I purchased a couple of tourist Oyster cards with £10 of credit directly from
TFL a few months ago for a recent trip to London. The cards worked fine and
aside from all the weekend shutdowns, we had no problem getting around on the
tube.

Just out of curiosity, I registered one of the cards to see the remaining
balance and journey history. However, when I go to the history tab, I get the
following message:

Please note, customers will only be able to view this information if they have
purchased pay as you go credit (including Auto top-up) from Oyster online.

Not sure why this would have to be the case. Purchasing credit from Oyster
online is a bit problamatic as the site does not take credit cards issued
outside the UK. And if I was able to purchase credit, would it only show trips
from that point forward?

In article ,
(Robert Neville) wrote:

I purchased a couple of tourist Oyster cards with £10 of credit directly
from TFL a few months ago for a recent trip to London. The cards worked
fine and aside from all the weekend shutdowns, we had no problem getting
around on the tube.

Just out of curiosity, I registered one of the cards to see the
remaining balance and journey history. However, when I go to the history
tab, I get the following message:

Please note, customers will only be able to view this information if
they have purchased pay as you go credit (including Auto top-up) from
Oyster online.

Not sure why this would have to be the case. Purchasing credit from
Oyster online is a bit problamatic as the site does not take credit
cards issued outside the UK. And if I was able to purchase credit, would
it only show trips from that point forward?

I have the same problem and go to London only occasionally now. You should
still be able to see that balance on a ticket machine, in case that helps.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

Not sure why this would have to be the case. Purchasing credit from
Oyster online is a bit problamatic as the site does not take credit
cards issued outside the UK. And if I was able to purchase credit,
would it only show trips from that point forward?

This has been discussed here in the past. I think the consensus was
that it was a security measure to protect the information about where
and when a card was used. (Eg think of partner A suspecting partner B
of cheating.)

Without the need to buy credit online A could register B's card and see
the travel history; and TfL would have no more record of who did so than
an IP address from the computer used.

With the online purchase they also have credit/debit card details and
the fact that the Oyster card was then used to collect the credit. (I
*think* the credit has to be collected before online access is given but
I could be wrong.) Of course the credit card might be stolen but no
system is perfect. And the online credit does give the card user the
opportunity to spot and ask questions about the unexpected balance.
--
Robin
PM may be sent to rbw0{at}hotmail{dot}com

wrote:

I have the same problem and go to London only occasionally now. You should
still be able to see that balance on a ticket machine, in case that helps.

Strangely enough, it does show the balance. Just not the journey history. More
of a curiosity than a problem though.

wrote in message
...
In article ,
(Robert Neville) wrote:

wrote:

I have the same problem and go to London only occasionally now. You
should still be able to see that balance on a ticket machine, in case
that helps.

Strangely enough, it does show the balance. Just not the journey
history. More of a curiosity than a problem though.

Online, you mean? That's working as designed, then.

Why.

What is the point of encouraging people to register cards so that they can
use the online services and then refusing them the online services unless
they jump through another hoop (a hoop which as I've previous explained, is
not useful to some people's journey pattern)

tim

What is the point of encouraging people to register cards so that
they can use the online services and then refusing them the online
services unless they jump through another hoop (a hoop which as I've
previous explained, is not useful to some people's journey pattern)

In the traditional form of words from PMQs, I refer the honourable
Member to the answer I gave some moments ago[1]

[1]well, at 09:01 this morning - but I'm old so it *feels* like moments
ago


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