London Banter - View Single Post - Can't update Oyster card with cash any more

Roland Perry · August 10th 20, 08:04 AM posted to uk.railway,uk.transport.london

In message , at 07:40:56 on Mon, 10 Aug
2020, remarked:
I took the tube for the first time in months yesterday and it seems you
can no longer update your oyster card with cash.

Is that a subset of the TVMs perhaps not accepting cash for *any*
transaction?

I asked one of the staff about this apparently "temporary" measure and
he said he doubts the facility will ever come back and I tend to
believe him. So thats another avenue of anonymity out the window.

Get yourself a pre-pay credit card, for example from a bureau
-de-change. That'll break the chain of traceability unless you are a
suspected terrorist on the run.

How long before Oyster cards themselves are consigned to history and we
have to use a bank card everywhere so we can be nicely tracked

Almost all Oyster cards are registered, anyway.

not only by TfL but by the banks too?

See pre-pay credit cards. Several of the "gift cards" sold in
supermarkets are in fact pre-loaded pre-pay credit cards. Although I've
not tried using one at other than the headline sponsors.

Some have a very wide range of accepting retailers, so maybe no-one
actually checks and it's just a suggestion of where the recipient might
want to spend the funds.
--
Roland Perry