up is activated, then your oyster card will be automatically topped up with £20 or £40 from your chosen credit card whenever you try to travel with a balance of less than £5, at any tube station or London bus that accepts oyster pay-as-you-go. You do not need to nominate tube stations or buses.

If your credit or debit card payment fails to authorise a payment for a top-up on an oyster card on which auto-top-up is already active, then TfL will email you about it to give you a chance to settle it and provide new payment details. If you don't do this within three days, your oyster card will be frozen.

So - in a nutshell, auto-top-up is very convenient once it's set up, but you have to jump through a few hoops to get it set up in the first place.

Why does the system work this way? I don't know - but think about it. TfL has no way of knowing when your credit will drop below £5 until it actually happens, and they have no way of knowing where you'll travel until you touch in at a gate. The whole point of the Oyster card system is to speed up the passage of people through the gates, so there isn't enough time to keep you waiting at the gate while your credit card gets authorised. They simply top up your oyster card regardless, and don't worry about authorising your credit card until later.

That means there is a risk that your credit card will bounce, and TfL will have to try to get the auto-top-up credit back off you.

So imagine what would happen if they allowed you to set up auto-top-up without making an initial payment to activate the service. People would simply enter false credit card details, and would continue to use the oyster card credit that they haven't paid for to travel for as long as they can get away with it. Once the oyster card is frozen, people would simply dump the card and get a new one, and set up auto-top-up with false details to do it all over again.

Yes it's true that you have to put down a £3 deposit to get a new oyster card - but it's possible to get up to £40-worth of travel out of an oyster card that's trying to auto-top-up from a cancelled credit card, before the oyster card itself gets frozen. £3 for up to four days of unimpeded peak-rate tube and bus travel sounds like a good deal to me!

In order to reduce the risk of this happening, TfL insists on collecting your first payment on the credit card you plan to use before activating auto-top-up - and that's why you have to go through the rigmarole of nominating a station and a date before auto-top-up is activated. This also means that it's impossible to set up auto-top-up using a credit card that never authorises.

I can't vouch for the accuracy of any of my suppositions, but hopefully it makes the system seem clearer and more sensible.

peter999

Stompa wrote:

OK thanks. That's a very poorly worded website then

The TFL Oystercard website is rubbish.

They don't explain basic terms & how they work.

peter999

maryink wrote:

<rant> Oh! I have just spoken to the rudest customer service agent ever at Oyster!!!!! In trying to sign up for this it turns out my card has already been registered. I'm asked for my mother's maiden name. Not accepted. I tried my husband's. Not accepted. The guy on the phone tells me there's nothing I can do to retrieve this info and passwords are there for a reason! Arghhh what a bad start to the day. </rant> Cheers for letting me vent....

Funny how things change.

TFL, councils, government announce wonderful new schemes.
Before you know it these organisations are dictating to you & giving you the runaround.