Oyster Topup Query

[willas00]

Hi All,

My Oyster has a negative balance of £3 something at present due to a max charge.

Oyster are refunding the charge for me which I get back tomorrow when I use the underground,

He told me I need to clear the balance before I can travel as my Oyster won't let me in the barriers.

I know online and at the ticket office it's a min topup of £5 but is that the same at the Oyster machines? As in can I top up the £3 something to clear it back to £0? He said if I clear it to £0 I can use it then I'll get my refund.

Thanks in advance

 

[Mike395]

Yes you can, by coins only (topups by card are in multiples of £5)

 

[willas00]

Yes you can, by coins only (topups by card are in multiples of £5)

Ok cheers, Thought it was coins but wasnt 100% sure will make sure I take enough coinage to London tomorrow then

 

[MikeWh]

I had this before when auto top up failed and my card went negative. I was also told I'd need to top up manually before travelling, but I decided to try it anyway and it added the auto top up then let me in fine. Where the system is working properly it will first check to see if any refunds are due, then if the balance is below £8 it will apply an auto top up (if enabled of course), then it will decide whether you have a balance and open the gate. If you read this before tomorrow I'd be interested to know if it works for you too.

Also, a related unpublished feature is that it checks refunds at both touch in AND touch out. Auto top up will only ever work on touch in, but refunds can be either.

 

[JKJimar53]

You can top up less than £5 at a ticket office, if its to clear a negative balance. However when I tried to get a £3 balance cleared the person said he could not do under £5 this is completely not true.

I had to refuse to leave the ticket office queue for ten minutes but it got done and he should be more familiar with the rules on minimum top up.

 

[transmanche]

I had to refuse to leave the ticket office queue for ten minutes but it got done and he should be more familiar with the rules on minimum top up.

Wouldn't it have been easier (and caused far less inconvenience to other passengers) to just stump up a fiver?

 

[JKJimar53]

I didnt have that much in my account. Secondly he should know that less than 5 pound is ok to clear a negative balance, and most of the time was spent with him clicking on the ticket machine. Also with the negative balance I couldnt of travelled anywhere anyway.

 

[RJ]

Wouldn't it have been easier (and caused far less inconvenience to other passengers) to just stump up a fiver?

I don't agree. I can legitimately refuse to top up less than £5, but there are machines a stones throw away which allow top up of any amount, with cash or card payment. AFAIK at Tube POMs, you can't top up less than £5 with a card which creates problems. I had this problem at King's Cross the other day where a friend from Leeds only needed £1.60 for a bus cap and only had a card to pay with. After some discussion, this was eventually done.

 

[Surreytraveller]

Wouldn't it have been easier (and caused far less inconvenience to other passengers) to just stump up a fiver?

Wouldn't it have been easier (and caused far less inconvenience to other passengers) to just top up the customer's Oystercard?

 

[Mike395]

I don't agree. I can legitimately refuse to top up less than £5, but there are machines a stones throw away which allow top up of any amount, with cash or card payment. AFAIK at Tube POMs, you can't top up less than £5 with a card which creates problems. I had this problem at King's Cross the other day where a friend from Leeds only needed £1.60 for a bus cap and only had a card to pay with. After some discussion, this was eventually done.

Common sense prevailed there then

(Just for future reference - as I've just found out - if you go to a NR station and topup your oyster on one of their TVMs, you can top up any amount you like using cash or card, and the machine gives change! Still no such machines at Waterloo but I think there's at least one at every other mainline terminus that will allow you to top up Oyster)