Before TFL stopped cash on the buses, they should have put in place more ways to top up!

[devilwithabluedresson]

There is a retail area where I live that is next to a dual carriageway. Very unfriendly for walkers, its a miserable walk down a noisy road with very fast cars passing you.

It is huge, probably about a mile from end to end. I walked there this morning and hoped to get home by bus. Anyway, it turned out I couldnt top up my oyster at any of the shops there. Not Morrisons, Sainsburys, M&S, nowhere. I checked my iphone and it showed the nearest top up stop to be 1 mile away in any direction! I understand you get 1 more ride home, but I wasnt sure if I had already used that and I wasn't prepared to wait 20 minutes for a bus just to find I was turfed off.

It was no biggie, I decided to walk home as I actually live about a mile away. But it did highlight some huge problems with this No Cash thing which I pondered on the walk back :

• Not everyone has iphones to check where the nearest top up stop
• Not everyone can actually walk 1 mile to the nearest top up stop
• There is no way to check your credit, or that you have used your 'last ride home' unless you have a smart phone (and know how to use it!) Not everybody does.
• If I'd had my oyster and my cashcard in the same wallet and it was lost or stolen, I would have no means to get on the bus at all.
• Someone with mobility issues could effectively get stuck at a place like this and have to hope a bus driver would take pity on them to get home. Even if they had the cash to travel!

Anyway so I was thinking how about a top up facility on the cash points in Sainsburys/Morrisons/M&S. That would be easily solve a lot of these points! AIBU?

visitor oyster are not able to be topped up on line so wtf do any of us who may be infrequent visitors do!!! (born, bred, all rels still at home except me and not atm resident)

For all of those saying I should use auto top up, I have checked it out and its unsuitable for me because it cannot be activated on buses, and I only use buses.

None of this is a user friendly service really, is it?

Getting more businesses to offer top-up means there being enough business, and no-cash will create that business. There is obviously a problem of transition.

But handling cash in transit was expensive and dangerous and had to go. Just like there are vanishingly few pay-phones in the day of the mobile phone, which is hard on people who cannot keep a payg in credit.

I never understood why Ken wanted to "wean people off Travelcards" as he put it. Before I got my 60+ I used an annual Travelcard, topped up in cash at the newsagent from time to time for the occasional visit by tube to the Outer Darkness beyond my zone (they covered all zones on the buses), and I had not paid cash for a journey for over thirty years.

Every time I got a bus and paid in cash, the driver would say "No change" in a surly voice and pocket the extra money.

The problem with the oyster is that you just don't know how much is on it. And when its updating itself and charging you for not touching out and what not, its hard to keep track. Great if you can go to a newsagent and get them to check for you. Bad if the top up outlets in your area are so far away that you actually have to get a bus to them! Which I would have to for a miles walk!

Thanks for this thread. London is now off the list for a visit over summer. Not worth the cost or inconvenience.

Very inflexible system. I ran a trip last week with a group of 16 kids (12 year olds). I needed them to use their oyster cards to get free travel on the bus. 2 of the kids didn't have oysters. I had free travel via a group ticket once we got on the tube at 9.30 but wanted the kids to travel at 9.00 on the bus.

I would have happily paid for them but you can't use your oyster or contactless card to pay for somebody else in addition to yourself so there was absolutely no way they could pay except get an oyster card (which they didn't have). When I enquired about this the day before, i was told to hope for a nice bus driver who would just let them on and luckily the bus driver was a decent bloke so it wasn't a problem but it did seem daft that there were no alternatives.

I have a friend in London who is always on at me about getting an Oyster card when I'm in London.

I really can't see the point. I never use buses in London and much prefer the underground. A day ticket for the Underground is very cheap and gives unlimited travel on that day whereas every journey using an Oyster card is going to reduce the credit by whatever each individual journey would cost.

It's a bloody stupid idea for visitors- what they need is a ticket which is based on a price per day/number of days which expires when the time limit expires not when the credit expires.

A day ticket for the Underground is very cheap and gives unlimited travel on that day whereas every journey using an Oyster card is going to reduce the credit by whatever each individual journey would cost

No. There is a daily cap. Think it is £4.80? once you have got on so many buses, it stops charging you.

Sorry I see you said underground not buses.

Daily caps still apply when using an oyster card on the underground.

Daily caps on oyster cost you less than a travelcard would too, so definitely worth doing.

www.tfl.gov.uk/fares-and-payments/oyster/using-oyster/price-capping

Phaedra, there is a daily cap on oyster fares equivalent to a days travelcard cost. Travel beyond this cap us free. So you will spend the same amount.

Oyster cards are really easy to use once you have one. Registering them means that if you lose your card you get a new one with equivalent credit on once you report if lost.

I didn't know you could still use cash on buses in London until the past few weeks as oyster is so widely used.

And visitors can get a refund for the unused credit on their card when they leave London. We have a number of cards at home which we lend to people as and when they visit.

Thanks it still sounds more of a faff to get than just getting a day card for the underground. I never take buses in London.

It really isn't and it will save you money. It doesn't matter if you don't use buses, it works on tube, national rail (zones 1-6) and dlr. I have auto top up on mine, I never have to go to a ticket office or a ticket machine.

And according to this the daily cap is £8.40 which would be no cheaper than an underground day ticket.

For example you can travel as many times as you like in a day in Zones 1 and 2 (from 04:30 to 04:29 the next day) and you will never be charged more than £8.40 even if you make 20 journeys.

I almost exclusively use the bus and use auto-top up it works brilliantly.

I had my top up card stolen and managed to change to a new card with no problems.

But I don't want it auto-topping up. It might be months between visits and I don't want the last journey of 1 visit resulting in it topping it up with credit I might not use for months.

Well the equivalent day travel card would be £9 so you've saved yourself 60p. Yes I am sad enough to have looked. And if it's off peak you save yourself £1.90.

Oyster with daily cap is cheaper than a travelcard.

Auto top up is optional.

For someone who visits London once every few years this just seems ridiculous. Surely there has to be a cash alternative for tourists. Or are we supposed to stick to the tube and taxis.

As others have said it's a nightmare for school/youth groups all having to have a Oyster cards.

Years ago DSIS was on a school trip where they had to resort to buses because the found a WW2 bomb and shut a great chunk of the tube.

It's so bloody badly thought out. Fine for those travelling regularly or those with contact less cards, but for the rest of us it is inconvenient and unhelpful. I take a bus in London about once every 2 years. I don't want money sitting around unused on an Oyster card thanks and I don't have a contactless card.

Yes, for me the glaring problem is that you can't pay for someone else.

Apparently you don't need Oyster cards any more, they are going to be mostly phased out and people are expected to you contactless bank cards. As far as I know (haven't tried it) you can already use contactless bank cards instead of Oyster, the only disadvantage is that they aren't capped yet, but they will be.

Guardian article explaining this:-

www.theguardian.com/money/2013/nov/21/tfl-plan-oyster-contactless-card-payments

you use contactless bank cards

I don't know how widespread contactless cards are, Barclays have just sent me two (VISA and American Express) to replace one contactless credit card I previously had, but my bank card (from a different bank) isn't contactless yet.