asdf wrote:
Surely that is what the £3 deposit is supposed to cover?

If there's a £5 credit minimum, that effectively increases the deposit
from £3 to £8. I can't see any possible justification for this. I bet
someone at TfL has calculated £5 x (number of PAYG cards issued) and
started rubbing their hands.

Hey there's a little cynic in all of us

It was always my understanding that the £3 deposit was to discourage
people from throwing away their Oysters when they ran out, because a
lot of people at least initially assumed it was a (disposable)
replacement for paper tickets, rather than "refillable" as it is.
Consider though that the Oyster card system has always said it will
charge the maximum possible fare for incomplete journeys, and up to now
it hasn't, this has been a long time coming.

As of Jan 07, the paper fare for any journey including zone 1 (yes this
means zone 1 only right up to zones 1-6 single) will be £4, and I
would imagine this is where the figure has been decided. There's a big
move currently on Oyster fraud, and unfortunately its impossible to
discriminate against those that deliberately defraud the system, and
those who innocently don't touch their card for whatever reason.

Same old thing we see everywhere - the minority spoiling it for the
majority.