Oyster. WTF?

[Jonny69]

I've been using an Oyster card regularly for just over a year and a half now. Because I'm technically a student I can load on my travelcard for the week or month and get a discount. All great. Except there's nothing to tell you when the travelcard runs out (unless you've kept the receipt or you check it at a ticket machine) because the message on the gate is less than helpful. This resulted in a few expensive on-peak journeys at first.

So I get a zones 2-6 Travelcard because I live in zone 4 and travel to zone 6 for work. Sometimes I travel into London, so I tap my card in and it lets me out at zone 1 charging me £2.60 from the PAYG balance. Any zone 1 travel on top of that is charged on the PAYG balance but doesn't appear to cap at a travelcard rate any more, so I have to plan my journeys if I think it's going to hammer my PAYG balance.

Yesterday I tapped in as normal, arrived at Charing Cross and the card wouldn't let me out. According to the staff, with a 2-6 Travelcard loaded on I should not be travelling into zone 1, the PAYG balance is not there to cover the difference and I was supposed to enable Oyster Extension each time if I wanted to travel to zone 1. Then the guy started to write me out a £20 fine.

Just to put this into perspective: Oyster Extension is something that is free, it's like a switch that you have to flick to give you permission to travel into London. But that doesn't explain why I've been able to use it for over a year and a half?

Who dreams these schemes up? I'm not one for 'money making' conspiracy theories, but for Christ sake there are so many things with Oyster that can catch you out. I've lost count of the times I've accidentally forgotten to tap out when using PAYG because there's no gate (normally don't have to with the travelcard) and it's fined me. I'd then have to go into London to get it rectified which would cost me more and cost me time. What a damn stupid system.

/rant over

[BBx]

Yes I totally do not understand the Oyster card.

I accidentally tapped out on the way to work (have a paper season ticket for London Terminals and wasn't thinking) and it charged me about £6 :/ had to walk to Bank station to get it refunded and even then it was a chore for them to do it.

Now I wouldn't be able to do it as (as per the strikes) they are cutting staff/ticket office staff at the stations and encouraging people to use the machines, which means things like this are going to happen more frequently.

I registered my Oyster Card online on Friday, I *think* this allows me to top up online... but I can't remember and it wasn't clear, but am not sure if it allows you to print your journeys off too - it should.

Also I never know which overground stations you can actually use it in and if its cheaper or the same amount to use :/

Such a ridiculous system :/ I feel your pain Johnny!

BB x

[Belmit]

I never realised there was any more to the Oyster card than scanning it at each end of the journey and being charged accordingly. Never even considered zones or 'extensions' or anything. I get charged a set amount for a single journey AFAIK, and if the jouneys in one day reaches the same cost as a travel card it's capped. If my balance drops below £5 it automatically tops up £20 from my credit card.

Should I be looking at this more closely?

[Will]

I check my statement online (I've been doing autotopup for a while now) from time to time, but since doing this autotop up I just don't really pay attention to it. This has now got me thinking as it automatically adds £20 if I drop below £8... so far they haven't seemed to have got much money off me or any amounts that I don't recognise... it's dangerous being so lacksadaisical I know, but tbh I use it so infrequently that it doesn't really seem to be much of an issue for me.

I think I live close enough to London for it not to be a big issue and for the places I go to in town it seems to be ok. However, I shall have to have a closer look now.

[Belmit]

Just checked my journey history and it looks like I rarely do more than 2-3 individual trips in one visit so never really had it capped, but it does charge me £4.40 on entrance to the tube, and refunds £2.50 as I exit. This calculates the £1.90 journey correctly but I'm not sure where £4.40 fits in as it doesn't appear to match the cost of anything.

Ahh, though one website says that off peak it caps the journey at 50p less than a full paper ticket, which I guess is £4.90. Must just be a failsafe in case you don't swipe out - you just get charged for a day's travel.

[Will]

It's one thing I always double check - that I touch out, or do interim touches to make sure I get charged the minimum amount. I think the most I've ever paid for a day's worth of travel is £6.50?

Actually on this subject, when using the bus, does it clock up as part of the capped total or is it an indpendent charge?

[Belmit]

Think it's a one-off charge but I would have thought it almost certainly accrues as part of the daily total. Worth checking.

[Mark]

I accidentally tapped out on the way to work (have a paper season ticket for London Terminals and wasn't thinking) and it charged me about £6 :/ had to walk to Bank station to get it refunded and even then it was a chore for them to do it.

If you don't tap in and out it doesn't know what journey you've made to assumes the maximum fare (which was about £6) and charges you that.

I registered my Oyster Card online on Friday, I *think* this allows me to top up online... but I can't remember and it wasn't clear, but am not sure if it allows you to print your journeys off too - it should.
It does allow you to top-up, and to set up auto top-up (something I've never bothered with as my Oyster gets used about once a year - usually a travelcard works out cheaper for me).

Also I never know which overground stations you can actually use it in and if its cheaper or the same amount to use :/

Think it's specific operators. Heard mention of 'London overground' so maybe it's that.

Such a ridiculous system :/ I feel your pain Johnny!

With the current technology there's not much they can do. Too many competing technologies - paper tickets, season tickets, Oyster, etc. Put it all on one system and migrate over to NFC, and maybe...