I've an Oyster card I use for occasional trips to London.
I'm going again soon and tried to top it up. I'll be travelling there by mainline. The top-up procedure on-line states:
Please note that you must activate your purchase as part of a normal journey. To activate you must touch your Oyster card on the yellow reader at your nominated station, and also touch out on the yellow reader at the end of your journey.
The problem is I don't know where I'll be going, or from what London underground station and so can't nominate one.
Anyone know of an easy way of topping it up without queueing at a ticket office?
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Unless you know what station you'll use, you're going to have to use a machine to do it. There are normally no (or short) queues at the credit card only machines, and it takes about 30 seconds to do.
Alternatively, auto top-up works really well. It adds £20 to the card when it falls below a fiver. Even if you're not there very often, it's a nice feature as you know the card will always work, and if you lose the card you can block it and have the credit transferred to a new one.
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A second vote for auto top up. IIRC you can arrange it on the website. A £20 auto-top up activated when your balance falls below £5 should do the trick.
Only glitch is that you need to remember to update the details when you get a new card. No massive problem if you forget; TfL email and only disable your card if you don't respond in 24 hours
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Gentlemen, you've just reminded me. Mrs. H and I are visiting London for a weekend in November. We are parking the car at a friend's in Twickenham, and going on to Waterloo by train; hotel is at Tower Hill. Although I shall be in a meeting all day Saturday, Mrs. H wishes to visit London Zoo, and probably do a bit of sightseeing.
Would it be worth obtaining an Oyster card for us both?
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So long as you don't travel together, in which case you would need 2, obviously! You can get a London Travelcard included in your Twickenham to Waterloo ticket if you ask when you buy it
Last edited by: Perky Penguin on Tue 26 Oct 10 at 21:44
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You'd need to check the LT/TfL website to get prices but IIRC there is a guarantee that Oyster will always be cheaper.
And while you're at it consider getting a key each for the hire bikes (aka Boris Bikes). Great for sightseeing. Apart from the prospect of utterly traffic free rides in the Royal Parks most of London away from the main thoroughfares like Oxford Street is dead quiet on Sunday. The City particularly lends itself to this sort of exploration.
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"....visiting London for a weekend in November...."
Harleyman - make sure you take a look at the Tfl website before the weekend. If things follow the usual pattern you'll find the Jubilee Line is not running at all together with a host of other inconveniences screwing up London's transport.
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Cheers for the answers gentlemen; think we'll take a raincheck on the Boris bikes though.
DE, many thanks for the heads-up on the potential closures. It's actually the same weekend as Remembrance Sunday (great bit of planning.... not) and IIRC it's the Lord Mayor's do on the Saturday as well. Should make for an interesting weekend; the Met don't know it yet but the presidents of virtually every Harley-Davidson club in Europe will be in town as it's our annual conference.
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TFL Oyster card top-up - Statistical Outlier
