On 13 May, 20:51, wrote:
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?

No. This sounds like a problem with this specific type of machine. In
general foreign credit cards are accepted wherever UK credit cards are
accepted. However you'll usually be asked to sign a slip of paper
rather than enter a PIN.

Note that many places in the UK don't accept American Express. Visa
and MasterCard are fine.

And you can use Visa and MasterCard to obtain cash from any ATM (check
with your card issuer about charges for doing this). You'll need your
PIN for this.

What alternative exists for topping up
the cards besides carrying extra 10- or 20-pound notes?

You could try topping up your Oyster with a credit card at the ticket
office at any tube station (i.e. by handing your card over to a human
rather than sticking it into an unattended machine). If you top up
with cash you'll also need to hand it to a human at the ticket office.


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)

All I can say is that I tend to keep between 20 to 50 pounds in my
wallet, plus a credit and a debit card, and visit an ATM a couple of
times a week.


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

No, you can get a refund at any tube ticket office. Or you can keep
the card until your next visit (it never expires) or give it to
someone else. Or you can donate it to charity: some major tube
stations have a collection box for exactly this purpose.

PaulO