Londoners: Free £10 Oystercard Prepay Credit!

quietzap

I tried to complete sign up for the £10 credit, but the site will not accept my Maestro card. I wonder if my email will make any difference . . . lol Obviously not fair that they will let me pay with it at a station, but not use it when I can get a freebie.

kilroy353

A word of warning to people who only use their Oyster for the buses. The last time I topped mine up online I went to my selected tube station to charge the card. However the guy behind the counter claimed that he couldn't charge it and that I had to collect the "charge" from the gate (min. journey £1.50)!

houmie

kilroy353 wrote:

A word of warning to people who only use their Oyster for the buses. The last time I topped mine up online I went to my selected tube station to charge the card. However the guy behind the counter claimed that he couldn't charge it and that I had to collect the "charge" from the gate (min. journey £1.50)!

It is true, the whole touch-in idea for topping-up the card (if online paid for) is redicilous. They assume or better 'force' you to take the tube at least once. They need a central online system where you top up and every card reader (bus or tube) knows the oyster number, which has been updated.

I guess the amount of data flow is too much for the old tube computer systems.

Regards
Houmie

EcO_3

Great tip. I registered mine today !

Money_Man_Steve

Once you've collected your free £10 prepay credit, you can cancel the auto top-up facility on your Oystercard if you'd rather top up your card manually.

I just tried this online, and these are some notes from the Oystercard website about how the cancellation works:

To cancel Auto top-up, you must nominate a station where you want the instruction to be transferred to your Oyster card. We will send you an email confirming when the instruction has been sent to the station and is ready for you to collect it.

It can only be activated at one station (e.g. this could be the station where you start your journey). You only need to do this once.

To cancel Auto top-up, touch your Oyster card on a card reader on/near the gates at your nominated station. (Not on the readers on ticket machines).

NOTE:
If you do not pick up the instruction from the station you specify below your Auto top-up will NOT be cancelled.

By the way, you don't seem to lose the free £10 credit if you cancel the auto top-up facility!

horfsby1984

still works

Saffie_2

O.k boys and girls, i work for our lovely London Underground and should be able to put your minds at rest about a few things.

Firstly, REGISTER your oystercard. If you loose an unregistered card then you have lost everything on it and it's just tough luck. O.k, there is the thing about LU knowing your journeys, but is that really such an issue? We live in a world where we are tracked and videoed all the time, does it really hurt us? A registered oystercard can be stopped immediately and the remaining credit refunded or transferred to another card. Only make sure that you report it lost as soon as possible, refunds will only be for the amount remaining on the card at the time the loss is reported. So leave it a day or two and you're loosing money. For the record your card number is printed on all your reciepts so keep one of them safely at home, then you'll have the number, should you need to report it lost.

Secondly, a common mistake when nominating the station to top up at is not nominating the station that you are next going to visit. Make sure that you nominate wisely, as if you turn up at a different station there's nothing we can do. As for being forced to make a journey in order to top up, that's just not the case. Try asking us for help, we're not all idiots with no customer service skills! If you don't want to travel you don't have to pay the fare, (which, for the record, is not £1.50. It varies depending on the zone that you are in). Going straight to the ticket office however, is not going to help you, as they cannot top up an internet order for you. What you need to do is read your oyster as normal on the gate, then go to the ticket office. Tell the person that you do not wish to travel and that you are only doing a top up and they can remove the fare that was added. Be warned though, you have to do this straight away, leaving it to do later could result in the ticket clerk not being able to remove the charge.

Thirdly, for those of you who buy weekly tickets. From 25th september you will have to switch to oyster, those of you registering before that date will not have to pay the £3 deposit if you renew your weekly ticket at the same time. It's not a great saving, but worth it if you're gonna swap anyway.

I hope this puts a new light on things, if anyone has any other questions i'll do my best to help...

:wave:

Money_Man_Steve

Thanks for that Saffie, it's good to hear from someone with 'insider' knowledge!

BTW... seems that the free £10 auto top-up credits are still available, so if you haven't claimed yet - do so while the offer is still on!

Saffie_2

Not really sure if anyone is interested, but the £3 oyster deposit has been withdrawn until further notice. Provided that you purchase a weekly travelcard at the same time you get the card. So those of you who think that you've missed it, you haven't!!

If you want to put your bus pass on oyster and want to avoid the £3 charge then make the change now. Get the oyster as normal and buy a weekly travelcard for one zone only, (your local zone, not zone 1). Doing this will cost you 20p more then your normal weekly bus pass, which you only pay when you get the card. After that travelcard runs out just renew for your normal bus pass. Again it's not the best saving in the world, but it will save you £2.80.

:wave:

Saffie_2

There are many other ways to get the most out of your tube ticket...

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=95108

See my "Top Tube Ticket Tips!"