In article ,
(Robert Neville) wrote:

I purchased a couple of tourist Oyster cards with £10 of credit directly
from TFL a few months ago for a recent trip to London. The cards worked
fine and aside from all the weekend shutdowns, we had no problem getting
around on the tube.

Just out of curiosity, I registered one of the cards to see the
remaining balance and journey history. However, when I go to the history
tab, I get the following message:

Please note, customers will only be able to view this information if
they have purchased pay as you go credit (including Auto top-up) from
Oyster online.

Not sure why this would have to be the case. Purchasing credit from
Oyster online is a bit problamatic as the site does not take credit
cards issued outside the UK. And if I was able to purchase credit, would
it only show trips from that point forward?

I have the same problem and go to London only occasionally now. You should
still be able to see that balance on a ticket machine, in case that helps.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

Not sure why this would have to be the case. Purchasing credit from
Oyster online is a bit problamatic as the site does not take credit
cards issued outside the UK. And if I was able to purchase credit,
would it only show trips from that point forward?

This has been discussed here in the past. I think the consensus was
that it was a security measure to protect the information about where
and when a card was used. (Eg think of partner A suspecting partner B
of cheating.)

Without the need to buy credit online A could register B's card and see
the travel history; and TfL would have no more record of who did so than
an IP address from the computer used.

With the online purchase they also have credit/debit card details and
the fact that the Oyster card was then used to collect the credit. (I
*think* the credit has to be collected before online access is given but
I could be wrong.) Of course the credit card might be stolen but no
system is perfect. And the online credit does give the card user the
opportunity to spot and ask questions about the unexpected balance.
--
Robin
PM may be sent to rbw0{at}hotmail{dot}com

wrote:

I have the same problem and go to London only occasionally now. You should
still be able to see that balance on a ticket machine, in case that helps.

Strangely enough, it does show the balance. Just not the journey history. More
of a curiosity than a problem though.