Graham J wrote:

Either the rules have changed since I've last looked at them (not being a
regular user of PAYG) or they were badly worded at the time - I was
always under the impression that one had to nominate a station for
collection which wasn't much help if you lived by a non-PAYG station and
couldn't be sure where you would hit your first Oyster reader. (Does one
actually have to travel from the station nominated for activation or
could one just touch in with a season ticket at a standalone reader and
then go and use a bus or season?)

You have to nominate a station to load fixed amounts of 'top-up' ordered
online onto an Oyster card and you will also end up being touched-in at
the same time and so have an amount taken off your card.

Is that true even if one has a season ticket on the Oyster already and is in
zone?

However it was 'auto top-up' that was being talked about and that is a
different animal. Auto top-up is triggered by any touch-in on buses,
trams, tubes and presumably trains.

The website says I have to nominate a station to touch in to collect on, but
seems to imply it has to be at the start of a journey, so I've nominated
Stratford, where I'll try on the Central Line platform readers, rather than
when exiting at Mile End.