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Veterans Railcard & LU

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michael74

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Good afternoon. Off to that there London this weekend and again 2 weeks later. I was thinking of getting a PAYG Oyster and adding my Veterans Railcard, but seeing as you now cant get the £5 deposit back (other than in credit which I think has to be used within the 6 months of it being credited back to your account after 12 months), I was wondering if its worth it, as I am unlikely to return for at least 12 months. You go to the City thinking you would be on/off the Tube a lot, but in reality its often quicker just to walk and I am unsure I would reach the cap. Anyone got any thoughts or experience? Thanks in advance.
 
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Wolfie

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Good afternoon. Off to that there London this weekend and again 2 weeks later. I was thinking of getting a PAYG Oyster and adding my Veterans Railcard, but seeing as you now cant get the £5 deposit back (other than in credit which I think has to be used within the 6 months of it being credited back to your account after 12 months), I was wondering if its worth it, as I am unlikely to return for at least 12 months. You go to the City thinking you would be on/off the Tube a lot, but in reality its often quicker just to walk and I am unsure I would reach the cap. Anyone got any thoughts or experience? Thanks in advance.

As l understand it, and there are many posters with far greater expertise than me, the card rather than the whole £5 credit needs to be used within six months of it being credited. Any balance is treated just like any other PAYG balance.

You probably need to look at this too.

 
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michael74

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This is why I think it may not be worth it, I think I would have to hit the cap every day to get to just over a fiver saved and run the risk of loosing the £5 credit in the future, likely less faff just to use my debt card in the normal manner.
 

Hadders

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Where are you travelling from, and have you already purchased tickets to travel to and from London?

Is this a day trip or are you staying overnight?
 

MikeWh

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As l understand it, and there are many posters with far greater expertise than me, the card rather than the whole £5 credit needs to be used within six months of it being credited. Any balance is treated just like any other PAYG balance.
To clarify this. From the anniversary of buying the card it will be in a system where a touch causes a credit to be available at the next touch. Unless there is a single journey on a bus or tram this will mean that the credit will happen when you touch out at the end of the journey. This system operates for six months, but if you don't use the card in that time you can call the helpdesk and they will manually activate the refund for when you next travel. It will not be lost as long as you have the actual card it relates to.
 

michael74

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3 Jul 2014
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Where are you travelling from, and have you already purchased tickets to travel to and from London?

Is this a day trip or are you staying overnight?
Hi Hadders. Already got my tickets (Newton Abbot -Paddington) Fri-Sun, with the exception of 1 trip to Acton (Zone 3) for the LU depot museum on the Friday, most journeys will be Zone 1, and same for a trip again in 2 weeks, but likely not leaving Zone 1 that time. But thinking about it the 1 trip to Zone 3 may make it worthwhile.

To clarify this. From the anniversary of buying the card it will be in a system where a touch causes a credit to be available at the next touch. Unless there is a single journey on a bus or tram this will mean that the credit will happen when you touch out at the end of the journey. This system operates for six months, but if you don't use the card in that time you can call the helpdesk and they will manually activate the refund for when you next travel. It will not be lost as long as you have the actual card it relates to.
Hello, nope sorry, still not getting it lol, its like TFL make it unnecessarily hard to grasp, I did read recently TFL would like to one day get rid of the Oyster but no firm plans to do so.
 

MikeWh

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Hello, nope sorry, still not getting it lol, its like TFL make it unnecessarily hard to grasp, I did read recently TFL would like to one day get rid of the Oyster but no firm plans to do so.
Example scenario.

21/09/21: Buy new Oyster card
21/09/22: From this day you will trigger the automatic refund of the £5 fee if you use it. The refund will occur on the second touch because the first touch is used to activate the process.
21/03/23: From this day the automatic process will no longer work but a call to the helpdesk will make the refund available.

TfL have no plans to get rid of the Oyster card. They want to limit the purchase of cards for one day use and then refund.
 

michael74

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Example scenario.

21/09/21: Buy new Oyster card
21/09/22: From this day you will trigger the automatic refund of the £5 fee if you use it. The refund will occur on the second touch because the first touch is used to activate the process.
21/03/23: From this day the automatic process will no longer work but a call to the helpdesk will make the refund available.

TfL have no plans to get rid of the Oyster card. They want to limit the purchase of cards for one day use and then refund.
I get it now, thanks. I do tend to go to at least once a year in the Autumn, so if I keep the card and register it, and use it 12 months after 1st activation I will get the £5 back as a credit. Now it makes sense lol
 

Hadders

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Hi Hadders. Already got my tickets (Newton Abbot -Paddington) Fri-Sun, with the exception of 1 trip to Acton (Zone 3) for the LU depot museum on the Friday, most journeys will be Zone 1, and same for a trip again in 2 weeks, but likely not leaving Zone 1 that time. But thinking about it the 1 trip to Zone 3 may make it worthwhile.
That’s fine, I did wonder if an out boundary Travelcard would be of any use but that won’t work for you.
 

michael74

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Did my trip and decided to go for adding the railcard to a PAYG Oyster. Brought the card via a machine at the gate line at Paddington Underground, then asked the staff to load my railcard, initially he told me that it wasn't a railcard that could be loaded, he stated that its because it has 2 photos, I repeated that it can be, he then got a rather battered piece of paper with pictures of railcards that can be loaded to prove his point, I suggested that his reference material was out of date, he huffed a bit and said I will get my supervisor who promptly said, yea its a thing we got an email about it....

I don't expect everyone to know everything, but I feel they could do better than that really.... New railcards are not brought out all that often.....
 
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