On Jul 3, 7:44*pm, Martin Petrov wrote:

You can't simply look at the tickets and see how many you've got left..
Instead you have to mess about with your online balance and stuff.
That's annoying.

I agree that's a definite downside with smartcard ticketing, no doubt.
As I said in my reply to Martin, perhaps one day there will be
smartcards that offer a visual display of what your balance is and/or
when your season ticket is due to expire.

Auto Top Up. Set it up once, and you never need to look online or
check your balance. I haven't had to go online for at least a year. My
only maintenance involves re-upping my Zone 1-3 once a month. And if
you must, stick your record card in your Oystercard wallet - then
you've the best of both worlds.

Yes, Auto Top-up is fantastic - but it's not for everyone. There's a
great many people who's finances are fairly chaotic, or even just very
tight - and money being taken just like that wouldn't really work out
too well.

Also, you'll only get a 'proper' Record card if you buy from an LU
station ticket office. LU ticket machines issue a printed receipt -
the big ones issue the receipt on blank LU ticket stock, the smaller
ones on a roll of white thermal paper. And "Oyster Ticket Stops" only
issue receipts on a roll of white thermal paper (the same as a credit/
debit card receipt chit). Regardless, it's a visual record of when
you're good to go up until.