Hi all,

If you go out of zone on a journey without sufficient pre-pay on your
oystercard (with a season ticket on it), the relevant extension fare
will be charged to your card and you'll have a negative balance.

You can't use the tube again with that travelcard until the negative
balance is paid off, but, what about using the bus? Is this allowed?

If not, this could potentially be very annoying, if you run out of
prepay balance without noticing and then board a bus. has anyone
encountered this situation?

d

You may be right. There are a lot of potential problems with a negative
balance. It is important to be polite to the staff as they are as lost as
you. If you keep hold of your reciept(record card) you can always show the
driver that you have a valid ticket on your oyster. As for the real answer I
think we will have to wait until March.

Anon wrote:

You may be right. There are a lot of potential problems with a negative
balance. It is important to be polite to the staff as they are as lost as
you. If you keep hold of your reciept(record card) you can always show the
driver that you have a valid ticket on your oyster.

What record card would that be? (You don't get one if you renew online.)

"dan" wrote in message
om...
Hi all,

If you go out of zone on a journey without sufficient pre-pay on your
oystercard (with a season ticket on it), the relevant extension fare
will be charged to your card and you'll have a negative balance.

You can't use the tube again with that travelcard until the negative
balance is paid off, but, what about using the bus? Is this allowed?

If not, this could potentially be very annoying, if you run out of
prepay balance without noticing and then board a bus. has anyone
encountered this situation?

d
No. Prepay does not start on busses until a date still to be announced.
problems still to be ironed out. Presume we've got to wait until 2man busses
go.

--
Lawrence Myers

"Lawrence Myers" wrote in message ...
"dan" wrote in message
om...
Hi all,

If you go out of zone on a journey without sufficient pre-pay on your
oystercard (with a season ticket on it), the relevant extension fare
will be charged to your card and you'll have a negative balance.

You can't use the tube again with that travelcard until the negative
balance is paid off, but, what about using the bus? Is this allowed?

If not, this could potentially be very annoying, if you run out of
prepay balance without noticing and then board a bus. has anyone
encountered this situation?

d
No. Prepay does not start on busses until a date still to be announced.
problems still to be ironed out. Presume we've got to wait until 2man busses
go.


But this is not about using prepay in the buses, but an oyster season
ticket which has picked up a negative balance after being used outside
of its valid zones on the tube - i.e. a problem which can be
encountered now. Has anyone had this particular problem yet or is
everyone on this newsgroup careful to keep their balances topped up?!

In message , dan
writes
But this is not about using prepay in the buses, but an oyster season
ticket which has picked up a negative balance after being used outside
of its valid zones on the tube - i.e. a problem which can be
encountered now. Has anyone had this particular problem yet or is
everyone on this newsgroup careful to keep their balances topped up?!

Having now read countless Oysters, I've often seen bus journeys taken
after a negative Pre Pay balance has been incurred.
I assume that this doesn't change its validity on the buses because Pre
Pay hasn't been enabled on them yet so the software isn't looking at
that slot on the Oyster.
--
Kat Me, Ambivalent? Well, yes and no.

I phoned the oyster helpline and yes you will have a problem with the
negative balance. You will have to rely on the Bus Driver using common
sense.
I was told a member of staff tried to use thier staff pass and as it did not
work the sensor they were ask to leave the bus.

Record card or no record card just go to a ticket office and ask for a print
out from the machine. It will have all the relevent details.

Kat wrote in message ...
In message , dan
writes
But this is not about using prepay in the buses, but an oyster season
ticket which has picked up a negative balance after being used outside
of its valid zones on the tube - i.e. a problem which can be
encountered now. Has anyone had this particular problem yet or is
everyone on this newsgroup careful to keep their balances topped up?!

Having now read countless Oysters, I've often seen bus journeys taken
after a negative Pre Pay balance has been incurred.
I assume that this doesn't change its validity on the buses because Pre
Pay hasn't been enabled on them yet so the software isn't looking at
that slot on the Oyster.

Thanks Kat!

On Wed, 14 Jan 2004 14:21:34 -0000, "Anon"
wrote:

I phoned the oyster helpline and yes you will have a problem with the
negative balance. You will have to rely on the Bus Driver using common
sense.

On a bus? that makes no sense whatsoever. Why a bus reader would check
for functionality that is not yet enabled I do not know. Also it is
impossible to travel out of zone on a bus with a Travelcard because any
Travelcard for any zone works on any bus within the TfL bus network.
The card should only be rejected if the Travelcard was out of date or
the card had been hotlisted as lost or stolen.

I was told a member of staff tried to use thier staff pass and as it did not
work the sensor they were ask to leave the bus.

Which is completely the wrong thing to do because staff passes are
accepted by visual inspection on conductor buses so there is no reason
not to accept it on a cashless or pay as you enter bus.

I'm not expecting you to provide a reply - I'm just expressing an
opinion based on what you've repeated from others.
--
Paul C


Admits to working for London Underground!

(dan) wrote in message . com...
"Lawrence Myers" wrote in message ...
"dan" wrote in message
om...
Hi all,

If you go out of zone on a journey without sufficient pre-pay on your
oystercard (with a season ticket on it), the relevant extension fare
will be charged to your card and you'll have a negative balance.

You can't use the tube again with that travelcard until the negative
balance is paid off, but, what about using the bus? Is this allowed?

If not, this could potentially be very annoying, if you run out of
prepay balance without noticing and then board a bus. has anyone
encountered this situation?

d
No. Prepay does not start on busses until a date still to be announced.
problems still to be ironed out. Presume we've got to wait until 2man busses
go.


But this is not about using prepay in the buses, but an oyster season
ticket which has picked up a negative balance after being used outside
of its valid zones on the tube - i.e. a problem which can be
encountered now. Has anyone had this particular problem yet or is
everyone on this newsgroup careful to keep their balances topped up?!

Not having used prepay yet I hadn't realised that it was possible to
run up a negative balance on oyster. This seems like a crazy idea - if
you travel out of zone then why aren't the gates programmed not to let
you through (as at present would happen with an out of zone
travelcard). You'd then go to the assistance window and buy an
extension or be penalty fared (depending on the mood of the staff that
day...)

Anyone know the thinking behind this?