Thanks, Jonathan. I’ll give it a test, say with an off-peak day travelcard, the next time I need one after I’ve got the smartcard. It’ll be worth £9.50 to see if/how it works.
As well as it being a surprise that only one TOC seems to offer this, I’m also surprised that TfL’s gatelines accept other companies’ smartcards. TfL only advertises Oyster and contactless, but I guess that’s to be expected.
I’ll post the results on here.