MIG wrote:

I have got an Oyster card. My problem is that I can't use it for all
the journeys I make for a number of reasons and nor do I have the
typical options (eg when passing my local station ticket office) for
putting credit on it.

Understood. I was somewhat frustrated when I discovered that daily
capping was useless if I was riding NR. And the day I went to Hampton
Court, I was a bit surprised to find that a ODTC was my best bet.

But, even if Oyster isn't /always/ the best payment mode, it /often/ is.
Since it effectively costs nothing to have one, why not keep one in
your wallet just in case?

There simply isn't any justification for imposing penalty fares to
coerce people into using a system that isn't fully available.

On the systems that accept it, how is it not fully available?

It isn't fully integrated with NR yet, and that's a shame. But it's
fully available on all TfL services, no?
--
David of Broadway
New York, NY, USA