Oyster Season Ticket - COVID-19

Ballard

For those people who have a season ticket on their TfL Oyster Card I see that they will refund the unused part of the season ticket without levying a fee. I don't envisage being able to travel back into the office any time soon so have cashed mine in. The refund covers the time from your last use until expiry and can now be done online through your TfL account.

As I read it the card then becomes invalid so you'd need to obtain a new one when you need to travel again. For those people who have staff season ticket loans you'd almost certainly need to run it past your HR department before taking any action.

I did see a couple of related threads on refunds but didn't spot any specifically about this and think it deserves its own thread. Apologies if I missed one though.

NBLondon

I put in a request for this online last week.   It does seem to say that the Oystercard will be cancelled - but as mine holds both the season travel card and some Pay as You Go cash - I did explicitly say that I only wanted a refund of the Travelcard.   I've had an e-mail auto acknowledgement but that's it so far.

Ballard

I was happy for the card to be completely cancelled so they refunded the season ticket and the small amount of pay as you go cash. I’ll get a new one when I start travelling again. 

NBLondon

If I don't get an answer by end of the week - I'll probably go down that route as well.

krizmrtn86

Great news, thanks for letting us know!

jon81uk

TeodorBlaick said:

Do you know is it possible to have my money back faster? 

I called up TfL and was on hold for almost an hour, but the sorted the refund quickly and it was in my bank in about 3 days.

NBLondon

NBLondon said:

If I don't get an answer by end of the week - I'll probably go down that route as well.

Have just done so online.   The options were 1) Refund the credit card I bought it with  2) Web credit i.e.  can use it to buy Pay as You Go or Travelcards online in the future  3) Refund by BACS.    Since I don't know when I'll be re-buying a Travelcard - I'm going for 3.

myuserid

Ballard said:

For those people who have a season ticket on their TfL Oyster Card I see that they will refund the unused part of the season ticket without levying a fee. I don't envisage being able to travel back into the office any time soon so have cashed mine in. The refund covers the time from your last use until expiry and can now be done online through your TfL account.

As I read it the card then becomes invalid so you'd need to obtain a new one when you need to travel again. For those people who have staff season ticket loans you'd almost certainly need to run it past your HR department before taking any action.

I did see a couple of related threads on refunds but didn't spot any specifically about this and think it deserves its own thread. Apologies if I missed one though.

Do you have a TfL source for where it says they won't charge the normal fee? Because the estimated refund online shows the £5 fee. Also I wanted to keep my Oyster card but didn't see any option to do so, so the estimate includes my season ticket and cash amount that was on the card.

myuserid

jon81uk said:

TeodorBlaick said:

Do you know is it possible to have my money back faster? 

I called up TfL and was on hold for almost an hour, but the sorted the refund quickly and it was in my bank in about 3 days.

That's lucky. I initially went through 3-4 hours of phoning to cancel (when they didn't have an option online) but still didn't hear anything from them weeks later, let alone receive the refund, so had to try again online.

I'll have to see what happens this time. I will say that with the online option, I did at least receive an email confirming the cancellation of my card and it shows as cancelled when I login, which it did not before.

NBLondon

myuserid said:

Ballard said:

For those people who have a season ticket on their TfL Oyster Card I see that they will refund the unused part of the season ticket without levying a fee. I don't envisage being able to travel back into the office any time soon so have cashed mine in. The refund covers the time from your last use until expiry and can now be done online through your TfL account.

As I read it the card then becomes invalid so you'd need to obtain a new one when you need to travel again. For those people who have staff season ticket loans you'd almost certainly need to run it past your HR department before taking any action.

I did see a couple of related threads on refunds but didn't spot any specifically about this and think it deserves its own thread. Apologies if I missed one though.

Do you have a TfL source for where it says they won't charge the normal fee? Because the estimated refund online shows the £5 fee. Also I wanted to keep my Oyster card but didn't see any option to do so, so the estimate includes my season ticket and cash amount that was on the card.

Cant link to easily but there is a specific link for Corona related refunds that waived the fee if you phone but if you go to Product refund within my Oyster then you can request it online and does charge the £5.  I did the latter to save time, and the fee cancelled out the deposit on the card.  Back in my account in 72 hours 

Ballard

myuserid said:

Ballard said:

For those people who have a season ticket on their TfL Oyster Card I see that they will refund the unused part of the season ticket without levying a fee. I don't envisage being able to travel back into the office any time soon so have cashed mine in. The refund covers the time from your last use until expiry and can now be done online through your TfL account.

As I read it the card then becomes invalid so you'd need to obtain a new one when you need to travel again. For those people who have staff season ticket loans you'd almost certainly need to run it past your HR department before taking any action.

I did see a couple of related threads on refunds but didn't spot any specifically about this and think it deserves its own thread. Apologies if I missed one though.

Do you have a TfL source for where it says they won't charge the normal fee? Because the estimated refund online shows the £5 fee. Also I wanted to keep my Oyster card but didn't see any option to do so, so the estimate includes my season ticket and cash amount that was on the card.

The text has changed since I got mine refunded. It now says that you'll get a refund less the cost of the used portion and doesn't mention a fee at all. This means that rather than getting refunded pro-rata you'll pay for a three month pass and get refunded for the remaining nine months (for example).

For me it was a no-brainer as it costs me £50 per week for my annual and my assumption is that it will be at least 6 weeks before I'll have to travel into the office again.

https://tfl.gov.uk/fares/refunds-and-replacements/coronavirus