Oyster top-up not working

[arb]

Last month, I used my Oyster Card (twice) for the first time in at least five years. Since the balance was low and I don't have auto top-up, I did an online top-up before travelling, to collect as I tapped in for the journey. The money was taken from my credit card, but the top-up wasn't applied to my Oyster card when I tapped in The money was refunded to my credit card several days later, but as a result I had literally pennies left on my Oyster balance. I repeated the whole process for the second journey a couple of weeks later, and again it didn't work. Money refunded fine, but now I have a negative Oyster balance.

Have I forgotten something very obvious about how online top-ups work? I vaguely recall in the past that I had to select a station for the top-up to be applied at, and the top-up only worked if you tapped in at that station. However, I wasn't asked to select a station when I made the payment online, and I can't see anything about a nominated station anywhere in the settings of my Oyster account, so at the time of making the payment I just assumed that this limitation had been removed in the years since I last used Oyster - but now I'm wondering if it's still there, and I just can't figure out how to see/change what my nominated station is.

 

[Romilly]

If topping up online, I thought you had to do it before 11pm on the day before travel, and yes you can only activate the top-up at your nominated station.

 

[telstarbox]

It's a bit of a faff - easier to top up at a station machine or a newsagent etc.

 

[CheapAndNerdy]

The top-up rules changed a few months ago (see http://www.oyster-rail.org.uk/2017/07/improved-online-topup/

No need to specify a station to pick it up from. It’s available from any station or tramstop which accepts Oyster for travel. You still need to pick it up as part of a journey. Buses and ticket machines cannot be used. (buses will be available later in the year)

You only need to wait up to 30 minutes before the order can be picked up.

It must be picked up within 3 days or the order will be cancelled and refunded automatically. This includes travelcard season tickets even if the start date is more than 3 days in advance.

 

[swt_passenger]

If topping up online, I thought you had to do it before 11pm on the day before travel, and yes you can only activate the top-up at your nominated station.

There's no longer a requirement to select a station, it was changed towards the end of July.

 

[Romilly]

There's no longer a requirement to select a station, it was changed towards the end of July.

Thank you - it just goes to show that I normally top up at a ticket vending machine.

 

[Feathers44]

This is going to sound silly but the only implication of this that I can think of is that you're using the wrong card i.e. the money is in the system waiting but the system doesn't see the card that it's looking for to put the money on.

I assume that your journeys show on your online history for the card, however, so I'm not sure what could have caused this in the real world. Because you tried it twice, it's unlikely to be a glitch at the time of travelling either (not least because even if the strting station didn't top your card up, the station at the other end of the journey should have done).

Ringing the TfL help line may be the only way out of this one although a ticket machine top up should still work?

 

[arb]

Thanks for the suggestions.

All the payments were before 11pm the previous day. Good to know that I haven't gone blind looking for the now removed "nominate a station" part of the process. And it's definitely the right Oyster card: the journeys have appeared in the history, and the card number shown in the online account matches the one printed on the back of the card.

So good to know I haven't missed something obvious - I'll now give the helpline a ring. The only slight annoyance is that it will probably be another five years until I need to use Oyster again and can test whatever solution they come up with - a combined train ticket to London plus travelcard is almost always cheaper for my travel needs within London!

 

[arb]

Customer Services were completely stumped by this. After investigating, the best they could suggest was "get a new oyster card"

 

[Iggy12a]

Do you have a contactless debit or credit card? If so, just ditch the Oystercard, and avoid the hassle of having to do top ups.

 

[arb]

Do you have a contactless debit or credit card? If so, just ditch the Oystercard, and avoid the hassle of having to do top ups.

Can you get a Gold Card discount with contactless yet?

 

[bubieyehyeh]

Not yet, but I think I read somewhere it was going to possible to at some point.

 

[MikeWh]

Can you get a Gold Card discount with contactless yet?

Not yet, but I think I read somewhere it was going to possible to at some point.

Contactless is only for full adult fares. TfL would like to be able to apply discounts but the problem is how to indicate to RPIs that a discount authority needs to be checked. It may just be possible for gold cards if they roll out the ability to store travelcard seasons centrally against a CPC. The problem to be overcome is how to allow amendments to the CPC number if the bank decide to replace it or it gets stolen. I can't see it being allowed with railcards, or annual seasons that wouldn't be storable on an Oyster card.