4 ms·

I don’t know how many people know this, but the balances on Oyster cards are refundable[0], so it is possible that they would indeed need to pay it out. [0] ht

• OJFord 5y ago
  And the cards themselves are worth a £5 deposit. (Clever IMO - ever seen one littered?)
  • ldjb 5y ago
    Sort of. Before February 2020, most (but not all) Oyster cards had a £5 deposit. However, Oyster cards issued since then do not have a deposit (there is instead a £5 fee for the card). For older Oyster cards that have a deposit, you can still reclaim that £5.
    • OJFord 5y ago
      Oh interesting, thanks for the correction. Will be interesting to see if I start to notice them when I (and people who might drop them) are out more. The fee/deposit payment is part of it (prevention, it not seeming a disposable item) but with a deposit (there's no good way to say this..) there's also the incentive for the homeless or otherwise desperate to clear them up, since there's some guaranteed value. (Which could be a bit less than £5 due to negative get-me-home-at-night balance, but I don't think it's allowed to go as far as -£5, so a card with a deposit on it is always an asset.)
• chiph 5y ago
  Even so, the proportion of refunds paid because someone requested one, vs. the number of cards that were lost/destroyed in the laundry/fell through the cracks means that they could keep some fractional amount on hand for those potential payments, and transfer the rest as "found money" to an operating account.