Oyster Card Auto-top-up Nonsense

I don't travel on the London Underground much these days. When I did though, I had an Oyster Card which was very handy.

Last week I did happen to go into London and needed to use the Tube. I fished out my Oyster before I went and checked to see that it had some credit on it. It did, about £11. I also noticed that it still had Auto-Top-Up enabled...

Aha, I thought. If I use the Oyster then it will try and add on £20 from my (old) credit card when my balance goes under £10. Even though I knew they couldn't charge me, because the card expired over 2 years ago, out of politeness and not wanting any hassle, I cancelled the Auto-Top-Up before I left home.

Sorted, you might think.

Oh no. I used the Oyster and everything seemed to work fine. But the next day I got a rather threateningly worded email saying that my Auto-Top-Up payment had failed and I must pay the money or my card would be cancelled.

I checked my account online. There was the cancellation, at 2pm, and there was the attempt to top-up, at 10pm.

I phoned TfL to point out their mistake...

Sorted, you might think.

Oh no. Apparently it was my mistake. Even though I had cancelled the Auto-Top-Up, the barriers take 24 hours to be aware of this... so they were right to charge me a top-up.

OK. Fine. That sounds dumb, I said politely, so just cancel the top-up and we can get on with our lives. Sorry, says the operative, the money is on your card now... so you have to pay us the £20 before we can remove it.

Huh? I have to pay them £20 so they can give me it back?

Sometimes, on the phone, you find yourself so dumbfounded by someone quoting ridiculous policies that you just have to accept defeat and give up.

So what happens now? I don't need my Oyster any more, as there are cheaper alternatives, so they can cancel it. I would cancel the card myself but you can't do that online, you have to phone (which I can't bear to try again) or do it by post.

Let me check... this is the 21st century isn't it?