In message
, Andy
writes

One possibility is parents who want to top up their kids' oysters
(although with fares so low for kids this might not be frequent!!)

Under 16s travel free (unless they've been naughty and had their
concession withdrawn).
--
Paul Terry

"Recliner" wrote in message
...
"Daniel Barlow" wrote in message

Mizter T writes:

On Sep 2, 10:11 am, "David A Stocks" wrote:

I've never understood why anybody bothers with online top up. [...]

Because what's no good for you is no good for anyone else, and anyone
who might demur is wrong?

I think we're all prepared to entertain the *possiblity* that it might
be good for someone, but you don't actually give any indication of who
they might be or why.

Do tell. My experience echoes Mr Stocks', so I would also be
interested to hear from people who do get use out of the service.

On-line top-up accepts Amex cards -- I don't think ticket machines do (or
they didn't used to). Also, no risk of anyone seeing your pin.
I always used my Amex card. The PIN by itself isn't a lot of use, and online
card transactions from a less than secure PC could give away far more
compromising information ...

D A Stocks

On Wed, 2 Sep 2009 12:06:59 +0100
"Recliner" wrote:
Do tell. My experience echoes Mr Stocks', so I would also be
interested to hear from people who do get use out of the service.

On-line top-up accepts Amex cards -- I don't think ticket machines do
(or they didn't used to). Also, no risk of anyone seeing your pin.

Apart from whoever runs the back end system.

B2003

In message , at 12:18:07 on Wed, 2 Sep
2009, David A Stocks remarked:
OTOH auto top up is absolutely wonderful.

So here is the challenge: is there someone out there who regularly uses
online top up, and why do they use it in preference to manual top ups
at ticket machines?

I, like Daniel, am genuinely interested to know.

I never used online topup (was it even available then) but for two years
now I've been on auto-topup, which is great.

As an occasional user only, and generally visiting London for meetings,
I'm most often in a hurry and using (relatively) unfamiliar stations
away from the terminus. So topping up with a machine was a bit of a
lottery, of finding one at the right time without a queue.
--
Roland Perry

On 2 Sep, 12:21, Paul Terry wrote:
In message
, Andy
writes

One possibility is parents who want to top up their kids' oysters
(although with fares so low for kids this might not be frequent!!)

Under 16s travel free (unless they've been naughty and had their
concession withdrawn).

Not on the underground they don't, only buses and trams. The
underground has a £1 fare.

On 2 Sep, 12:40, wrote:
On Wed, 2 Sep 2009 12:06:59 +0100

"Recliner" wrote:
Do tell. *My experience echoes Mr Stocks', so I would also be
interested to hear from people who do get use out of the service.

On-line top-up accepts Amex cards -- I don't think ticket machines do
(or they didn't used to). *Also, no risk of anyone seeing your pin.

Apart from whoever runs the back end system.


They won't see you PIN either, although they will get enough
information for on-line use.

I, like Daniel, am genuinely interested to know.


My reason for using the online top-up facility was to gain online access
to my journey history.

That seems still to be a requirement. From the Oyster site:

"You need to have an Oyster online account and have purchased pay as you
go online to view your journey history online. Once you are logged in,
select the Journey History option under the 'My card' tab."

That may of course simply change the question to why online top-up is
required. I'd guess as a security check (with DPA in mind) that the
person gaining access is the owner of the card. Not foolproof of course
but it seems to me a reasonable safeguard.

--
R

On Wed, 2 Sep 2009 05:43:24 -0700 (PDT)
Andy wrote:
Apart from whoever runs the back end system.


They won't see you PIN either, although they will get enough
information for on-line use.

If you say so , though how you think the pin gets transmitted to the
server without the server seeing it would be an interesting discussion.
Knowing how badly most web backends are written it wouldn't surprise me
if its stored in a temporary plain text file.

B2003

wrote in message ...
On Wed, 2 Sep 2009 05:43:24 -0700 (PDT)
Andy wrote:
Apart from whoever runs the back end system.


They won't see your PIN either, although they will get enough
information for on-line use.
I don't think they would have security code on the card, which would stop a
lot of potential abuses.

If you say so , though how you think the pin gets transmitted to the
server without the server seeing it would be an interesting discussion.
The PIN is verified by the front end against the card. If the PIN isn't
matched the front end rejects the card and the back end doesn't see the
transaction at all. The back end never sees the PIN.

Knowing how badly most web backends are written
We're talking about manual card transactions at a ticket machine. If you're
enough of a sucker to give out a credit/debit card PIN over the internet
then you're really f**ked.

DAS

In message
,
Andy writes

On 2 Sep, 12:21, Paul Terry wrote:

Under 16s travel free (unless they've been naughty and had their
concession withdrawn).

Not on the underground they don't, only buses and trams. The
underground has a £1 fare.

I'd forgotten that, but only those aged 11+ have to pay: younger kids
can travel free on the tube with an Oyster photocard.
--
Paul Terry