On Fri, 27 Jan 2006 00:05:26 +0000, Laurence Payne
wrote:

On Thu, 26 Jan 2006 20:02:12 GMT, Phil Clark
wrote:

Just because you're signed up for auto top-up doesn't mean you can't
buy Oyster in other ways. Give the man or the machine money. They
will replenish your Oyster.

Can't you top up online as well?

Sure. But to collect the top-up you have to touch at a nominated
Underground station. Why not do it automatically?

I didn't realise that you had to touch in at a Tube station to pick it
up. I do have auto top-up - and use buses so infrequently it isn't
going to be a problem that I can't top up on a bus.

I'm signed up for the auto re-charge thingy - once your card has under £5
it adds £40 the next time you go to a tube station.

Very useful it is too, though it only seems to do it if you are under £5 on
entry and not if it is your journey that takes you under £5, or at least
that's what happened to me over Christmas.

Also I suspect that a strange error message on one bus about the card not
being valid in the zone or area might have been caused by the auto-topup
settings not being understood correctly by that particular reader but I
suspect even more strongly I may be talking drivel ;-)

My balance is very low, and I'm unlikely to use the tube this week but
will need to use buses.

For similar reasons I find the £5 threshold a little on the low side. I'd
prefer it to be a tenner. I wonder if there is any scope in the system for
variable amounts in future.

If I go to the tube station and put my Oyster on a
gate (to recharge it) but don't travel, surely that will result in an
unresolved journey? Or can I 'charge' it on the big ticket machine, or ask
at the ticket window?

As I am sure others will have said, auto-topup doesn't stop you topping up
your card normally. So a ticket machine or ticket window or Ticket Stop
newsagent does the job.


G.