Railcards and oyster cards on overground

[justin1985]

Hello
I was passing through Finchley road and Frognal station yesterday and noticed a flyer on the window which said 'we'll save you money'. It had pictures of some railcards (including one for the army) and an Oyster cards. I spoke to the ticket office guy and he said that if you have any of these railcards then he can set a discount so that you can save money when using Oyster.

I have a 16-25 railcard and my Oyster so I just handed both to him and he did it within a minute.

I asked him if this was something new, as no one had ever mentioned this before, and I've had a railcard since I was a student and I've used oyster for more than two years now. But he said it wasn't anything new but it just wasn't advertised very well.

He said that the Overground manager had organised the flyers for ticket offices and all staff had been told to tell people about this discount whenever they buy a railcard or a new Oyster card.

I forgot to take a picture of the flyer but if I hadn't have seen it I wouldn't have known.

What does everyone else think, there must be lots of people who don't know. I'm not going back to Finchley road and Frognal so maybe someone could take a picture of this flyer so that people can look out for it?
Justin

 

[yorkie]

What does everyone else think, there must be lots of people who don't know. ...

Many people do not know how to save money on rail fares. A good way to educate them might be to recommend our Fares & Ticketing Guide?

We mention this in both the Discounted Fares section...

...
For travel within the London zonal area, you can use some types of Railcards to obtain discounts on off-peak Oyster Pay-As-You-Go fares and off-peak daily caps. The discount entitlement must be loaded manually onto your Oyster card. A detailed set of instructions for ticket office staff who are unfamiliar with this transaction is provided here.

...and also the smart cards section

2.1.5 Railcards and Discounts

Holders of certain National Rail railcards can have their entitlement registered on their Oyster card. This then gives them 1/3 off the price of single off-peak Underground, National Rail and DLR fares and the off-peak price cap. ....

 

[CallySleeper]

Using an external source, I don't have the publicity to hand but certainly on the website it's quite clearly publicised in sections such as 'When can I use my railcard" and FAQ:

With an Oyster card, you can get your Railcard discount loaded onto your Oyster card to save 1/3 on single off-peak pay as you go fares on London Underground and Docklands Light Railway services in London. You will need to have registered your Oyster in your name to do this. Simply take your Oyster card and valid Railcard to a London Underground station ticket office.

 

[dzug2]

It's certainly been possible for over 3 years - I've just renewed a 3 year railcard and had my Oyster updated with the new expiry date.

 

[bicbasher]

I didn't think railcards could be added to Oyster at LOROL stations? This has certainly been the case at my local station.

 

[Be3G]

It's supposed to be possible to add railcards to Oysters at many different locations (LU stations, NR/LOROL stations that do Oyster at the ticket window, travel information centres, even newsagents) but the only ones that seem to know how to do it reliably are LU.

 

[CyrusWuff]

Any station that can sell Oyster at the ticket office and has FasTIS as their primary TIS (Marylebone, Northolt Park and most LO stations being the main ones) can set discounts on Oyster cards. Whether the clerks know how to do so is a different matter though!

 

[justin1985]

Thanks everyone. The ticket guy at Finchley road and frognal did it in a few seconds. I just had to show him my oyster and railcard and he did it straight away. I can't be the only one who had no idea about this though. It was only because I saw the flyer in the window. Justin

 

[bb21]

TfL used to publish annual fares booklets and it was mentioned in there when this first came into effect (around 2006 I think with the discount on off-peak cap and off-peak singles a year later), but apart from that, it was indeed well hidden.

Publicity for this discount has got much better now but still not perfect.

 

[Skimpot flyer]

TfL used to publish annual fares booklets and it was mentioned in there when this first came into effect (around 2006 I think with the discount on off-peak cap and off-peak singles a year later), but apart from that, it was indeed well hidden.

Publicity for this discount has got much better now but still not perfect.

I had no idea about this, and I consider myself fairly streetwise! Mind you, although I hold an Oyster card, I seldom use it, as a One-Day Travelcard usually suffices if I'm visiting friends. If were just making a return trip to a specific place, I always assumed it was pointless to get a stopping train from Hatfield to, say, New Barnet, then use Oyster from there, because the saving (if any) would be small, and the journey slower. However, this news might well make the equation more favourable. Except of course at weekends, when the Super Off Peak Travel card is very cheap...

 

[island]

It's supposed to be possible to add railcards to Oysters at many different locations (LU stations, NR/LOROL stations that do Oyster at the ticket window, travel information centres, even newsagents) but the only ones that seem to know how to do it reliably are LU.

...which won't have any ticket offices in the not too distant future.

 

[yorkie]

...which won't have any ticket offices in the not too distant future.

Presumably the functionality will be added to the machines, with staff having to approve the transaction.

On the plus side it could put a stop to people being incorrectly told it wasn't possible!

 

[bb21]

I had no idea about this, and I consider myself fairly streetwise! Mind you, although I hold an Oyster card, I seldom use it, as a One-Day Travelcard usually suffices if I'm visiting friends. If were just making a return trip to a specific place, I always assumed it was pointless to get a stopping train from Hatfield to, say, New Barnet, then use Oyster from there, because the saving (if any) would be small, and the journey slower. However, this news might well make the equation more favourable. Except of course at weekends, when the Super Off Peak Travel card is very cheap...

It seems that my memory is failing me. Having looked at relevant publicity again, it would appear that discounted caps started at the beginning of 2008, and discounted single fares followed two years later, the same time when PAYG was rolled out across National Rail in the zones.

This is the leaflet from 2008 advertising this fact. Despite occupying almost one whole page, this information was difficult to spot, as each section was colour-coded, and this was buried amongst the TfL fare tables. Most people would just skip over it.

By 2009 this was relegated to less than half a page.

The booklet was discontinued in 2010, however the information was available from other sources, such as this,

and this,

but you do need to look carefully and know where to look. Most people would not be aware as they would not think to read these booklets, which were widely available from TfL information points.

TfL never really advertised these discounts prominently in the early days.

 

[TonyR]

On a related topic has anyone put the same railcard on two or more Oysters? I have one Oyster for work and one for personal but when I took them both to the LU ticket office at Waterloo they did one but said they couldn't do the second as it wasn't registered. The two both appear on the drop-down menu when I log into my TfL Oyster account but he said that didn't count. Is there something else I need to do or is it not possible?

 

[dzug2]

Possibly a second Oyster account using a variant of your name and a different e-mail address??

 

[Be3G]

On a related topic has anyone put the same railcard on two or more Oysters? I have one Oyster for work and one for personal but when I took them both to the LU ticket office at Waterloo they did one but said they couldn't do the second as it wasn't registered. The two both appear on the drop-down menu when I log into my TfL Oyster account but he said that didn't count. Is there something else I need to do or is it not possible?

Sounds like the second Oyster is protected, not registered. You'll need to follow the procedure given here:

If you've protected your card online (by adding it to your online account), you'll still need to register it at a Tube station to buy Travelcards or Bus & Tram Passes valid for longer than a month.

Simply sign in to your Oyster online account, choose the Oyster card you wish to register (if you have more than one card) and then click on 'Card overview'. Here you will find an option to print out a PDF form as proof of ownership. Print out the registration request form and take it to any Tube station ticket office and a member of staff will register your Oyster card.

Having said that, I do not know if there's anything else preventing the application of a single railcard to multiple Oysters. It's something I've sometimes wondered about; it feels like it shouldn't be possible, but I've never actually seen anything that says it isn't.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

It seems that my memory is failing me. Having looked at relevant publicity again, it would appear that discounted caps started at the beginning of 2008, and discounted single fares followed two years later, the same time when PAYG was rolled out across National Rail in the zones.

This is the leaflet from 2008 advertising this fact. Despite occupying almost one whole page, this information was difficult to spot, as each section was colour-coded, and this was buried amongst the TfL fare tables. Most people would just skip over it.

I miss those fares & tickets booklets. It was studying 2008's booklet that led me to going on a long bus journey to Southgate station merely a few days in to January to go and get the railcard discount applied! Getting off-peak travel in zones 1–4 (plus, of course, buses throughout the other zones) for a mere £3.50 was brilliant.

 

[IanD]

Just be careful if you have some other discount entitlement on your Oyster card. Twice when adding my daughter's railcard to her Oyster card the incompetent clerks at Blackhorse Road managed to wipe out her entitlement to free bus travel by putting the railcard discount in the same 'box'. The second time we had printed out the instruction provided by MikeWH on this forum and they still managed to cock it up, despite repeated assurances that they'd checked and double checked and had done it correctly.

Didn't notice for a while and she ended up paying a lot of bus fares. If the balance was displayed when boarding a bus she would have noticed sooner as she was at that time using the bus every day and only occasionally used the tube. We eventually managed to get TFL to refund the charges but both times it took a long time and a lot of phone calls.

 

[Be3G]

The balance is displayed when boarding a bus! Granted, those screens can be very difficult to see if the light's at the wrong angle, but the Oyster balance is definitely shown.

 

[TonyR]

Sounds like the second Oyster is protected, not registered. You'll need to follow the procedure given here:

Thanks - will give it a try.

Having said that, I do not know if there's anything else preventing the application of a single railcard to multiple Oysters. It's something I've sometimes wondered about; it feels like it shouldn't be possible, but I've never actually seen anything that says it isn't.

Don't see why it shouldn't. Oyster is just a method of payment and the railcard discount is person specific not payment method.

 

[Mojo]

It will go through on the computer, but there is occasional monitoring of the data to check if the same Railcard is used on different cards suspiciously.

 

[island]

On a related topic has anyone put the same railcard on two or more Oysters? I have one Oyster for work and one for personal but when I took them both to the LU ticket office at Waterloo they did one but said they couldn't do the second as it wasn't registered. The two both appear on the drop-down menu when I log into my TfL Oyster account but he said that didn't count. Is there something else I need to do or is it not possible?

Just do them one at a time at different stations.

The balance is displayed when boarding a bus! Granted, those screens can be very difficult to see if the light's at the wrong angle, but the Oyster balance is definitely shown.

It's only displayed if you are using credit though.

 

[IanD]

The balance is displayed when boarding a bus! Granted, those screens can be very difficult to see if the light's at the wrong angle, but the Oyster balance is definitely shown.

It's only displayed if you are using credit though.

She was using credit so she probably wasn't paying attention! She only noticed the first time when they blocked her Oyster due to having no credit. Her mother then added auto top up (which I wouldn't personally use) so noticed that two payments had been taken in a very short time when after renewed railcard was added.

 

[bicbasher]

I remember adding a new Bus & Tram discount photocard to my Oyster at Leicester Square that despite the card being registered, it didn't contain my home address details despite registering the card at Victoria London Travel Infromation Centre. A quick phone call resolved the situation where I had to give my address to the clerk without filling in a form or showing ID.

 

[Be3G]

Sounds similar to a situation I once found myself in when trying to add a railcard to an Oyster. It seems there're still some kinks in the system, years after the facility was introduced.

 

[TonyR]

Sounds like the second Oyster is protected, not registered. You'll need to follow the procedure given here:

Thanks - will give it a try.

Well I gave it a try. Printed out the form as it said, took it to a TfL window with my Oyster Card. Clerk took one look at it and said "I don't know what you're giving me this for. I can't do anything with it. You'll need to fill in one of these forms and bring it back."

So who needs retraining - the TfL website developers or the TfL ticket desk staff?

 

[JaJaWa]

TfL have just put out a video showing that you can now load a Railcard onto an Oyster card yourself at their ticket machines: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_N2MeBna0DY. You can also now refund your Oyster card on them too. Not sure how new these features are but I wasn't aware of them.

 

[telstarbox]

The interface on the machines has changed recently.

 

[jon0844]

All of these extra features are clearly in preparation for when the offices close.

 

[button_boxer]

TfL have just put out a video showing that you can now load a Railcard onto an Oyster card yourself at their ticket machines: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_N2MeBna0DY. You can also now refund your Oyster card on them too. Not sure how new these features are but I wasn't aware of them.

The wording on the video is that "you can get the railcard discount set on your Oyster card at a ticket machine" as opposed to "you can set the discount..." (my emphasis in both cases). I can't imagine this procedure would ever be allowed to be completely self service, at least not until the machine is able to read the discount type and expiry date directly off the railcard somehow. Allowing punters to add a railcard discount with no check that they actually hold the railcard is inviting abuse of the system.

 

[MarlowDonkey]

Allowing punters to add a railcard discount with no check that they actually hold the railcard is inviting abuse of the system.

It is however the way the system works at the moment with paper tickets. While a ticket clerk might ask to see a Railcard, no evidence of possession is needed to buy online or at a machine.