Oyster could disappear

It's interesting they don't mention what I think would be the most likely option, which is contracting the existing Oyster system to someone else. I wonder it it's been ruled out, or if the article is too keen on talking about the new to mention the boring option.

I'm glad the system is staying, but would be disappointed to have a different name - I like Oyster, and feel it would be called Oyster regardless of whatever new terminology was coined.

It also kind of annoys me the way new contracts mean new names, as that also means a lot of wasted money on rebranding - posters, stickers, letter heads, logo design, web design, the works - which I'm sure could be better used elsewhere. But I'm also a greenyhippy type which means that all the wasted paper also annoys me.

Oister card anyone?

Oysta card?

Guess it would depend on how much it'd cost TfL. May also depends on whether there's an agreement on use of the Oyster brand being exclusively for use connected to the TfL product, or whether the contractors can take away the Oyster brand and maybe apply it to a different use of RFID technology...
(Not keeping the brand in house is a bit of an oversight on TfLs part if you ask me).

Transys is a consortium of some large companies - buying it out would probably be out of the question.

IIRC [Westinghous] Cubic (part of Transys) did most of the UTS installation.

As I understand the (current) bankcard version, the Oyster 'part' is separate from the bankcard 'part' - the only thing is that they're housed in the same card. The main advantages are that it's one less card to carry round, and when you need to top up your Oyster you should always have a method of payment on you by default in theory. Although you could set up the auto top up function to link them more closely. ;)

... and the latter is the bit that worries me. Wouldn't it be difficult to get every bank "on-side" and get every card re-issued, for something that very few people would use?

BarclayOneCard which is your Oystercard and a Credit card plus wave and pay ONLY allows Oyster to access your Oyster side of things, Oyster has NO access what soever to your banking side at ALL!! the only way they could access, would if you was to set up Auto Top up (ATU) facility which is already around, there is no way that Oyster can access any other features, the sameway barclays CANNOT access your Oyster details, all they can do on initial setup of your card is to enable to the ATU facility!

Having worked for Oyster and been part of the onepulse trial I think its a great scheme, aslong as the customers understand it, we had some customers who Oyster card had stopped working on their wave and pay card sending in the ACTIVE card (sure the wave and pay doesnt work, but the credit facility still did) so aslong as customers realise that its 2 companies using 1 card for 2 seperate things then it will continue to work great!

Going back to Transys, they own the software for the logging on the data received from the ticket barriers back to the central system at Oyster, I believe it would be out of the question for TfL to be able to buy them out as even for a simple licence expansion for their system for 1 user they charge £2,000+

My concern was at cetacean's post - re: the card automatically deducting from your bank account. I'm far more in control if I have to personally go and put money on it.
Similarly if I chose to do so, I could let the gas board take its money out my bank account every month. Fair enough they'd still send me a letter telling me how much they were going to take out, but what happens when they over-estimate my bill and they take out far too much?

Re: cards, fair enough, I suppose it depends how much the idea spreads. I'd be skeptical before consigning cash and cheques to the bin, though. The only time I will pay for something of low value (say a newspaper or choccy bar) with a card is if the cashier refuses to take cash.

The swipe to pay thing is currently only being trialled for small amounts, as far as I'm aware - under £10, I think? This is partly because it requires no method of verification, obviously. I doubt the amount with ever increase significantly until verification can be enacted in some way. Whilst it probably won't ever replace cash completely, another interpretation is that it's better to *only* pay your 50p or whatever for your newspaper direct off your card rather than have to take out a £10 from the cash machine, for example.

Personally I run direct debits for almost everything (and a standing order for the rent) because I know I have a bad habit of losing track of time and not managing to get things sent off in time. So far I've not had any problems of being overcharged, and nor do I get in trouble for non-payment.

I think this post might be rather incoherent, so I'm going to bed.

Barlcays!

Their basic hole in the wall card only allows you to withdraw money from a Barclays cash machine - no link, no visa debit, no nowt! It was a direct change from the Woolwich Visa Debit card.

;D

You can of course now point out that, as the government is taking a 60% share in RBS, a pound note is actually one of the most trustworthy and reliably backed sources of payment! (Assuming it was an RBS note, not one of the very rare BOS issues)

If I ever have any problems with Scottish notes I point out the word 'Sterling' which (with one exception) has always worked. Never had any problems at London Underground stations with them anyway, assume they're used to Scotsmen arriving with nothing else.

Very helpful, especially considering the number of trains that arrive there from Scotland

I haven't seen a £1 note in years. Tesco should take any Scottish note but in my experience it depends on the cashier you end up with, some know what they're doing in this regard and others haven't a clue.

Hang on:
"In August, TfL gave notice to terminate the current contract with the TranSys consortium, which will end in 2010 when the new arrangement with Cubic Transportation Systems Limited and EDS takes over."

But:

So they've ditched TranSys in favour of a deal with the two of the four members of Transys?