Absurd Oyster Top-up Process

Nessun_Dorma

My son starts college next week, which is in London, Zone 5. In order to get there, he will need to take the bus, so we need top up his Oyster card.

As we do not live in London, there are no tube stations near-by and certainly no shops that do top-ups. So, we decided to attempt to top-up on line. He will not be travelling passed, or near, any tube stations along the way.

But, here is the absurdity; after having to wait twenty-four hours, the top-up has to be activated at a pre-nominated tube station. There is apparently no way around it. I spent half an hour on the phone this morning trying to establish some way of resolving this and all I got was, "that is the way it is."

We put men on the moon over forty years ago, but today we still can't operate a public transport payment system.

Has anyone else had this issue, if so, did you get around it and how?

peachyprice

Are you sure there are no shops anywhere nearby the bus stop? Or a national rail station?

k3lvc

In my experience (as a non-Londoner but frequent visitor) it is the way it is.


The alternative is to use a contactless debit/credit card which has no such restriction but may not be suitable for son depending on age

cookie365

k3lvc wrote: »

In my experience (as a non-Londoner but frequent visitor) it is the way it is.


The alternative is to use a contactless debit/credit card which has no such restriction but may not be suitable for son depending on age

This. Use contactless instead.

peachyprice

Or at least use a contactless until you get to the zone 5 destination where you're more likely to find a station or shop.

Perhaps OP, if you tell us your starting point, destination and route someone may know somewhere the oyster can be validated

agrinnall

Oyster cards are pretty much a dead duck (if that's not a mixed metaphor) now, the vast majority of people will have a contactless card or a phone that will make NFC payments. Why carry an extra piece of plastic around when you'll almost certainly have one or both of the other means to pay?

peachyprice

agrinnall wrote: »

Oyster cards are pretty much a dead duck (if that's not a mixed metaphor) now, the vast majority of people will have a contactless card or a phone that will make NFC payments. Why carry an extra piece of plastic around when you'll almost certainly have one or both of the other means to pay?

I'm assuming because the OP's son is 16-17 years old he's unlikely to have a contactless bedit card or fancy phone yet and OP wants a method of payment they can top up for him.

giraffe69

Can't you set the Oyster card to auto top up. I can remember the nonsense of having to update at a nominated station and agree it is absurd whether or not it is the "way that it is" but once autotop up was done end of problem.

peachyprice

giraffe69 wrote: »

Can't you set the Oyster card to auto top up. I can remember the nonsense of having to update at a nominated station and agree it is absurd whether or not it is the "way that it is" but once autotop up was done end of problem.

OP can't set the auto-top up until they've been to a nominated station first, bit of a catch 22.

Andy_L

agrinnall wrote: »

Oyster cards are pretty much a dead duck (if that's not a mixed metaphor) now, the vast majority of people will have a contactless card or a phone that will make NFC payments. Why carry an extra piece of plastic around when you'll almost certainly have one or both of the other means to pay?

You can't (yet) get monthly/annual season tickets on contactless

Nessun_Dorma

Thanks everyone for the replies and I would like to respond to the following points:

1. He doesn't have a contactless card, he doesn't even have a bank account (he is only sixteen).

2. There are no nearby shops selling Oyster top-ups, as we live outside London, there is little call for it.

3. There are no National Rail stations near us that have an Oyster point.

4. It's a bit late to set up an automatic top-up.

We seriously cannot be the only people who have experienced these issues and TfL are oblivious to the problem.