Mark²³ wrote:
Just been online to top-up my Oyster Card. You can now sign up for Auto
Top-up, which will automatically top-up your card by the amount you
choose, whenever your card falls below £5.

Better yet, there is a £10 discount for the first 10,000 users who sign
up. I just got £20 for £10.

Hope this is not "old news" to you guys; but I thought some might be
interested.


Thanks Mark - good news. But I wish they would also introduce a
'post-pay' Oyster system with a monthly or quarterly bill for travel,
just like a phone or utility bill. TfL must have more than sufficient
financial turnover to be able to give credit, same as almost every
other major retailer or service provider.

umpston wrote:
Thanks Mark - good news. But I wish they would also introduce a
'post-pay' Oyster system with a monthly or quarterly bill for travel,
just like a phone or utility bill. TfL must have more than sufficient
financial turnover to be able to give credit, same as almost every
other major retailer or service provider.

I'm sure it's been considered, and maybe it may happen. Three quick
points to make on that though...

(1) Credit of any sort is a bit of a risky game, and TfL might baulk at
using their cash (which after all is public money) to provide credit.

(2) What do TfL gain, financially speaking? Nothing really. When people
buy up front then TfL has instant access to that money. If you were to
post-pay then TfL might have to wait up to a month to recieve the
revenue for a journey you did. TfL would far prefer to be earning the
interest from the cumulative stash of Pre Pay that's sat on their
database.

(3) If it was to happen, then I'm sure it would be along the lines of a
monthly mobile phone bill - i.e. that you must pay the whole balance
each month, as opposed to a credit card, where you can carry the
balance over from month to month (obviously at a cost of paying the
interest). Monthly billing such as this is a lesser category of
consumer credit agreement than the full blown credit-card style credit
agreement.

Mizter T wrote:
umpston wrote:
Thanks Mark - good news. But I wish they would also introduce a
'post-pay' Oyster system with a monthly or quarterly bill for travel,
just like a phone or utility bill. TfL must have more than sufficient
financial turnover to be able to give credit, same as almost every
other major retailer or service provider.

I'm sure it's been considered, and maybe it may happen. Three quick
points to make on that though...

(1) Credit of any sort is a bit of a risky game, and TfL might baulk at
using their cash (which after all is public money) to provide credit.

(2) What do TfL gain, financially speaking? Nothing really. When people
buy up front then TfL has instant access to that money. If you were to
post-pay then TfL might have to wait up to a month to recieve the
revenue for a journey you did. TfL would far prefer to be earning the
interest from the cumulative stash of Pre Pay that's sat on their
database.

(3) If it was to happen, then I'm sure it would be along the lines of a
monthly mobile phone bill - i.e. that you must pay the whole balance
each month, as opposed to a credit card, where you can carry the
balance over from month to month (obviously at a cost of paying the
interest). Monthly billing such as this is a lesser category of
consumer credit agreement than the full blown credit-card style credit
agreement.

I agree a monthly bill settling the whole balance is probably the best
option - after if you need more credit you could pay it with your
credit card! And if it is done by direct-debit (as with auto top-up)
there is little risk of non-payment.

Although TfL is, as you say, publicly owned I don't think this
justifies a lower standard of service in terms of payment options.
This form of payment has always been the norm with other utilities
(phone, gas, electricity etc) both before and after privatisation.