On Mon, 30 Nov 2009 00:48:42 -0800 (PST), MIG
wrote:

Didn't mean the comments to follow necessarily. It ought to pay
interest anyway. It's a system for us to lend our money up front and
use it later

Do you "lend" your money to your wallet? It's an electronic wallet,
and one in which there's no need to have large balances.

along with a whole new assumption of guilt

Eh? It means that you cannot be PFed if you are within the TfL area,
on traditional PAYG at least.

It's supposed to make everything more convenient, but in practice what
we really get is all other fares put up to coerce us to use this
system where we lend our money up front, but for practical reasons
that involves far more inconvenience and complication when we have to
mix systems to get the best deal.

Must admit I don't like the "premium-isation" of paper tickets. I'd
have used an Oyster even without it - it's just more convenient.
Arriva have just introduced mobile phone ticketing across their bus
networks - I'll use this because it's more convenient than fumbling
for change. (It's quite well-implemented, though the driver on my way
home was a bit perplexed by it as it was the first one he'd seen - it
was only introduced a week or two ago).

The =A33, which almost no one is ever going to claim back, is like a
bank charge for having an account at all. Most banks offer
inducements to get you to lend them their money.

The gbp3 is a charge for purchasing the card, just like buying a
wallet to hold it in. The card does cost a couple of quid at least -
contactless smartcards are not as cheap as you'd think. And the
charge brings environmental benefits - without it, just like free
newspapers[1], you'd see them all over the floor.

A number of other countries with similar systems don't even offer the
ability to get the money back.

[1] A lot less so with the Standard, it has to be said. I suspect
that's because it's actually worth taking it with you to finish it
off, unlike the erstwhile Lite and London Paper, both of which could
be read cover to cover in their entirety quite easily between Aldgate
and Euston Square.

Neil

--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the at to reply.