Peter Smyth wrote:
"Colin Rosenstiel" wrote in message
...

It does work at any tube gate, and buses now too. I think it is just
the very first auto topup instruction that needs to be done at a
nominated station, presumably because there is more data to be
transmitted to the card, and if they had all oyster readers
network-wide looking out for all cards needing this special data
transfer, the whole system would be that much slower, perhaps
unworkable. By keeping a more manageable list of cards needing any
rare "special update" operations at individual stations, the whole
system can run more efficiently.

I don't think it's particularly onerous to have to collect the first
auto-top up instruction from a particular nominated station.

I don't want auto-top-up unless they pay me interest for all the money
spent that I won't use for months. But internet top-up might be useful
if I knew where I was going next. What you can't do AIUI is top up a
card without using it at the same time.

Surely the 50p interest a year that you might lose is more than outweighed
by the time saved by not having to queue up at ticket machines every
journey?

Peter Smyth


I was also quite sceptical about Oyster.

I used to use monthly travelcards and applied them using the Oyster web
site.
I found it a pain to have to nominate a station.
I live in an area where my journey patterns because of work could
nessitate a tube/DLR or bus. And I couldn't necessarily tell where i
would swipe in first.
I ended up just buying paper travelcards (in advance usually) when I
was near a tube station. Just to make it easier.

However, due to the fact I dont make journeys every day anymore.
I now use Pay As You Go with auto top up. And i have to say it works
quite well.
When it goes below a specified level, the card gets topped up. Be that
on the bus/DLR or tube. It's better than quueing at the ticket office
or machine to top up.

The biggest improvement has to be to include national rail.
But that's going to take some work. For example my local station
doesn't even have a ticket machine/office. Let alone Oyster.