On 11 Jul 2006 16:26:51 -0700, MIG wrote:

You could select "Top-up pre-pay", then select enter amount, then enter £6,
put in £10, and get £4 change. I've even seen American tourists do it, so
it can't be that hard. (joke).

This is not an option on any Tube ticket machine I've ever seen. (I
even checked on my local one when I used it today.)

I'm pretty sure that I was able to select an amount other than the note
I put in at Kings Cross a few weeks ago. However, it was very late and
I may have been hallucinating.

There are buttons to add just £5 or £10 of a £10/£20 note, but it
doesn't offer to let you type in any amount you like (e.g. £6).

(I don't know about KX specifically; I'm just talking about all the
ones I've seen.)

asdf wrote:
On 11 Jul 2006 16:26:51 -0700, MIG wrote:

You could select "Top-up pre-pay", then select enter amount, then enter £6,
put in £10, and get £4 change. I've even seen American tourists do it, so
it can't be that hard. (joke).

This is not an option on any Tube ticket machine I've ever seen. (I
even checked on my local one when I used it today.)

I'm pretty sure that I was able to select an amount other than the note
I put in at Kings Cross a few weeks ago. However, it was very late and
I may have been hallucinating.

There are buttons to add just £5 or £10 of a £10/£20 note, but it
doesn't offer to let you type in any amount you like (e.g. £6).

(I don't know about KX specifically; I'm just talking about all the
ones I've seen.)


That may be it, ie I put in £10 but was able to add only £5 and get
change. But maybe I couldn't choose a different amount.

MIG wrote:

asdf wrote:
On 11 Jul 2006 16:26:51 -0700, MIG wrote:

You could select "Top-up pre-pay", then select enter amount, then enter £6,
put in £10, and get £4 change. I've even seen American tourists do it, so
it can't be that hard. (joke).

This is not an option on any Tube ticket machine I've ever seen. (I
even checked on my local one when I used it today.)

I'm pretty sure that I was able to select an amount other than the note
I put in at Kings Cross a few weeks ago. However, it was very late and
I may have been hallucinating.

There are buttons to add just £5 or £10 of a £10/£20 note, but it
doesn't offer to let you type in any amount you like (e.g. £6).

(I don't know about KX specifically; I'm just talking about all the
ones I've seen.)


That may be it, ie I put in £10 but was able to add only £5 and get
change. But maybe I couldn't choose a different amount.


I'm a big fan of newsagents that sell TfL ticket - recently they've
been branded as "Oyster Ticket Stops". At such newsagents (unless
they're one of the minority who only sell the basic ticket range) you
can ask for any amound to be put on your card, just as you can if
you're adding Pre Pay credit at a manned ticket office, and get the
appropriate change.

I've added just a couple of pounds Pre Pay to my Oyster in the past
when I was in a fix. I don't believe there's any system limit to how
small the amount you add is - well, perhaps there is a nominal minimum
amount such as five or ten pence.

Obviously this is only useful when there's a "Ticket Stop" newsagent
around - they're pretty common occurance in most of Greater London,
though do appear to be rarer in central London.

On 12 Jul 2006 01:29:50 -0700, "Mizter T" wrote:

I've added just a couple of pounds Pre Pay to my Oyster in the past
when I was in a fix. I don't believe there's any system limit to how
small the amount you add is - well, perhaps there is a nominal minimum
amount such as five or ten pence.

You can certainly add just 5p onto your Oyster card at the machine.


I've always got an odd amout on my Oyster card balance e.g. £11.84
going back several years ago before Pre-Pay was launched and the bus
machines were deducting 1p per journey! (even though I had a
Travelcard loaded).

Nicholas

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Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

Nicholas wrote:

On 12 Jul 2006 01:29:50 -0700, "Mizter T" wrote:

I've added just a couple of pounds Pre Pay to my Oyster in the past
when I was in a fix. I don't believe there's any system limit to how
small the amount you add is - well, perhaps there is a nominal minimum
amount such as five or ten pence.

You can certainly add just 5p onto your Oyster card at the machine.


I believe that LU are phasing out acceptance of 5 pence pieces at their
ticket machines, I think I've seen some not-very-publicised publicity
to that effect and also come across Tube ticket machines so configured.


I've always got an odd amout on my Oyster card balance e.g. £11.84
going back several years ago before Pre-Pay was launched and the bus
machines were deducting 1p per journey! (even though I had a
Travelcard loaded).

Nicholas

That's most interesting. How did that work out then - presumably as it
was before the launch of pre-pay your card went into negative balance?
How long did that glitch go on for, and was it just on some bus's
misconfigured ticket equipment or did it occur across the whole bus
network at the time?

I guess you may be able to get the balance 'back' to a multiple of 5p
or 10p if you added an appropriate amound of credit (e.g. £5.06) at a
Tube ticket office or newsagents. But I'd keep it as it is, as a kind
of Oyster oddity.

I suspect I'd be the only person you might meet who'd be impressed with
this though!

On 16 Jul 2006 15:13:23 -0700, "Mizter T" wrote:

I've always got an odd amout on my Oyster card balance e.g. £11.84
going back several years ago before Pre-Pay was launched and the bus
machines were deducting 1p per journey! (even though I had a
Travelcard loaded).

Nicholas

That's most interesting. How did that work out then - presumably as it
was before the launch of pre-pay your card went into negative balance?
How long did that glitch go on for, and was it just on some bus's
misconfigured ticket equipment or did it occur across the whole bus
network at the time?

I recall this was discussed on this newsgroup quite a bit at the time
(Google it to see). I already had some balance on the card through
using Pre Pay on the tube. I think it was pretty much widespread that
bus readers were deducting 1p when someone boarded and tried to use a
Pre Pay only Oystercard. Was wasn't very common was (as in my case),
the reader also deducting 1p when you had a valid Travelcard loaded.

I didn't bother claiming the 1p back from TfL .

I guess you may be able to get the balance 'back' to a multiple of 5p
or 10p if you added an appropriate amound of credit (e.g. £5.06) at a
Tube ticket office or newsagents. But I'd keep it as it is, as a kind
of Oyster oddity.

Yes, it does sometime lead to puzzled ticket office clerks and a
chuckle at the 'cheep bus fare' story!

Nicholas


--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

Nicholas wrote:
On 16 Jul 2006 15:13:23 -0700, "Mizter T" wrote:

I've always got an odd amout on my Oyster card balance e.g. £11.84
going back several years ago before Pre-Pay was launched and the bus
machines were deducting 1p per journey! (even though I had a
Travelcard loaded).

Nicholas

That's most interesting. How did that work out then - presumably as it
was before the launch of pre-pay your card went into negative balance?
How long did that glitch go on for, and was it just on some bus's
misconfigured ticket equipment or did it occur across the whole bus
network at the time?

I recall this was discussed on this newsgroup quite a bit at the time
(Google it to see). I already had some balance on the card through
using Pre Pay on the tube. I think it was pretty much widespread that
bus readers were deducting 1p when someone boarded and tried to use a
Pre Pay only Oystercard. Was wasn't very common was (as in my case),
the reader also deducting 1p when you had a valid Travelcard loaded.

I didn't bother claiming the 1p back from TfL .

(snip)

I've just been back in time to 2003 & 04 and had look at some of the
threads regarding Oyster and pre-pay - I was away from London for much
of the time around then and wasn't yet on usenet so I wasn't really
following it all closely, it sounds like people had an interesting time
fiddling with the system back then - obviously you didn't do anything
wrong given you had a valid Travelcard, so TfL still owes you 1p!

I'm most interested to see that people managed to get pre-pay on their
Oyster cards (presumably issued with season Travelcards loaded on them)
before the official launch of pre-pay on the Tube in January '04 - it
sounds like some Tube ticket machines were offering the ability to top
up pre-pay - and then after their season Travelcard had expired managed
to get 1p bus journeys on at least some bus routes.