Oyster online top-up and station pickup

[newmilton]

Hello all. If I top up my PAYG Oyster Card online, I have to specify the station where the credit will be uploaded to my card. If my plans then change, and I find myself using a different starting station, will my credit still be added?

The analogy is with buying rail tickets online: although you have to specify the station where you will collect them, you can actually pick them up from any machine. I'm wondering if Oyster works the same way or whether it is a different system.

Also, if I start my journey from a different station to that specified, but return to the specified station at the end of the day, will my credit be added on exit?

Many thanks. Sorry if this has been asked before, but I couldn't find it.

 

[MikeWh]

The topup has to be added at the nominated station, but if you return later on it will be added when you touch out. The reason it is so restrictive is that it all has to happen during the millisecond or so that you hold your card over the reader. There is no time to validate anything remotely so the transaction has to sit on the actual station server.

 

[Harpers Tate]

...and, in case you wondered, if you don't ever get to your nominated station, and your top-up isn't added, you don't pay for it. The transaction only occurs when you actually obtain the top-up.

 

[yorkie]

Hello all. If I top up my PAYG Oyster Card online, I have to specify the station where the credit will be uploaded to my card. If my plans then change, and I find myself using a different starting station, will my credit still be added?

No. And I don't like queuing for machines at stations like King's Cross either, so I have auto top-up enabled, this completely solves the problem. I highly recommend it.

You do need to nominate a station to initiate the auto top-up but once that's done it will top up, as required, automatically anywhere.

 

[MikeWh]

...and, in case you wondered, if you don't ever get to your nominated station, and your top-up isn't added, you don't pay for it. The transaction only occurs when you actually obtain the top-up.

Yes and no. You have eight days to pick up a topup, but the funds have already been taken from your debit/credit card. If you don't pick the topup up then the charge will be refunded automatically.

 

[soil]

If you have autotopup, the charge will be done after the fact.

 

[Be3G]

I do wish Oyster purchases/instructions could be picked up from ticket machines instead, even if just from tube stations and not NR. My main mode of transport is the bus; I use local trains/tubes too, but without preplanning. It can make things like setting up/amending/cancelling auto top-up a bit difficult as I have to pay to make a journey. I wouldn't mind making a special bus journey to my nearest tube station (as I'd probably be capped anyway) if I could get it done there with no further expense.

 

[MikeWh]

If you have autotopup, the charge will be done after the fact.

Yes, though this thread isn't dealing with auto topup.

I do wish Oyster purchases/instructions could be picked up from ticket machines instead, even if just from tube stations and not NR. My main mode of transport is the bus; I use local trains/tubes too, but without preplanning. It can make things like setting up/amending/cancelling auto top-up a bit difficult as I have to pay to make a journey. I wouldn't mind making a special bus journey to my nearest tube station (as I'd probably be capped anyway) if I could get it done there with no further expense.

I can understand setting or cancelling instructions, though how often do people need to do that usually? Getting a topup can be done at a moments notice from ticket machines at both tube and NR stations, using a card if desired.

Finally, if you have an emergency and need to add auto topup without making a journey then you can select a tube station and go to the ticket office before touching in. Most staff will agree to cancel the entry charge after you've touched in. You need to queue up again of course, so a quiet time is probably best.

 

[Be3G]

Hmm, I wasn't aware of that little unofficial bending of the rules – useful to know, thank you. I'd also add that picking up top-ups without making a journey would be useful in the case of getting refunds too. Oyster do offer BACS transfers of course, but they don't make it very well known and judging from the fact it's just taken me seven weeks and three phone calls to receive one, it's a bit of a faff!