People having to queue in Piccadilly, central London
(Picture: PA)The minimum automatic top-up on Oyster cards has been halved to £10 to help ease the cost of living crisis.
Problems had emerged after Transport for London raised the threshold at which more money is automatically loaded onto the cards from £10 to £20 in 2019.
This was done by TfL primarily to ensure passengers had enough credit to complete longer journeys that were becoming available using Oyster.
But it meant passengers could have almost £40 at times stored on their card.
The concern was, with the number of journeys reduced during the pandemic and many households struggling to make ends meet, the minimum “upload” of an additional £20 was too much for many people to afford.
This could have been triggered simply by using an Oyster card to pay for a bus fare – meaning the £1.65 cost of travel would result in £20 being taken from a passenger’s bank account.
The issue prompted TfL commissioner Andy Byford to advise passengers who wanted to avoid the top-up to use a Contactless bank card instead.
TfL confirmed the change would start on Wednesday – with Oyster card holders now able to decide whether the automatic top-up should be £10, £20 or £40.
The change had been due to happen in January 2022 but was delayed as TfL sought to tackle problems caused by the need for successive Government bailouts.
Mike Tuckett, head of customer payments at TfL, said: "As part of our continuing work to make paying for public transport as easy and convenient as possible, from March 30 customers will be able to set a £10 Auto Top-up option on their Oyster card.
“This will then automatically add £10 pay as you go credit to their card whenever the balance falls below a threshold of £20."
Emma Gibson, chief executive of London TravelWatch, said: “We’re delighted that TfL have brought in the change to the Oyster auto top up amount that we asked for.
“People struggling with their living costs will appreciate not having to top up by £20 anymore, especially people who don’t use their oyster card much.”
Bus and Tube fares increased earlier this month by an average of 4.8 per cent, meaning passengers will pay about an extra £151m to travel on TfL services this year.
