On 24 Nov, 11:40, Tim Woodall wrote:
On Sun, 23 Nov 2008 06:40:41 -0800 (PST),
* * Mr Thant wrote: On 23 Nov, 14:23, "tim....." wrote:
And what rule is it that makes this method of "top up" un-refundable if you
don't use it?

Auto top-up triggers whenever the balance falls below £5. Thus your
balance is always in the £5-£25 range, never below. The loophole I'm
suggesting is to add cash before each journey to keep it in the £5-£10
range, but what you can't ever do with a card with auto top-up enabled
is spend the last £5.

You can still have the card refunded of course, but then you have no
Oyster Card.

The topup triggers when you ENTER a station with your balance below
5GBP. So you should top you your card before every journey to 5.10 and
then the topup won't trigger. There are a handful of journeys where your
card balance can actually go negative if you plan it right (but the
deposit will be more than the negative balance)

Presumably only before your last ever journey on that card, or it
really would defeat the whole object.