Oyster Auto Top-Up Failed for 7 Months

[danthekyle]

Hi all,

My partner's Oyster failed to open the barriers recently, giving error code 30. She logged on to the TFL website to check why this might be, and discovered that her auto top-up card payments have been failing, since August 2024. It looks like the payment card used has just been forgotten by TFL, as there is no payment card saved on the website, and her payment card hasn't expired or been cancelled.

So for the past seven months her Oyster has been being topped up every few weeks, but the charges have not been made to her payment card, meaning that she now owes TFL around £500.

She's inclined to just pay it straight away, she's not out of pocket overall as these payments should have been taken previously, and she should have noticed they weren't. But it's obviously a bit of a shock to come across a £500 bill out of the blue.

My question is more out of interest really, about how this could happen - has anyone heard of any similar instances? Why would TFL let this continue for 7 months, extending this much credit without blocking the card or trying to get in touch? The TFL website even states 'We have not yet attempted to contact you regarding the following failed top-ups'.

Worth a complaint, or should we just be grateful they've not instructed a debt collection agency yet?

 

[sleepinghobby]

Probably due to the TfL Cyber Security Incident where the entire payments and Oysters systems were brought down. They have now been rebuilt or restored. This is a relatively recent development.

 

[Jan Mayen]

I'm no expert, but I'd pay and move on.

As an aside, I had a BT Charge card (remember those?) which didn't charge me for calls made. When I realised that the quarterly bill hadn't included the charges, I called BT. They said, oh yes our mistake, we will write it off.

Shortly after, BT ended the Chargecard service

 

[chrisHtw]

Hi all,

My partner's Oyster failed to open the barriers recently, giving error code 30. She logged on to the TFL website to check why this might be, and discovered that her auto top-up card payments have been failing, since August 2024. It looks like the payment card used has just been forgotten by TFL, as there is no payment card saved on the website, and her payment card hasn't expired or been cancelled.

So for the past seven months her Oyster has been being topped up every few weeks, but the charges have not been made to her payment card, meaning that she now owes TFL around £500.

She's inclined to just pay it straight away, she's not out of pocket overall as these payments should have been taken previously, and she should have noticed they weren't. But it's obviously a bit of a shock to come across a £500 bill out of the blue.

My question is more out of interest really, about how this could happen - has anyone heard of any similar instances? Why would TFL let this continue for 7 months, extending this much credit without blocking the card or trying to get in touch? The TFL website even states 'We have not yet attempted to contact you regarding the following failed top-ups'.

Worth a complaint, or should we just be grateful they've not instructed a debt collection agency yet?

I’ve just found the same thing when my Oyster wasn’t accepted today - the £20 top ups haven’t been debited from my account since 19th August. I’m sure I was seeing a top up message at the barrier. TfL website says I owe £340 - which I can pay.

 

[MikeWh]

I've just checked with my son who has auto topup set on his card, and he has been debited regularly, so it's obviously not a global issue. I agree it's probably a side effect of the cyber security incident. I'll ask some questions.

 

[talldave]

If it helps, my £20 auto top-ups (from a Barclays debit card) worked faultlessly during the security incident.

 

[Hadders]

I've had auyo-top up set up on my Oyster card for years and make regular journeys, typically topping up every couple of weeks. My credit card account is charged absolutely fine.