London Banter - Now I can't top my Oyster card

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Now I can't top my Oyster card

Kadath Dragon wrote:
On 16 Apr, 16:33, "Graham Harrison"
wrote:

I've just been in New Zealand where I got totally confused. I have a chip
and pin card. They would swipe it and the machine would usually say
something to the effect of "insert the chip". They did that and then
sometimes it would ask for my pin and others print something for me to sign.
On the odd occasion when it didn't tell them to insert the chip it would
usually print for me to sign but occasionally it would ask for my pin! The
local system seems to be no chip plus pin. On the one occasion when
someone couldn't grasp the chip and pin idea I asked them nicely to phone
their authorisation centre and after a bit of "don't know how to do that"
they did, got an explanation and accepted the card.

If there are any problems I always ask the retailer to call the acquirer to
ascertain the answer - works every time.

I have some chip cards and some swipe cards, but in Italy the
transition to chip & pin has not even started. So when I come to the
UK and I give my chip card, most retailers give me automatically the
pinpad...but then the machine prints out the slip to be signed :-)

ha-ha!

Now I can't top my Oyster card

On Apr 16, 2:16*pm, redcat wrote:
Martin Deutsch wrote:

Oh, those darn chips. I had trouble with my lack of one last year at
some small out-of-town places. Hmmm. Thanks for the info!

While most UK-issued cards have a chip in them, merchants are still
allowed to accept cards with magnetic stripes only - as this page
explains:http://www.chipandpin.co.uk/business...ents/2005.html

Thank you for those. The interactive map is very good. And I am somewhat
comforted by the chip information. But it says they've stopped upgrading
the page 3 years ago. Hopefully, it still holds that card machines
recognize the overseas magstrip/card and will allow me to sign.

This (current) page on the Visa site has tips on what to do if you
have problems:
http://usa.visa.com/personal/using_v...avel_tips.html

Now I can't top my Oyster card

Martin Deutsch wrote:
recognize the overseas magstrip/card and will allow me to sign.

This (current) page on the Visa site has tips on what to do if you
have problems:
http://usa.visa.com/personal/using_v...avel_tips.html

Oh, thanks so much! I'm going to print out some appropriate passages to
carry.

Maybe this time next year LT/Oyster Card will have figured out how to
take my money on-line ;-)

Cat

Now I can't top my Oyster card

"Graham Harrison" wrote in message
...

"redcat" wrote in message
m...
Martin Deutsch wrote:
On Apr 16, 12:36 pm, redcat wrote:
Peter Campbell Smith wrote:
You can certainly top an Oyster up at most, maybe all, Underground
stations using a credit card, but I'm not certain that it will accept
a
US card, which won't have an embedded chip like ours have. But the
machines were in use before we had chips and during the transitional
period when some had and some hadn't, so they may well still accept a
card with just a magstripe.

I don't think you should have a problem using any credit card at any
London Underground station - I'm not entirely sure about whether the
machines will accept chip-less cards, but the ticket office certainly
should. You can find ticket office opening times at
http://journeyplanner.tfl.gov.uk/im/SI-T.html and
http://tinyurl.com/tubeticket lists the cards accepted for ticket
purchases.

Oh, those darn chips. I had trouble with my lack of one last year at
some small out-of-town places. Hmmm. Thanks for the info!

While most UK-issued cards have a chip in them, merchants are still
allowed to accept cards with magnetic stripes only - as this page
explains: http://www.chipandpin.co.uk/business...ents/2005.html

Thank you for those. The interactive map is very good. And I am somewhat
comforted by the chip information. But it says they've stopped upgrading
the page 3 years ago. Hopefully, it still holds that card machines
recognize the overseas magstrip/card and will allow me to sign.

I wish we could resort to thumb prints.

cat

When chip and pin was being introduced one of my local retailers said to
me here in the UK "I won't be able to accept anything except chip and pin
from 14th February". "Really I said, what are you going to do if some
comes in with a chip and sign card" (they do exist for some disabled
people). He looked a little perplexed. "and", I continued "are you
telling me that if someone from outside the UK comes in with a chipless
card tries to use it you are going to refuse their business?". Next time
I saw him he said that he had phoned his acquirer and asked the questions
I had posed and now had a different view. Trouble is too many people are
too parochial - he at least was prepared to investigate and change his
position.

I've just been in New Zealand where I got totally confused. I have a
chip and pin card. They would swipe it and the machine would usually say
something to the effect of "insert the chip". They did that and then
sometimes it would ask for my pin and others print something for me to
sign.

I've just come back from SA and about 6 times out of 10 was asked to enter
my pin in the machine. But the assistant still printed off the copy receipt
and asked me to sign as well - every time!

tim

Now I can't top my Oyster card

On Apr 16, 12:05*pm, redcat wrote:

Mizter T wrote:

On Apr 16, 8:20 am, wrote:

In article ,
(James Farrar) wrote:

[snip]

Or wait until you get to London and top up with cash?

Or with a credit card here, even?

Yes, that would work fine, and could be done at an Underground station
- either at the ticket office or one of the self-service ticket
machines.

I can't top it with a cc here, because for some odd reason when I bought
it last year (here, as offered by LT/Visit Britain) it required a UK
postal code. So, I put one in and the top up worked fine.

I'm curious at to specifically who you bought it from and how?
VisitBritainDirect only sell "Visitor Oyster cards" (that obviously
branded as such on the card) which are all unregistered, so it doesn't
sound as though it was them. TfL meanwhile only send Oyster cards
purchased from their online shop to UK addresses. Did you buy it from
an Underground station's ticket office, from a TfL Information Centre
or from a newsagents at all then?

Now they want the exact address my cc is associated with. OK. But I
cannot enter a US zip code into that field. It requires a UK one and
rejects anything else.

Unfortunately this is a fairly standard anti-fraud measure. Merchants
can easily run a check on UK-issued credit/debit cards using address
verification systems - it would seem that hooking up to similar
overseas systems is a somewhat harder task.

The Oyster PAYG system is an obvious potential target for fraud so TfL
have evidently decided to take the cautious path here.

**Thanks for everyone's help. So, you say I can take my existing oyster
and put it into a machine at a station and add credit card or cash
payment to it? ** Is there a list of stations where this can be done, or
can it be done at any?

As others have said, it's possible that the ticket machines won't like
credit/debit cards that don't have a chip (i.e. are magnetic stripe
only), but I don't know for certain what the situation is here.
However you'll definitely be able to use a magstripe-only credit card
at an Underground station ticket office to top up your Oyster PAYG
balance, i.e. over the counter.

Incidentally, there are ticket machines at all Underground stations
which are capable of topping up Oyster cards (indeed there are few if
any 'non-Oyster' ticket machines still around) - the 'big' ticket
machines take notes and coins (and give change) as well as taking
cards, whilst the smaller ones either take credit/debit cards only or
take cards and coins but don't give any change. There is at least one
'big' ticket machine at each station I think (definitely anywhere that
you'll conceivably end up going to).

Note that if you're arriving at Heathrow terminals 1, 2 or 3 I'd
recommend that you go to the TfL Travel Information Centre which is
directly opposite the entrance to the Underground station instead of
going to the station's own ticket office which can be pretty busy -
the Information Centre can sell you Oyster PAYG top-ups (and you can
pay however you'd like to) as well as provide you with other travel
information.

Now I can't top my Oyster card

redcat wrote:
My "Final Answer":

I tried it every which way, using a London address, using an AmEx, and I
get the same message (as above).

"For next time", the address verification only checks the postcode and house
number (if any). So there may be something you can put in that will cause
your card issuer's system to say Yes! to the merchant's system. Might be
worth asking them, if they have anyone who can answer this question.

Theo

Now I can't top my Oyster card

On Apr 16, 9:14*pm, wrote:
In article
,

(Mizter T) wrote:
the 'big' ticket machines take notes and coins (and give change)

None of the ones I've seen give change for Oyster top-up other than for
multiples of £5 or £10. I think card top-up is similarly limited to such
multiples.

Since I almost invariably need a receipt for the value of the journey I am
making I either have to have exact change or go to a ticket window.

And the cruellest trick is that it offers "other amount" as if as an
alternative to multiples of £5, and then takes your whole tenner
before asking how much.