On Mon, 05 Jun 2006 14:21:07 +0100, Dave Arquati wrote:

- It is now possible to recover the £3 Oyster deposit and up to £5
credit across the counter at ticket offices, rather than having to send
off for the money; this is specifically designed to encourage short-term
use of Oyster.

This is excellent news. One of my biggest bugbears with Oyster is now
resolved - it seemed almost deliberately obstructive of TfL to have
such a difficult procedure for refunding deposits (whereas, for
example, in Hong Kong you've been able to get an over-the-counter
refund of the deposit for years, in their almost-identical smartcard
system).

Until now I had been advising visitors to buy One Day or Weekly
Travelcards as needed, as it was usually cheaper than paying the
(effectively non-refundable) deposit and using pre-pay.

I think this move will certainly achieve its objective.