From there the thread went off into discussions about the progress
Foyles have made in book retailing over the last 30 years. Meanwhile,
I'm still waiting for the online top up user to pop up and tell me
what I've been missing out on over the years.


I'm not claiming it was a great contribution but was the reason I gave
for using online top-up at least once wholly irrelevant? For ease of
reference I have copied it below.


"My reason for using the online top-up facility was to gain online
access
to my journey history.

That seems still to be a requirement. From the Oyster site:

"You need to have an Oyster online account and have purchased pay as you
go online to view your journey history online. Once you are logged in,
select the Journey History option under the 'My card' tab."

That may of course simply change the question to why online top-up is
required. I'd guess as a security check (with DPA in mind) that the
person gaining access is the owner of the card. Not foolproof of course
but it seems to me a reasonable safeguard."

--
R