Dave Arquati wrote:

(Mind you the latter two weren't available for the student discounted
Oyster when I last tried to renew that way. I got a rude email from TfL
whining on about fraud prevention when these methods perform identical
security checks to turning up to the ticket hall in person or using the
card in practice. Contrast with National Rail who generally have no
problems selling railcard discounted tickets online or at machines...)

...which is extremely odd, because the student entitlement is coded onto
the card - and that must be registered on the central database somewhere
(or at any rate, when the ticket gate comes to place the discount
travelcard onto the Oyster, it could refuse to do it if it doesn't find
the discount entitlement).

It may have changed since I last tried this. My current Oyster has the photo
card built in but the old student discount had a separate photcard - was
that discount entitlement coded in? I was under the impression that that was
what the staff were doing when I asked to transfer the Oyster over but

The TfL system is extremely secure in this respect, compared to National
Rail, where I could buy a railcard-discounted ticket and travel between
gated stations without needing to produce a railcard.

Or in some cases just travel! I'd like to know how one can buy tickets on
the GOBLIN...