In message , at 10:23:19
on Wed, 2 Mar 2011, remarked:

For a fiver, I think you are well into "self inflicted injury" time
if you refuse to authenticate your card for online journey history.
And if your usage is that low, the online history is going to be
very boring anyway!

I can get the history from a ticket office if I really want it. It's not
worth me running a balance more than double what I normally need.

You don't have to run with a £5 balance for ever, just one "pump
priming" £5 topup, which you can then use for travel until it's
exhausted.
--
Roland Perry

"Roland Perry" wrote in message
...
In message , at 10:23:19 on
Wed, 2 Mar 2011, remarked:

For a fiver, I think you are well into "self inflicted injury" time
if you refuse to authenticate your card for online journey history.
And if your usage is that low, the online history is going to be
very boring anyway!

I can get the history from a ticket office if I really want it. It's not
worth me running a balance more than double what I normally need.

You don't have to run with a £5 balance for ever, just one "pump priming"
£5 topup, which you can then use for travel until it's exhausted.
--
Roland Perry

I don't think I've ever managed to get the journey history online and I tend
to topup online more than I do offline

My last top-up was 85p (for Vauxhall-Putney last night).

You are of course entitled to do that if the ticket office allow it. And
you are saving yourself money: assuming you can invest with a return of
10% after tax[1] then letting your Oyster card carry an average balance
of £2.50 wd cost you a whole 25 pence a year.

But the costs in terms of staff time + overheads of your topping up by
such tiny amounts must be exorbitant and - as I am sure you know -
patently defeat the purpose of Oyster PAYG fares being lower than cash
fares. Those are of course social rather than individual costs[2].
That's why I would urge and support the full imposition of a minimum £5
top-up.


[1] if you can please tell me where
[2] OTOH you might also want to factor in the personal cost of the risk
of being assaulted by persons behind you in the queue on realising they
have missed their train due you insisting on topping up by such a small
amount

--
Robin
PM may be sent to rbw0{at}hotmail{dot}com

I wonder what the rationale is there - I had been pondering that it
was some sort of systems issue (that I couldn't quite decipher), but
actually I wonder if it might not be more of a safeguard to ensure
that those who have access to an Oyster card's journey history really
are the bona fide holder of said card. Something to scratch my head
over...

I always thought it something to do with the online Oyster ticketing being
operated by a third party, e.g. Keith Prowse or somebody like that, and
their only being able offer the journey history to their own customers. No
idea how I formed that impression though and I imagine it will turn out to
be a load of drivel.

In message , at 20:31:44 on
Wed, 2 Mar 2011, Nicola Redwood
remarked:
I don't think I've ever managed to get the journey history online and I tend
to topup online more than I do offline

Topping up online is what triggers the availability of journey history
online. I have no idea why you haven't followed one with the other.
--
Roland Perry

In message , at 20:34:54 on Wed, 2
Mar 2011, Robin remarked:
My last top-up was 85p (for Vauxhall-Putney last night).

You are of course entitled to do that if the ticket office allow it. And
you are saving yourself money: assuming you can invest with a return of
10% after tax[1] then letting your Oyster card carry an average balance
of £2.50 wd cost you a whole 25 pence a year.

But the costs in terms of staff time + overheads of your topping up by
such tiny amounts must be exorbitant and - as I am sure you know -
patently defeat the purpose of Oyster PAYG fares being lower than cash
fares.

Unfortunately Colin is rather fond of unsustainable public transport
usage, like dragging his bike with him everywhere. It's OK if 1% of
passengers do that, but isn't an example that anyone could possibly
encourage as the norm.
--
Roland Perry

"Roland Perry" wrote in message
...
In message , at 20:31:44 on Wed,
2 Mar 2011, Nicola Redwood remarked:
I don't think I've ever managed to get the journey history online and I
tend
to topup online more than I do offline

Topping up online is what triggers the availability of journey history
online. I have no idea why you haven't followed one with the other.
--
Roland Perry

Will be topping up online soon, so will see what happens as it's a while
since I've needed to

I currently have an annual Oyster travelcard, but sometimes need to go out
of zone for work, hence I usually have some PAYG on there as well

In article , (Robin)
wrote:

My last top-up was 85p (for Vauxhall-Putney last night).

You are of course entitled to do that if the ticket office allow
it. And you are saving yourself money: assuming you can invest with
a return of 10% after tax[1] then letting your Oyster card carry an
average balance of £2.50 wd cost you a whole 25 pence a year.

But the costs in terms of staff time + overheads of your topping up
by such tiny amounts must be exorbitant and - as I am sure you know
- patently defeat the purpose of Oyster PAYG fares being lower
than cash fares. Those are of course social rather than individual
costs[2]. That's why I would urge and support the full imposition
of a minimum £5 top-up.


[1] if you can please tell me where
[2] OTOH you might also want to factor in the personal cost of the
risk of being assaulted by persons behind you in the queue on
realising they have missed their train due you insisting on topping
up by such a small amount

I almost invariably top up at Ticket Stops. Tuesday night was at one in
Putney Hill. I just object to lending money to TfL for months at a time.
This week's top up was the first since mid-December.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

On Wed, 02 Mar 2011 20:34:54 +0000, Robin wrote:


[2] OTOH you might also want to factor in the personal cost of the risk
of being assaulted by persons behind you in the queue on realising they
have missed their train due you insisting on topping up by such a small
amount

If they're in that much of a hurry to get a train, what would they be
doing in the newsagents in the first place...?

In message , at 22:09:41 on
Wed, 2 Mar 2011, Nicola Redwood
remarked:
Will be topping up online soon, so will see what happens as it's a while
since I've needed to

Remember to ask for the journey history to be activated as well (which
should happen as soon as you collect the top-up).
--
Roland Perry