Refunds at ticket machines - redundant Oyster Cards

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/fares-and-payments/replacements-and-refunds/refunds-at-ticket-machines?intcmp=26352

If like me you use contactless (ie a bank or credit card) rather than Oyster PAYG, you should be able to redeem your unwanted Oyster Card's deposit and unused PAYG balance at an LU ticket machine.

I tried it on Barking's non LU ticket machines but wasn't offered the option. Not really a surprise, but still a disappointment.

Gold Card Discount on Oyster PAYG

If you have an annual season ticket you will get a Gold Card that gives you a substantial discount on National Rail Fares. However, if you travel outside your season ticket's zones on Oyster PAYG, you won't get the Gold Card discount unless your Goldcard is linked to your Oyster Card. Apparently this is not automatically done when you buy the season ticket (at least at a station) and I have been told that some station staff have had to be pressed to do it - they don't always know about it and don't always check the written instructions

This situation arises where your employer is paying for your season ticket (perhaps a loan) by cheque. I imagine that if you buy on line the linking work is done in the back office.

The Gold Card Partner Card is essentially a Network Rail Card. http://www.railcard.co.uk/network is clear that the NRC does not give a discount on Oyster PAYG.

At last a unified London Connection Map

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/passenger_services/maps/London_Rail_Tube_map.pdf

The National Rail website "London's Rail & Tube services map (which replaces the former London Connections map) shows all National Rail routes and stations within the Greater London area, together with London Underground, Docklands Light Railway and London Tramlink services and stations.
The map highlights principal interchange points and London Fares / Travelcard zones. It also shows the extent to which Oyster pay as you go is valid.
Leaflet copies of this map (with the London & South East map below on the reverse) are normally available from staffed National Rail stations in London and the South East and should now also be available from most London Underground stations."

Should say "replaces the former London Connections Maps" as for many years TfL (and its antecedents) puboished a map under this title. It was fairly recently displace by a  map showing where Oyste PAYG could be used. Nevertheless, I welcome at long last one map (not two rivl versions) showing all London's Railways, along with the zones.

"Should now be available from most London Underground stations" is rather tentative, but the old ATOC map (and antecedents) never was. Is there reluctant acceptance that public  transport is about where people want to go, and not about who runs which railway?

Bank cards insttead of Oyster Cards. Oyster outside London

"TfL an train companies are also to work to complet plans to extend Oyster PAYG outside London, and to evaluate the extension to National Rail services of payment using contactless bank  cards, for introduction in 2012. TfL has confirmed that, by the end of 2012, card readers across its whole network will have been upgraded so that a contactless bank card can be used  ... for PAYG travel." [Modern Railways April 2011]

Goodbye Oyster Extension Permits

"From 22 May, passengers using a London Oyster Travelcard who want to travel outside their travelcard zones will no longer be required to load an Oyster Extension Permit onto the Oyster Card. The permits were intended to indicate an intention to to extend travel using Oyster pay as you go (PAYG) credit. Although free of charge, the permits ... caused widespread confusion." [Modern Railways, April 2011]

Gold card discounts now apply to Underground only Oyster PAYG, and Gold Cards go electronic

According to fares supremo Barry Doe (widely respected, but still a secondary source) annual season ticket holders whose ticket is valid for a station n the London and South East network area can have their Gold Card (which is included in the annual's price) coded onto their Oyster card, so avoiding the inconvenience of carrying round a piece of cardboard and remembering to claim the discount for the Gold Card.

Additionally, the discount of 34% is now extended to Underground only Oyster PAYG fares (similar ts and cs doubtlessly apply). The cheapest annual season ticket used to be Ryde St Johns Road to Ryde Esplanade on the Isle of Wight. It is currently £140 pa and might not take that long to pay for itself.