On Sun, 23 Nov 2008 18:06:10 -0600,
wrote:

Online top up really is a pain, especially for small amounts.

But it's pretty well the only option if you live in the USA.

Can't you just obtain a card and top it up at Heathrow station?

Neil

--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the at to reply.

Andrew Heenan wrote:
"tim....." wrote :
Auto means auto. I don't see the problem.
Assuming you are referring to the bit that you left, he is saying
that it is only possible to "initiate" your top up by visiting a
tube station and actually making a TUBE journey, something which not
everybody will want to do.

If you don't want to travel, why, for God's sake, would you want to
top-up your oyster, auto, manually or any other way?
It simply does not make sense.

IIRC when you ask for the auto top-up facility on your card and specify a
tube station, they give you a limited time (a few days) to touch in at that
station, otherwise you have to reapply. So you might well have to initiate
without wanting to travel that day.
--
Richard J.
(to email me, swap 'uk' and 'yon' in address)

wrote:
In article , (Andrew
Heenan) wrote:

wrote:
And how you think an 'auto' system could conceivably function
*without* registration beats me!
Why does the system need to know more than which /card/ is being
topped up?

A. To prevent claims of fraud.

That makes some sense, as does the need to link payment with card as
has been said elsewhere.

B. if it's auto, then you have to tell the system which card to top
up.

That's the one that doesn't stack up if the auto top-up is linked to a
known card.

You have to tell the system what credit/debit card you're going to use, and
they need your email address to tell you if, for example, the transaction
failed because the expiry date had passed. That sounds like registration to
me. What's your problem?

--
Richard J.
(to email me, swap 'uk' and 'yon' in address)

Neil Williams wrote:
On Sun, 23 Nov 2008 18:06:10 -0600,
wrote:

Online top up really is a pain, especially for small amounts.
But it's pretty well the only option if you live in the USA.

Can't you just obtain a card and top it up at Heathrow station?

That's what I've always done. The ticket agents at Heathrow always seem
pleasantly surprised that I know what I want.
--
David of Broadway
New York, NY, USA
currently in Paris

wrote:
Online top up really is a pain, especially for small amounts.
But it's pretty well the only option if you live in the USA. Most such
people just get ripped off with cash pares or Heathrow Excess instead, of
course.

When I say 'pain', I hadn't considered the alternative of Heathrow ;o)
Almost anything is better than that!

And I'm sure the 'online' system will be made less clunky - one day.
--

Andrew

"She plays the tuba.
It is the only instrument capable
of imitating a distress call."

In message , at 18:06:10
on Sun, 23 Nov 2008, remarked:
But it's pretty well the only option if you live in the USA. Most such
people just get ripped off with cash pares or Heathrow Excess instead,

Heathrow Express is cheaper than a taxi. That's all it's supposed to
achieve. There should be more effort made to sell people pre-topped-up
Oyster cards at the airport, however.

If you are regular visitor, then an unused Oyster balance is down in the
noise level (a typical cheap transatlantic fare is £500). I've got a few
Euros balance on my Brussels "cardboard carnet", it's just part of the
cost of doing business.
--
Roland Perry

In message
, at
14:43:22 on Sun, 23 Nov 2008, MIG
remarked:
It's about as conceivable as it being impossible for refunds or auto
top-ups to be trigged by anything other than making a journey on LU.

Are you under the misapprehension that all top-ups need a LU trip to
trigger them? All that's required is one such trip to convert a card
into an auto-topup card.

The reason for doing it at a particular station could be in order to get
you on CCTV at a known place, as an anti-fraud measure. Imagine someone
stole your credit card details, then set up an auto-topup onto their
Oyster from your account.
--
Roland Perry

In message , at 22:22:45 on
Sun, 23 Nov 2008, Stephen Osborn
remarked:
he is saying that it is only possible to "initiate" your top up by
visiting a tube station and actually making a TUBE journey, something
which not everybody will want to do.

pedant Or a DLR journey /pedant

But what's to stop you touching straight back out, then getting the ticket
office to cancel out the pair of transactions?

How would that work? Would I just touch my Oyster twice on the same reader

If you go through a barrier it's not the "same reader", just the "same
line of gates". As you will be doing this at a LUL station (so there's a
suitable ticket office to talk to), the ones with ticket offices
virtually all have barriers, surely?

then go to the ticket office and ask them to cancel a 'phantom' journey?

Yes.
--
Roland Perry

In message
, at
15:00:59 on Sun, 23 Nov 2008, MIG
remarked:
he is saying that it is only possible to "initiate" your top up by
visiting a tube station and actually making a TUBE journey, something
which not everybody will want to do.

pedant Or a DLR journey /pedant

Actually not. When I was offered a £4 refund (see my reply to Mr
Thant) I was told that I had to nominate a station. I could fairly
easily reach a number of DLR stations, but not an LU station. But I
was told that it had to be an LU station.

I'm virtually certain that when I tried to convert my card to auto-topup
the station I nominated was a DLR one.

nb: Converting to auto-topup might be different to getting a refund.
--
Roland Perry

In message , at 07:37:56
on Mon, 24 Nov 2008, Richard J. remarked:
If you don't want to travel, why, for God's sake, would you want to
top-up your oyster, auto, manually or any other way?
It simply does not make sense.

IIRC when you ask for the auto top-up facility on your card and specify a
tube station, they give you a limited time (a few days) to touch in at that
station, otherwise you have to reapply. So you might well have to initiate
without wanting to travel that day.

Yes, there's a time limit. However, this is made clear when you apply.
--
Roland Perry