First Time User of Oyster for Safeguarded Rail Staff "Priv"

[phil1960]

A friend of mine is getting his first Oyster Card for Safeguarded Priv travel on London Underground/DLR etc. He'll have the completed form issued by Rail Staff Travel and he hopes to get all it sorted out at Euston after arriving in. Once he's bought the card (think is about £10 + some credit) from one of the machines, he hopes to get the Priv reduction put on and start travelling with the correct discount. However, having done some research on his behalf, according to the details on RST site, the Oyster card needs to be registered online first (see screenshot). And according to what TfL publish to do that you need to enter details of a previous journey. At that point in time he won't have made any. So if he has to, presumably he'll have to pay full fare for at least one journey and then get the Priv reduction put on by a member of London Underground staff later on?

Paragraph 7 of the TfL page linked (see screenshot) says if a discount is put on then its a security question or details of the last journey. Paragraphs 8 and 9 say you have to make journeys first prior to online registration.

I've had a Priv on Oyster for years, literally from when Priv discounts were first put on them. So I've no idea what process I went about registering back then. But I have access to journey history etc. on my TfL account. I just want my friend to have a hassle free start having convinced him to get this sorted out. Previous times in London he's paid using a bank/credit card at the full price. Prior to that it was always paper tickets from London Underground ticket offices.

Thanks.

 

[Haywain]

I don't think you can make a journey and register the card immediately, it has to be the next day when the journey is on the back office.

 

[phil1960]

I don't think you can make a journey and register the card immediately, it has to be the next day when the journey is on the back office.

I'm pretty sure that's the case. But what I can't seem to find out is whether online registration is mandatory prior to putting in the Priv (or even a National Railcard) discount.

 

[signed]

Anecdotally,I have been able to add 16-25 rail card to a fresh oyster purchased at the same time at the STP visitor centre

 

[Watershed]

There are two kinds of Oyster card registration: online and local. The local registration involves a password being specified, which you enter at the machine if I remember correctly. This is stored on the card itself.

Online registration purely means that you can see the journey history online, but as far as I know it doesn't change anything on the card itself. Therefore it is not a prerequisite to adding a discount.

 

[Haywain]

There are two kinds of Oyster card registration: online and local. The local registration involves a password being specified, which you enter at the machine if I remember correctly. This is stored on the card itself.

Online registration purely means that you can see the journey history online, but as far as I know it doesn't change anything on the card itself. Therefore it is not a prerequisite to adding a discount.

Maybe, but I don't think it's a good idea not to have a card registered online, as that's the only way you can really check what you're being charged and protect the credit if you lose the card.

 

[crablab]

Online registration purely means that you can see the journey history online, but as far as I know it doesn't change anything on the card itself. Therefore it is not a prerequisite to adding a discount.

You have to do online registration before you can add a discount; it flips a flag on the card and staff seemed to be told not to add discounts to unregistered cards.

This is my experience, at least.

 

[Benjwri]

I don't think you can make a journey and register the card immediately, it has to be the next day when the journey is on the back office.

You can register within about 10 minutes on the TfL Go app normally, but on the website and officially it’s the next day.

There are two kinds of Oyster card registration: online and local. The local registration involves a password being specified, which you enter at the machine if I remember correctly. This is stored on the card itself.

Online registration purely means that you can see the journey history online, but as far as I know it doesn't change anything on the card itself. Therefore it is not a prerequisite to adding a discount.

Yes there is a lot of confusion among staff about this, although recently it has been cleared up and when I got a new card recently my railcard got added without issue.

You have to do online registration before you can add a discount; it flips a flag on the card and staff seemed to be told not to add discounts to unregistered cards.

This is my experience, at least.

No it doesn’t. It was a myth that was pretty common among staff and therefore that is what they would tell you, but the ‘Card unregistered’ screen comes up regardless of if you’ve registered online. It is, as mentioned, a different type of registration.

There isn’t a way from the staff to know if you’ve registered it online, and it’ll work fine if you haven’t. However I would be careful doing so as once you’ve registered it on a POM there is a high chance it’ll ask for that password you entered when you try to register online, and would have a habit of forgetting it. I believe this is where the advice to register online first comes from.

 

[crablab]

It was a myth that was pretty common among staff and therefore that is what they would tell you, but the ‘Card unregistered’ screen comes up regardless of if you’ve registered online. It is, as mentioned, a different type of registration.

I know they're different
It would be great for TfL to have some consistent training here, as what I've written is almost verbatim what the Oyster contact centre told me a month ago.

There isn’t a way from the staff to know if you’ve registered it online, and it’ll work fine if you haven’t.

Thanks - TIL.

 

[Benjwri]

I know they're different
It would be great for TfL to have some consistent training here, as what I've written is almost verbatim what the Oyster contact centre told me a month ago.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 14 Jun 2026 ==


Thanks - TIL.

Yes

I know they're different
It would be great for TfL to have some consistent training here, as what I've written is almost verbatim what the Oyster contact centre told me a month ago.


Thanks - TIL.

yeah the training is not great. As I say I’ve had a bit more success recently but before have had huge issues getting it added.

 

[phil1960]

Thank you to everyone for your replies.