On May 10, 9:53*pm, David of Broadway
wrote:
On Fri, 09 May 2008 04:38:14 +0000, Neil Williams wrote:
On Thu, 8 May 2008 17:09:20 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

To top up a card that I've already purchased, do I take the card to a
Tube station machine (I won't have a laptop and maybe not even a cell
phone), enter whatever ID or authentication is necessary and then use a
credit card to add additional funds?

Pretty much, yes, though no authentication is necessary, just the card.
*You can also use cash.

Note that credit cards not equipped with chip-and-PIN (which is standard
in the UK, but many visitors don't have UK-based credit cards) will not
work at the machines, unless this has been corrected since my last visit
in August 2006.

Wow -- that's good to know. Thanks a bunch for your help. Does this
mean that credit cards will be useless all over London or just for
topping up our Oyster cards? What alternative exists for topping up
the cards besides carrying extra 10- or 20-pound notes?

On that note, I know this is not an easy question to answer but does
anyone know a decent amount of cash to carry along each day? (for
myself and my daughter -- my wife will carry her own cash)

Also, if I have unused cash stored on my Oyster Card when I finally
depart back to California, do I lose it?