On Nov 23, 12:02*pm, Roland Perry wrote:
"From 2 January 2011, the minimum balance on your Oyster card before it
is automatically topped up is changing from £5 to £8. This is to ensure
that all customers with Auto top-up will always have enough credit on
their cards for any journey they wish to make."

Perhaps Paul (Corfield) can answer this one
(enquiring minds want to know).

Surely with Auto top-up I'll always have enough credit to make a
journey as I'll get topped up when I enter?

Or is it the scenario where I have £5.10 left and make a £7.30
journey to Watford Junction from Zone 1 that leaves me in negative
balance that makes me unable to enter the system again.

Does Auto top-up work when your balance goes negative I think is the
underlying question.

If it does, why the increase to £8, or is it to protect from a very
large
(impossible) negative balance?

Matt.

In article ,
Matthew wrote:
Or is it the scenario where I have £5.10 left and make a £7.30
journey to Watford Junction from Zone 1 that leaves me in negative
balance that makes me unable to enter the system again.

I suspect it's probably because they don't really like cards having
negative balances if they can possibly avoid it. So they'd like to
ensure that you always have enough money on the card to make that 7.30
journey *without* going overdrawn.

-roy

On Tue, 23 Nov 2010 19:31:33 +0000, Paul Corfield wrote:
I am guessing, because the point of this thread is news to me, that with
fare levels increasing from January that they are seeking to ensure that
balances do not become exhausted in short order. This probably also
keeps the volume of auto top up transactions in the system at manageable
levels.

Changing the auto top-up threshold isn't going to change the number of
transactions. If my fares cost £20/week I'll have one top-up a week
with any threshold, just with the new one TfL will get a bit more of my
money in the bank for eternity just in case I go to Watford.

Avoiding negative balances for auto top-up customers seems reasonable
though.

David

On Nov 23, 10:34*pm, David Walters wrote:
Changing the auto top-up threshold isn't going to change the number of
transactions. If my fares cost £20/week I'll have one top-up a week
with any threshold, just with the new one TfL will get a bit more of my
money in the bank for eternity just in case I go to Watford.

Avoiding negative balances for auto top-up customers seems reasonable
though.

But does a negative balance with auto top-up prevent you from entering
the
system again? And with the fare increases are you likely to blow the
amount
you're allowed to go negative.

I'm trying to establish if there's a technical reason, rather than TfL
having more
of my money in the bank and their "will always have enough credit"
reasoning
is sketchy.

Matt