No brainer to get a new Oyster to recover £5 deposit?

gray1404 · 16 Feb 2020

Like most of us, my current Oyster card has a £5 deposit on it which I will never have the benefit of for as along as a have the card. If I loose that card ever, I loose my £5 deposit.

Would I be better refunding this card at the end of the month and getting a new one. That way, after 12 months the £5 I paid for the card will be turned into credit. Surely this is a no brainier?

Is it possible to get my current Oyster refunded online into a bank account? I need to get my new railcard loaded onto an Oyster card anyway so I might as well I do this at the same time I purchase a new Oyster card at a LU station.

Surely this is a no brainier to do the above, or am I missing something here?

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island · 16 Feb 2020

If you have £10 or less credit on the card and no season ticket, you can get the credit and the deposit refunded in cash from a MFM (the type of London Underground ticket machine which accepts banknotes). This is easier than faffing with online refunds.

sheff1 · 16 Feb 2020

island said:
If you have £10 or less credit on the card and no season ticket, you can get the credit and the deposit refunded in cash from a MFM (the type of London Underground ticket machine which accepts banknotes).

Thanks - that is useful to know. I assume the option is pretty obvious on the screen

AndrewE · 16 Feb 2020

Do these "new" Oysters work with priv entitlements? (so is it worth handing in our existing ones and getting a new card - assuming a priv can be loaded on them?)

MikeWh · 16 Feb 2020

AndrewE said:
Do these "new" Oysters work with priv entitlements? (so is it worth handing in our existing ones and getting a new card - assuming a priv can be loaded on them?)

Functionally there is no difference between the cards, it's just what is recorded on the card under deposit that changes. Not all cards have deposits on them even today as the deposit was only introduced across the board in 2011. And some have £3 only.

Surreytraveller · 16 Feb 2020

And I believe you didn't have to pay a deposit if you originally had a season ticket on the card?

MikeWh · 16 Feb 2020

Surreytraveller said:
And I believe you didn't have to pay a deposit if you originally had a season ticket on the card?

Sorry, that's what I meant by across the board.

Surreytraveller · 16 Feb 2020

MikeWh said:
Sorry, that's what I meant by across the board.

I just remember I bought an annual bus pass when Oystercards were first invented, and having a season meant I didn't pay a deposit, but I think for people using them just for pay as you go, they did have to pay a deposit

pitdiver · 16 Feb 2020

Just to add my twopennoth, I have a Priv Oyster (ie a normal Oyster with priv added to it as I have a TfL issued PTAC). I hasd to pay a deposit for that.

MikeWh · 16 Feb 2020

Just gone back through various sources to clarify. It appears as though the £3 deposit was introduced in 2009 and was not charged if a travelcard or other season was added to the card at purchase. Once purchased it remained deposit free, as did the pre-2009 cards. In 2011 the deposit was increased to £5 and applied across the board.

gray1404 · 16 Feb 2020

I don't seen able to apply for the card refund online. Looks like this will have to be done in person at a TVM on the LU.

MikeWh · 16 Feb 2020

gray1404 said:
I don't seen able to apply for the card refund online. Looks like this will have to be done in person at a TVM on the LU.

There seems to be a problem at the moment. I don't think it's a permanent issue.

gray1404 · 16 Feb 2020

Maybe if I phone the helpline they will be able to sort a card refund to me into a bank account.

Its a pity they don't include an option to "convert card deposit to credit" or just do this by default now.

MikeWh · 16 Feb 2020

gray1404 said:
Maybe if I phone the helpline they will be able to sort a card refund to me into a bank account.

They should be able to. It depends how desperate you are to get the money back? I used the online method last year and there may just be a temporary glitch at the moment.

gray1404 said:
Its a pity they don't include an option to "convert card deposit to credit" or just do this by default now.

I don't know the technical details, but I'd guess that from next Sunday the fee will no longer be recorded as a deposit on the card. Therefore they would need to write a whole new system to do something which over time would become redundant.

AndrewE · 17 Feb 2020

pitdiver said:
Just to add my twopennoth, I have a Priv Oyster (ie a normal Oyster with priv added to it as I have a TfL issued PTAC). I had to pay a deposit for that.

I have a £5 deposit on my card, and another in the family. The question is whether it is worth the hassle of cancelling one and then getting replacements just to get £5 each back? The price of one pint in London, 2 in a provincial Wetherspoons...

island · 17 Feb 2020

Do it the next time you’re passing by an appropriate station with a few minutes to spare.

MikeWh · 17 Feb 2020

gray1404 said:
Maybe if I phone the helpline they will be able to sort a card refund to me into a bank account.

Yes, they definitely can. The online refund has been temporarily suspended as of August last year (just after I did mine). Six months on I'm seeking clarification as to whether it's ever coming back.

[.n] · 17 Feb 2020

I have a few Oyster cards where the deposit amount is recorded as £0.01, I can't recall now how I got those.

gray1404 · 17 Feb 2020

Next time I'm in London I need to load my new railcard onto my Oyster to get my discount and add some credit anyway. So I might as well refund my existing Oyster (which has under £5 credit), buy a new Oyster (maybe add some more credit) and get my railcard discount loaded all in one visit.

AndrewE · 17 Feb 2020

gray1404 said:
Next time I'm in London I need to load my new railcard onto my Oyster to get my discount and add some credit anyway. So I might as well refund my existing Oyster (which has under £5 credit), buy a new Oyster (maybe add some more credit) and get my railcard discount loaded all in one visit.

If anyone needs a priv Oyster they need to fill in the online form https://www.raildeliverygroup.com/files/Publications/services/rst/RST_XX19_TfLPrivOyster.html first though and wait for it to be authorised. It's so long since I got mine the first time that I can't remember the process - even if it is relevant now that there is no deposit, so will be different in some ways.

swt_passenger · 17 Feb 2020

[.n] said:
I have a few Oyster cards where the deposit amount is recorded as £0.01, I can't recall now how I got those.

Wasn’t that what happened when they asked people to update the earlier cards to the new type. The new card was added to a registered account with that balance, and posted out to the customer, who then initiated a transfer of the balance between old and new cards later?

[.n] · 17 Feb 2020

swt_passenger said:
Wasn’t that what happened when they asked people to update the earlier cards to the new type. The new card was added to a registered account with that balance, and posted out to the customer, who then initiated a transfer of the balance between old and new cards later?

Not in my case, these are Oyster cards I have had for years.

DelW · 18 Feb 2020

AndrewE said:
I have a £5 deposit on my card, and another in the family. The question is whether it is worth the hassle of cancelling one and then getting replacements just to get £5 each back? The price of one pint in London, 2 in a provincial Wetherspoons...

[Off Topic comment...] Two pints in a London Wetherspoons too, guest ales £2.39 in suburban north London a couple of days ago. [/OT]

Dstock7080 · 21 Feb 2020

£5 deposit will become a 'charge' from 23 February.
Oyster cards issued before this date can have deposit refunded.
Cards issued after this date with have £5 charge added and be held for 1 year, until it becomes a refundable deposit again.

MikeWh · 21 Feb 2020

Dstock7080 said:
£5 deposit will become a 'charge' from 23 February.
Oyster cards issued before this date can have deposit refunded.
Cards issued after this date with have £5 charge added and be held for 1 year, until it becomes a refundable deposit again.

That's not quite right. From 23rd Feb onwards the £5 fee will be held for a year, then it will be added to the PAYG balance and can be used for travel, or refunded as part of the card being cancelled.

AndrewE · 21 Feb 2020

MikeWh said:
That's not quite right. From 23rd Feb onwards the £5 fee will be held for a year, then it will be added to the PAYG balance and can be used for travel, or refunded as part of the card being cancelled.

That is the perfect outcome as far as I am concerned. Thanks for the info.

IanD · 21 Feb 2020

[.n] said:
I have a few Oyster cards where the deposit amount is recorded as £0.01, I can't recall now how I got those.

I had some Oyster cards with a 1p deposit, I think I got them through the post when there was some sort of offer for deposit-free cards applied for online. I got them upgraded to the latest version and the deposit was added as credit.

I also once got a card deposit-free at Blackhorse Road station. Looking at the journey history, the staff had seemingly added weekly travelcards to them and then refunded them the same day. Seemed a bit dodgy to me but saved me the deposit for an extra card.

paddington · 22 Feb 2020

I will get some new oysters tomorrow so that the fee gets added to PAYG credit ASAP.

As for refunding my old ones, I don't see any hurry to do so. I will be topping them up at NR stations to £10 exactly then refunding them when I pass through a large station, in order to get £15 in notes rather than £15 in coins.

I will keep my railcarded oyster until my current railcard expires then refund it later as I can't be bothered to get the railcard added again.

If you were buying oysters in order to manufacture spending for credit card rewards (which IMO is the primary reason behind this change) it is a no-brainer to buy as many oysters as you can today....

island · 22 Feb 2020

paddington said:
If you were buying oysters in order to manufacture spending for credit card rewards (which IMO is the primary reason behind this change) it is a no-brainer to buy as many oysters as you can today....

I can assure you that manufactured spend is a rounding error in the context of the actual reason for the change, which is to avoid having to recognise millions of pounds as liabilities for Oyster deposit refunds that might one day be reclaimed and to make extra fee income from occasional travellers who buy and refund Oyster cards in a short space of time (or divert them onto contactless).

Cdd89 · 22 Feb 2020

I agree with your points Island, with one observation: if TfL were concerned about open liabilities on their books, why don’t Oyster Card balances expire after some long period of inactivity?

No brainer to get a new Oyster to recover £5 deposit?

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