In message
MIG wrote:

On 3 Feb, 10:52, Mizter T wrote:
On Feb 3, 10:22*am, MIG wrote:





On 3 Feb, 09:44, Mizter T wrote:

On Feb 3, 8:51*am, Graeme wrote:

David Hansen wrote:
[snip]
As I understand it the £3.00 fine for getting one covers the cost of
the card and provides a buffer against abuse.

Why this stupid insistence on using emotive words like 'fine' to describe a
simple deposit? *It just devalues any point you might have.

Agreed - it's a feature of David Hansen's writing style that makes
reading his posts rather trying and hectoring.

The cards cost money to produce. The £3 deposit/ charge for them
encourages people to reuse them, rather than bin them.

"Fine" may be the wrong word, but "deposit" is at least as wrong.
"Price" would seem to cover it. *There is almost no realistic
opportunity to get the £3 back for the vast majority, and I don't
suppose it's the first thing on relatives' minds when someone dies.

"There is almost no realistic opportunity to get the £3 back for the
vast majority" - not true. If it's never been topped up with a credit
card, and the balance is under a certain amount (sorry I forget the
figure), then one can surrender it at a Tube station and get the
deposit refunded (if the card's registered then AIUI this is still
possible, you just need to know the security phrase).

I know that one physically can do this, but when is anyone ever going
to be in that situation?

Every time you leave London


If you are leaving the country forever, it's probably not the first
thing on your mind, but it's about the only situation in which you
would do it.

Sorry that's nonsense.


It's unlikely that you'd ever be in a position where you would KNOW
that you would either

a) never visit London again

b) die before you needed it again

c) lose it before the next time you would use it

So, in what circumstances, realistically, would the vast majority ever
get their £3 back?

Realistically when they know they are unlikely to need it in the forseeable
future.

Out of 8 people I know who used oysters cards 4 still have them: 2 use then
every day to commute, my wife and I keep ours for our frequent trips to
London. The other four all surrendered their's when leaving the country. If
and when they return they will get new ones.

I'm currently trying to establish whether the Dutch Chipkart operates the
same way so that I can get one for use around Amsterdam and then retrieve my
deposit and any balance when I leave. And believe me it won't be the last
thing that occurrs to me when I get to Schipol.

--
Graeme Wall

This address not read, substitute trains for rail
Transport Miscellany at www.greywall.demon.co.uk/rail
Photo galleries at http://graeme-wall.fotopic.net/