Topping up visitor Oyster cards online

[TUC]

As I usually work in London once or twice a week I have a visitor Oyster which I bought on Hull Trains. Whenever I top it up at a ticket machine the message comes up 'next time why not top up online?' However when I went onto the TfL website to register my Oyster card, after entering it's number, I was advised that this type of Oyster card cannot be topped up online. A quick search revealed other sites advising that visitor Oyster cards cannot be topped up online.

What is the reason for this? Visitors to London are just as likely to need to top their cards up, and it would help in claiming expenses to be able to print out my top ups from the website rather than carry paper receipts around in my pocket all the time.

 

[yorkie]

If you don't have a cashless card, and can't easily get hold of one, I'd suggest getting a 'normal' Oyster card, which you can then register online and add auto top-up (or top-up online manually, if you prefer).

 

[TUC]

Thanks. I was more seeking to understand why it's not possible to top-up visitor Oyster cards online. Aren't they effectively just branded PAYG Oyster cards? (Incidentally, I hadn't specifically sought to buy a visitor Oyster card. It was just that on my first London trip after starting this job Hull Trains advised en route that they had preloaded Oyster cards for sale and this was what they issued.)

 

[pne]

Aren't they effectively just branded PAYG Oyster cards?

Mostly, but not entirely.

Besides not being able to register them online (and top them up online and sign up for auto top-up), two other differences are that a visitor oyster card costs £3* (non-refundable) while a regular one has a £5 deposit (more expensive, but you can get it back), and that the visitor one entitles you to some exclusive discounts (at a range of participants none of which looked particularly enticing to me).

(* costs from memory)

 

[island]

Some sources I have seen say that a Visitor Oyster Card is needed to get the Child Visitor Discount for 14 days set on your card.

An additional tourist tax of £3 is levied on users of normal Oyster cards who refund them after less than a month.

 

[CyrusWuff]

Mostly, but not entirely.

Besides not being able to register them online (and top them up online and sign up for auto top-up), two other differences are that a visitor oyster card costs £3* (non-refundable) while a regular one has a £5 deposit (more expensive, but you can get it back), and that the visitor one entitles you to some exclusive discounts (at a range of participants none of which looked particularly enticing to me).

Another difference between a "Visitor" Oyster and a Standard Retail one is that you can't load Travelcard Seasons onto Visitor cards.

Some sources I have seen say that a Visitor Oyster Card is needed to get the Child Visitor Discount for 14 days set on your card.

Given that Visitor Oyster Cards can't be registered, no discounts can be applied to them. The "temporary" Child discount can be applied to a Standard Retail Oyster using a discount type of "Young Visitor". It SHOULD be set to expire after 2 weeks (theoretically enough time to get a normal Zip card if you live outside London) and TfL reserve the right to disable cards where the discount is renewed "too many" times. (What counts as too many is undefined).

 

[island]

Another difference between a "Visitor" Oyster and a Standard Retail one is that you can't load Travelcard Seasons onto Visitor cards.



Given that Visitor Oyster Cards can't be registered, no discounts can be applied to them. The "temporary" Child discount can be applied to a Standard Retail Oyster using a discount type of "Young Visitor". It SHOULD be set to expire after 2 weeks (theoretically enough time to get a normal Zip card if you live outside London) and TfL reserve the right to disable cards where the discount is renewed "too many" times. (What counts as too many is undefined).

I'm afraid you're wrong there. http://tfl.gov.uk/fares-and-payments/students-and-children/travelling-with-children states that the child visitor discount can be set on a Visitor Oyster Card.

 

[DaveNewcastle]

Besides not being able to register them online (and top them up online and sign up for auto top-up), . . . . .

I have experience of registering a Visitor Oyster card online, setting auto top-up and it having a Railcard discount loaded at a station.

 

[pne]

An additional tourist tax of £3 is levied on users of normal Oyster cards who refund them after less than a month.

Ouch. I hadn't heard of that before.

I have experience of registering a Visitor Oyster card online, setting auto top-up and it having a Railcard discount loaded at a station.

Tell me more, please? Did you have to do anything special?

(When I tried registering my Visitor Oyster card, it didn't accept the number, saying something generic had gone wrong.)

 

[CyrusWuff]

I'm afraid you're wrong there. http://tfl.gov.uk/fares-and-payments/students-and-children/travelling-with-children states that the child visitor discount can be set on a Visitor Oyster Card.

I stand corrected! The briefing we received only mentioned normal Oysters due to the registration requirement.

 

[TUC]

On Hull Trains , where I bought the card, it was simply described as a ' pre-loaded Oyster Card'. There is no mention of it being a visitor card, or any limitations which arise from that. Even recognising the fee and refund issues above, it still is hard to see why TfL would have any reason to not want these cards to be capable of being topped up on-line, particularly given that those buying it on a train are just as likely to be business travellers who may well want to register and top it up and that tourists will have internet facilities at their hotel or on their phone where they may well want to top up.. It also begs the question why the ticket machines after topping up, have regularly said 'next time, why not top-up on-line?

 

[causton]

It also begs the question why the ticket machines after topping up, have regularly said 'next time, why not top-up on-line?

Because someone has told the ticket machines to say that, surely?

The ticket machine probably doesn't know, or doesn't care, that your card is a Visitor one, and will say that to anyone!

 

[TUC]

Besides not being able to register them online (and top them up online and sign up for auto top-up), . . . . .

I have experience of registering a Visitor Oyster card online, setting auto top-up and it having a Railcard discount loaded at a station.

How??
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It also begs the question why the ticket machines after topping up, have regularly said 'next time, why not top-up on-line?

Because someone has told the ticket machines to say that, surely?

The ticket machine probably doesn't know, or doesn't care, that your card is a Visitor one, and will say that to anyone!

I meant in the sense that the rest of the discussion above implies that the system is able to recognise Visitor cards as a different product.