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Dormant Oyster funds - fuss about nothing?
I don't understand why we keep seeing stories about unclaimed Oyster
money as though TFL is doing something wrong. http://www.standard.co.uk/news/trans...-10430319.html Clearly the deposit was necessary to cut down on people throwing the cards away. And clearly anyone can get their money back, even from aboard by mailing it. You can get a refund on the credit online if not the deposit. And the average credit on cards is only £3.74 a card in any case. About the only thing they could do is allow people to cancel the card completely online and get credit and deposit back. Am I missing something? E. |
Dormant Oyster funds - fuss about nothing?
On 01/08/2015 18:48, eastender wrote: I don't understand why we keep seeing stories about unclaimed Oyster money as though TFL is doing something wrong. http://www.standard.co.uk/news/trans...-10430319.html Clearly the deposit was necessary to cut down on people throwing the cards away. And clearly anyone can get their money back, even from aboard by mailing it. You can get a refund on the credit online if not the deposit. And the average credit on cards is only £3.74 a card in any case. About the only thing they could do is allow people to cancel the card completely online and get credit and deposit back. Am I missing something? The massive conspiracy that doesn't exist except in the minds of excitable / dim folk? Does it perhaps keep cropping up as the result of new FOI answers, or answers from TfL to London assembly members? I need to dig out that old card I've got with £30+ on it which snapped rendering it unusable... problem is I've no idea where I safely stashed it away! |
Dormant Oyster funds - fuss about nothing?
On 01/08/2015 18:55, Mizter T wrote: On 01/08/2015 18:48, eastender wrote: I don't understand why we keep seeing stories about unclaimed Oyster money as though TFL is doing something wrong. http://www.standard.co.uk/news/transport/unclaimed-money-on-dormant-oyster-cards-soars-to-170million-10430319.html Clearly the deposit was necessary to cut down on people throwing the cards away. And clearly anyone can get their money back, even from aboard by mailing it. You can get a refund on the credit online if not the deposit. And the average credit on cards is only £3.74 a card in any case. About the only thing they could do is allow people to cancel the card completely online and get credit and deposit back. Am I missing something? The massive conspiracy that doesn't exist except in the minds of excitable / dim folk? Just a quick extra thought - Oyster's certainly better in this respect compared to the Netherland's OV-chipkaart. An anonymous, unregistered card costs €7.50 (which is in fact only a "suggested retail price" so a retailer could charge more), is "valid for 4 to 5 years" (bit vague!), and if you want to reclaim the left over credit it costs a €2.50 administration fee at a "public transport company counter". If there's a way of getting the money back by post without first getting a form from such a counter, they don't wish to advertise it!: https://www.ov-chipkaart.nl/aanvragen/welkekaartpastbiju/toeristen/ |
Dormant Oyster funds - fuss about nothing?
On 2015-08-01 18:04:50 +0000, Mizter T said:
Oyster's certainly better in this respect compared to the Netherland's OV-chipkaart. An anonymous, unregistered card costs €7.50 (which is in fact only a "suggested retail price" so a retailer could charge more), is "valid for 4 to 5 years" (bit vague!), and if you want to reclaim the left over credit it costs a €2.50 administration fee at a "public transport company counter". If there's a way of getting the money back by post without first getting a form from such a counter, they don't wish to advertise it!: That's because they expect you to go Dutch in the Netherlands. E. |
Dormant Oyster funds - fuss about nothing?
In message , at 00:09:47 on
Sun, 2 Aug 2015, Paul Corfield remarked: Ironically my bank recently had to replace my bank card and the new one isn't contactless and I wasn't given a choice about that. I've been using an "Orange Cash" prepay card but I got an email yesterday saying that EE are bailing out and I'm going to be transferred to a different issuer. It's not clear if the replacement is also contactless, so I've queried this by email. -- Roland Perry |
Dormant Oyster funds - fuss about nothing?
In message , at 07:38:59 on Sun, 2 Aug
2015, Roland Perry remarked: Ironically my bank recently had to replace my bank card and the new one isn't contactless and I wasn't given a choice about that. I've been using an "Orange Cash" prepay card but I got an email yesterday saying that EE are bailing out and I'm going to be transferred to a different issuer. Optimum by Prepay Technologies It's not clear if the replacement is also contactless, so I've queried this by email. -- Roland Perry |
Dormant Oyster funds - fuss about nothing?
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Dormant Oyster funds - fuss about nothing?
On 01/08/2015 18:48, eastender wrote:
I don't understand why we keep seeing stories about unclaimed Oyster money as though TFL is doing something wrong. http://www.standard.co.uk/news/trans...-10430319.html Clearly the deposit was necessary to cut down on people throwing the cards away. And clearly anyone can get their money back, even from aboard by mailing it. You can get a refund on the credit online if not the deposit. And the average credit on cards is only £3.74 a card in any case. About the only thing they could do is allow people to cancel the card completely online and get credit and deposit back. Am I missing something? E. I get weekly e-mails with my journey history. My Oyster auto tops up when my credit reaches £8 (IIRC). On the few times that I have been overcharged, usually in times of train chaos, a simple call of less that five minutes has obtained a refund (usually next day). Once as I was on holiday I did not claim the refund in the next week, I received an e-mail telling me that I had not yet collected it. All in all, no problems. --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. http://www.avast.com |
Dormant Oyster funds - fuss about nothing?
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Dormant Oyster funds - fuss about nothing?
On Sun, 02 Aug 2015 00:09:47 +0100, Paul Corfield
wrote: On Sat, 01 Aug 2015 17:48:58 -0500, wrote: The point now, surely, is that unless you have a season ticket or a relevant railcard there is no point in using Oyster Pay As You go any more and that Contactless is preferable? I've been struck by how large balances really occasional users I know have on their Oyster cards. Well I've had a load of E Mails trying to persuade me to adopt contactless which is rather pointless for my particular circumstances. Still TfL hasn't connected all of its databases together that might allow them to identify that I'm an exception to the general rules but as an "edge case" it probably isn't cost effective for them to do so. Clearly TfL do want people to swap because it reduces costs for them and reinforces the case to reduce facilities at stations. Ironically my bank recently had to replace my bank card and the new one isn't contactless and I wasn't given a choice about that. Is it at all possible to add a Senior Railcard to a contactless debit / credit card? I'm thinking no, but...... DC --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. http://www.avast.com |
Dormant Oyster funds - fuss about nothing?
In message , at 15:31:23 on
Tue, 4 Aug 2015, David C remarked: Clearly TfL do want people to swap because it reduces costs for them and reinforces the case to reduce facilities at stations. Ironically my bank recently had to replace my bank card and the new one isn't contactless and I wasn't given a choice about that. Is it at all possible to add a Senior Railcard to a contactless debit / credit card? I'm thinking no, but...... No, you can't add any railcards to one. Either literally (as there's nowhere on the card to record it) or virtually (by linking the railcard with the debit/credit card in their back-office). I'm thinking this is probably an anti-fraud measure, because if someone is travelling on an Oyster with a railcard loaded, an inspector can tell that, and ask to see the railcard; but if it's a contactless journey he won't know to ask - and someone may have borrowed the card (especially if it's a low-value prepay one). -- Roland Perry |
Dormant Oyster funds - fuss about nothing?
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Dormant Oyster funds - fuss about nothing?
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Dormant Oyster funds - fuss about nothing?
wrote:
Ironically my bank recently had to replace my bank card and the new one isn't contactless and I wasn't given a choice about that. No explanation? My recent cards have all been contactless where they weren't before. One bank that isn't so keen these days is HSBC who require a minimum monthly pay in to an account before they'll issue one. It's a pain if your income is low or on a different frequency or if it goes into a different account from the regular payments account. That could be a big obstacle if others are trying to make contactless essential. -- My blog: http://adf.ly/4hi4c |
Dormant Oyster funds - fuss about nothing?
In article ,
(Tim Roll-Pickering) wrote: wrote: Ironically my bank recently had to replace my bank card and the new one isn't contactless and I wasn't given a choice about that. No explanation? My recent cards have all been contactless where they weren't before. One bank that isn't so keen these days is HSBC who require a minimum monthly pay in to an account before they'll issue one. It's a pain if your income is low or on a different frequency or if it goes into a different account from the regular payments account. That could be a big obstacle if others are trying to make contactless essential. My HSBC card was issued in 2013 so unsurprisingly isn't contactless. I won't get a new one till June next year. So I'll have to wait till then to find out. It's my backup credit card so gets little use. -- Colin Rosenstiel |
Dormant Oyster funds - fuss about nothing?
wrote:
In article , (Tim Roll-Pickering) wrote: wrote: Ironically my bank recently had to replace my bank card and the new one isn't contactless and I wasn't given a choice about that. No explanation? My recent cards have all been contactless where they weren't before. One bank that isn't so keen these days is HSBC who require a minimum monthly pay in to an account before they'll issue one. It's a pain if your income is low or on a different frequency or if it goes into a different account from the regular payments account. That could be a big obstacle if others are trying to make contactless essential. My HSBC card was issued in 2013 so unsurprisingly isn't contactless. I won't get a new one till June next year. So I'll have to wait till then to find out. It's my backup credit card so gets little use. I got a Barclays bPay Band last year, and have recently got the updated one. It's a PAYG contactless card (well, not 'card' so much - the new ones are the size of a SIM card. I've got it on a key ring). Anyone can get one (you don't need a Barclays account), and you can add funds as-and-when you want - or connect it to any bank account you like for auto top-ups. Very handy as as I don't have a contactless card with my NatWest Basic account. -- Cheers ... Mark |
Dormant Oyster funds - fuss about nothing?
There is also a scandalous amount of unused money on the nation's debit cards. That money should be cleared out by the government and used to build hospitals.
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Dormant Oyster funds - fuss about nothing?
"Offramp" wrote in message ... There is also a scandalous amount of unused money on the nation's debit cards. That money should be cleared out by the government and used to build hospitals. 90p of it's mine I have ever intention of spending it some day tim |
Dormant Oyster funds - fuss about nothing?
I remember reading somewhere that all of those unspent funds in Oyster accounts has to be listed in TfL's accounts as a liability. With hindsight, from the start of Oyster the Ts & Cs should have included a provision for unclaimed balances to eventually expire.
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Dormant Oyster funds - fuss about nothing?
Steve Lewis wrote:
I remember reading somewhere that all of those unspent funds in Oyster accounts has to be listed in TfL's accounts as a liability. With hindsight, from the start of Oyster the Ts & Cs should have included a provision for unclaimed balances to eventually expire. I don't see a problem with the current regime. The balance on PAYG Oysters is shown in the accounts as part of short term creditors - along with the balance of travelcards and bus passes which are in the nature of payments in advance. The total for all those was £m357 in 2014. AFAICS that does no harm to TfL because it has of course had the money which goes into the pot of reserves of over £m4,000. So I am willing to trust to TfL's business (and political) judgment that it better to carry unspent balances on PAYG Oysters rather than incur the many costs of dealing with greater numbers of requests for refunds; and the costs of dealing with complaints (eg "your outrageous system did not just grab my £9 without warning but also stranded great aunt Agatha in her wheelchair at midnight - and her without a spare colostomy bag") - plus the reputational damage. 10 or 20 years from now I can see a case for a review but for now I'd let sleeping cards slumber on in peace. -- Robin reply to address is (meant to be) valid |
Dormant Oyster funds - fuss about nothing?
In message , at 16:57:39 on Fri, 14 Aug
2015, Roland Perry remarked: Ironically my bank recently had to replace my bank card and the new one isn't contactless and I wasn't given a choice about that. I've been using an "Orange Cash" prepay card but I got an email yesterday saying that EE are bailing out and I'm going to be transferred to a different issuer. Optimum by Prepay Technologies It's not clear if the replacement is also contactless, so I've queried this by email. 12 days later they've got back to me with a one sentence reply of "yes it will be contactless". It now occurs to me that I asked the wrong question, and should have been enquiring about whether such a card, if contactless, was accepted by TfL. I'll continue trying to pull these particular teeth. So I asked the question, and six weeks later... no response. The Optimum card itself arrived yesterday (2nd October) so only a day later than the Orange Cash card went to meet its maker. The good news is they did transfer the balance across, and it's contactless. I suppose I'll have to try it out next time I'm in London to see if TfL accept it. -- Roland Perry |
Dormant Oyster funds - fuss about nothing?
In message , at 12:14:57 on Sat, 3 Oct
2015, Roland Perry remarked: I've been using an "Orange Cash" prepay card but I got an email yesterday saying that EE are bailing out and I'm going to be transferred to a different issuer. Optimum by Prepay Technologies It's not clear if the replacement is also contactless, so I've queried this by email. 12 days later they've got back to me with a one sentence reply of "yes it will be contactless". It now occurs to me that I asked the wrong question, and should have been enquiring about whether such a card, if contactless, was accepted by TfL. I'll continue trying to pull these particular teeth. So I asked the question, and six weeks later... no response. The Optimum card itself arrived yesterday (2nd October) so only a day later than the Orange Cash card went to meet its maker. The good news is they did transfer the balance across, and it's contactless. I suppose I'll have to try it out next time I'm in London to see if TfL accept it. And in later news, trying to set up the Optimum Account App (on Android phone) it barfs with "the server has had a hiccup, please try later". A bunch of amateurs, or what?? -- Roland Perry |
Dormant Oyster funds - fuss about nothing?
In message , at 12:14:57 on Sat, 3 Oct
2015, Roland Perry remarked: I've been using an "Orange Cash" prepay card but I got an email yesterday saying that EE are bailing out and I'm going to be transferred to a different issuer. Optimum by Prepay Technologies It's not clear if the replacement is also contactless, so I've queried this by email. 12 days later they've got back to me with a one sentence reply of "yes it will be contactless". It now occurs to me that I asked the wrong question, and should have been enquiring about whether such a card, if contactless, was accepted by TfL. I'll continue trying to pull these particular teeth. So I asked the question, and six weeks later... no response. The Optimum card itself arrived yesterday (2nd October) so only a day later than the Orange Cash card went to meet its maker. The good news is they did transfer the balance across, and it's contactless. I suppose I'll have to try it out next time I'm in London to see if TfL accept it. They do. -- Roland Perry |
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