oyster pre-pay top up question
 

Is it possible to top up a card without going to a tube station?

m.

oyster pre-pay top up question
 

"marcb" wrote in message
...
Is it possible to top up a card without going to a tube station?


I do mine at the newsagents over the road.

Jim

oyster pre-pay top up question
 

Jim wrote:
"marcb" wrote in message
...
Is it possible to top up a card without going to a tube station?


I do mine at the newsagents over the road.


.... otherwise known as an Oyster Ticket Stop.

Even better, with Auto Top-up it's done automatically by direct debit,
with an e-mailed confirmation, whenever the balance gets below £5
(though not if you only use buses and trams). See Ask Oyster at
https://transportforlondon.custhelp....er/std_alp.php
(Click on item 1)
--
Richard J.
(to e-mail me, swap uk and yon in address)

oyster pre-pay top up question
 

"Richard J." wrote:

Jim wrote:
"marcb" wrote in message
...
Is it possible to top up a card without going to a tube station?


I do mine at the newsagents over the road.

... otherwise known as an Oyster Ticket Stop.

Even better, with Auto Top-up it's done automatically by direct debit,
with an e-mailed confirmation, whenever the balance gets below £5
(though not if you only use buses and trams). See Ask Oyster at
https://transportforlondon.custhelp....er/std_alp.php

yes i saw this but i mainly use buses and i have just 50p left on the card now. I'll try the
newsagent. I must say though that the TFL oyster site is very poor - I can only see details about
buying cards in shops, not topping up.

M.

oyster pre-pay top up question
 

In message , at
12:51:23 on Tue, 28 Feb 2006, Richard J.
remarked:
Even better, with Auto Top-up it's done automatically by direct debit,
with an e-mailed confirmation, whenever the balance gets below £5

But don't you have to collect the "auto top-up" at a *nominated*
station?

I tried to do this, but my travel plans changed; so I didn't, after all,
visit the station I'd nominated (but did visit some others). As a
result, the auto top-up failed and I [eventually] got a refund.

So instead of being nice and easy, I now have two additional
transactions on my bank account to reconcile, and no auto top-up.
--
Roland Perry

oyster pre-pay top up question
 

Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at
12:51:23 on Tue, 28 Feb 2006, Richard J.
remarked:
Even better, with Auto Top-up it's done automatically by direct
debit, with an e-mailed confirmation, whenever the balance gets
below £5

But don't you have to collect the "auto top-up" at a *nominated*
station?

I tried to do this, but my travel plans changed; so I didn't, after
all, visit the station I'd nominated (but did visit some others). As a
result, the auto top-up failed and I [eventually] got a refund.

So instead of being nice and easy, I now have two additional
transactions on my bank account to reconcile, and no auto top-up.

I think it's only the initial set-up of Auto Top-up that may have to be
done at a nominated station. I just chose my local station, touched in
there to set up Auto Top-up, and got the ticket office to erase the
resultant unresolved journey (as I wasn't planning to use the Tube
during the few days that the set-up is available). AFAIK all subsequent
top-ups are done automatically at any tube station gates.

The main problem was that the ticket office staff weren't properly
trained on how Auto Top-up works.
--
Richard J.
(to e-mail me, swap uk and yon in address)

oyster pre-pay top up question
 

"Richard J." wrote in message
k...
Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at
12:51:23 on Tue, 28 Feb 2006, Richard J.
remarked:
Even better, with Auto Top-up it's done automatically by direct
debit, with an e-mailed confirmation, whenever the balance gets
below £5

But don't you have to collect the "auto top-up" at a *nominated*
station?

I tried to do this, but my travel plans changed; so I didn't, after
all, visit the station I'd nominated (but did visit some others). As a
result, the auto top-up failed and I [eventually] got a refund.

So instead of being nice and easy, I now have two additional
transactions on my bank account to reconcile, and no auto top-up.

I think it's only the initial set-up of Auto Top-up that may have to be
done at a nominated station. I just chose my local station, touched in
there to set up Auto Top-up, and got the ticket office to erase the
resultant unresolved journey (as I wasn't planning to use the Tube during
the few days that the set-up is available). AFAIK all subsequent top-ups
are done automatically at any tube station gates.

The main problem was that the ticket office staff weren't properly trained
on how Auto Top-up works.

Various Auto Top-Up FAQs at http://makeashorterlink.com/?B522229BC
--
David Biddulph

oyster pre-pay top up question
 

In message , at 08:40:06
on Wed, 1 Mar 2006, Richard J. remarked:
Even better, with Auto Top-up it's done automatically by direct
debit, with an e-mailed confirmation, whenever the balance gets
below £5

But don't you have to collect the "auto top-up" at a *nominated*
station?

I tried to do this, but my travel plans changed; so I didn't, after
all, visit the station I'd nominated (but did visit some others). As a
result, the auto top-up failed and I [eventually] got a refund.

So instead of being nice and easy, I now have two additional
transactions on my bank account to reconcile, and no auto top-up.

I think it's only the initial set-up of Auto Top-up that may have to be
done at a nominated station. I just chose my local station,

Living, as I do, outside London, don't have a predictable "local
station". Not even KX-StPancras as on the journey in question I might
easily have been on a Thameslink train rather than MML. As it turned
out, we got a taxi from StPancras mainline instead. I had chosen the
*destination* tube station as my "nominated" one, to get over the
Thamelink/MML issue, but as we arrived by taxi even that was foiled :(

--
Roland Perry

oyster pre-pay top up question
 

Even better, with Auto Top-up it's done automatically by direct debit,
with an e-mailed confirmation, whenever the balance gets below £5

But don't you have to collect the "auto top-up" at a *nominated*
station?

You have to collect the initial auto top-up instruction at a nominated
station, after that it works at any tube station.

It seems to work well though I feel the £5 threshold is a bit low for those
of us who only use the tube every couple of weeks but may use the bus a lot
in between. It means we still have to be very aware of our balance. It
also makes it particularly frustrating when a tube journey takes our balance
below £5 as the top-up only applies on touch-in, not touch-out. However
once they roll it out to buses and trams then it should cease to be so much
of an issue.


G.

oyster pre-pay top up question
 

On Wed, 1 Mar 2006 07:52:40 +0000, Roland Perry
wrote:

Even better, with Auto Top-up it's done automatically by direct debit,
with an e-mailed confirmation, whenever the balance gets below £5

But don't you have to collect the "auto top-up" at a *nominated*
station?

The initial activation of atu needs collecting at a nominated station
in the same way as a manual top-up. Once activated, atu will be
automatically triggered at any station.

oyster pre-pay top up question
 

In message , Roland
Perry writes
In message , at
12:51:23 on Tue, 28 Feb 2006, Richard J.
remarked:
Even better, with Auto Top-up it's done automatically by direct debit,
with an e-mailed confirmation, whenever the balance gets below £5

But don't you have to collect the "auto top-up" at a *nominated*
station?

Only the first time you do it; after that it's at whichever station
that's necessary.
--
Ian Jelf, MITG
Birmingham, UK

Registered Blue Badge Tourist Guide for London and the Heart of England
http://www.bluebadge.demon.co.uk

oyster pre-pay top up question
 

In message , Graham J
writes
It also makes it particularly frustrating when a tube journey takes our
balance below £5 as the top-up only applies on touch-in, not touch-out.

I *thought* that mine had worked on both touch in and touch out at
different times, depending on the balance at the beginning and end of
the journey; was that not so?

--
Ian Jelf, MITG
Birmingham, UK

Registered Blue Badge Tourist Guide for London and the Heart of England
http://www.bluebadge.demon.co.uk

oyster pre-pay top up question
 

In message , at 21:06:20 on Wed,
1 Mar 2006, Ian Jelf remarked:
But don't you have to collect the "auto top-up" at a *nominated*
station?

Only the first time you do it; after that it's at whichever station
that's necessary.

OK. Seems an odd deficiency in their system. I'll just have to be more
sure that I actually use my nominated station, next time I make a trip
to London. With my luck I'll nominate one that's having a "security
alert" and not letting anyone in :-(
--
Roland Perry

oyster pre-pay top up question
 

It also makes it particularly frustrating when a tube journey takes
our balance below £5 as the top-up only applies on touch-in, not
touch-out.

I *thought* that mine had worked on both touch in and touch out at
different times, depending on the balance at the beginning and end of
the journey; was that not so?

I can only go on my limited experience. On the two occasions my balance
has been above £5 on touching in but under £5 when touching out I
definitely have not had an auto top-up applied. It might be more
complicated than I think, of course :-)

oyster pre-pay top up question
 

On Thu, 02 Mar 2006 09:34:23 GMT, Graham J
wrote:

It also makes it particularly frustrating when a tube journey takes
our balance below £5 as the top-up only applies on touch-in, not
touch-out.

I *thought* that mine had worked on both touch in and touch out at
different times, depending on the balance at the beginning and end of
the journey; was that not so?

I can only go on my limited experience. On the two occasions my balance
has been above £5 on touching in but under £5 when touching out I
definitely have not had an auto top-up applied. It might be more
complicated than I think, of course :-)

I went below £5 last Friday at Waterloo, and I don't think my bank
account has been debited yet, so it looks likes it's on touch-in.

oyster pre-pay top up question
 

On Wed, 1 Mar 2006 09:05:25 +0000 (UTC), "David Biddulph"
wrote:

"Richard J." wrote in message
. uk...

are done automatically at any tube station gates.

The main problem was that the ticket office staff weren't properly trained
on how Auto Top-up works.

Various Auto Top-Up FAQs at http://makeashorterlink.com/?B522229BC

Two errors in the FAQs are :

It does actually work at National Rail gatelines where Prepay is
valid. (I've had it work at City Thameslink & Limehouse.)

It claims that you can go into negative balance when using buses. This
seems not to work.