Replacing lost Oyster card

[OLJR]

My faithful Oyster card which I have been using since 2012 sadly fell out of my pocket today. Fortunately the only other thing with it was my hotel room card, which was easily replaced.

I am in China right now, with web search tricky and tfl.gov.uk blocked. So please forgive me for asking what would normally be a trivial question. Fortunately Railforums.co.uk seems to be working just fine.

Q1. When I get back to Paddington from the Heathrow Express can I still buy a new Oyster card at the station? I would rather not use my iPhone because it needs a railcard to be added and I understand this is only possible with Oyster
Q2. I will need my Disabled Person's Railcard loaded onto the new Oyster at Paddington - will this be a problem if the old Oyster card is still "active"?
Q3. Can I disable my old card and transfer the balance to the new one? I think I have about £75 on it so unfortunately do not want just to write it off.

Many thanks in advance.

PS. I went to the Beijing Railway Museum at Tiananmen Square which was really interesting and I would recommend it. It is not full of locomotives (there is one of those but it is some way out and I have not had time yet...) but it has a lot of models, impressive sand tables and memorabilia, plus lots of pictures of the often British engineers who co-ordinated the construction of early railways in China.

 

[bcarmicle]

1. Yes, you can buy a new Oyster card at Paddington.
2. No, this will be fine.
3. You should be able to transfer the balance using your online TfL account.

I would also note that if you go to the LU station at Heathrow, you can buy your Oyster there and load your Disabled Persons Railcard discount, which I believe will give you a discount on the Heathrow Express as well if you don't already have a discounted ticket for it.

 

[Hadders]

I had my Oyster card stolen in Paris a couple of years ago.

A new card costs £7 (ouch!)
You can buy it at Paddington Underground station and you’ll need to add some credit to it.
You should be able to get the discount applied at any Underground station.

Report the old card as lost through the TfL website when you can and it will be stopped and the balance transferred to your new card.

 

[Skimpot flyer]

If you go to the LU station at Heathrow, you can buy your Oyster there and load your Disabled Persons Railcard discount, then use the Elizabeth Line to Paddington which is cheaper, is it not?

 

[bluegoblin7]

Q3. Can I disable my old card and transfer the balance to the new one? I think I have about £75 on it so unfortunately do not want just to write it off.

Just for the sake of clarification, this can be done only if you had registered your old card online through your Oyster account. This is not the same thing as registering the card at a station for the purposes of adding a Railcard. As mentioned, once you have your new card a quick call to the Oyster helpline should be able to set up a transfer, and stop the old card.

No issues adding your Railcard to a new Oyster, there isn't anything to stop you from having multiple discounted Oysters.

 

[OLJR]

Just for the sake of clarification, this can be done only if you had registered your old card online through your Oyster account.

Yes I have done this. Thanks everyone.

 

[OLJR]

I am trying to transfer the ~£75 balance from my old, lost, card to the new one. I have followed the following steps:

1. Sign into my old Oyster card account on tfl.gov.uk - success
2. Click "transfer products to another card" - success
3. Type in the new Oyster card number - success
4. The Oyster card number [NEW] is protected with a card security question and answer. Please enter it here - I cannot do this

I tried asking them to fix it at Green Park. They told me that I cannot do this at a station.

They told me to call +44 343 222 1234. When I called the agent told me that this problem cannot be solved over the phone, it has to be done at a station.

What is the solution please?

 

[alholmes]

Have you added the new Oyster card to your online account yet?. I think when you do that it’ll ask you to set a security question and answer. Can be something like name of your first school etc.

 

[OLJR]

Unfortunately this is exactly the problem alholmes. I cannot add it to my online account until I answer the security question. Which I do not have.

 

[alholmes]

I’m puzzled, I did something similar to you last month. My recollection was that I did the following steps:
1. Purchase new Oyster card and make a journey with it
2. The following day, register new card online, including setting up security question and answer
3. The day after that, initiate the transfer of balance from old card to new card through my online account
4. After waiting at least 30 minutes, make a journey with new card to execute the balance transfer

Do you already have a security question and answer for the old card? Maybe it’s the same?

The only interaction I had with station staff was to add the railcard discount to the new card. @MikeWh is the forum expert on all things Oyster - any thoughts?