At the beginning of the lockdown the government relaxed the rules about refunding season tickets. This meant that you could backdate your claim back to the last day you used the ticket and that the admin fee would be waived.
TfL are following these rules for refunds of travelcards stored on Oyster cards, but the process used for the refund initially follows the normal rules. This means that you’ll get back the refund due on the day of the claim, less the admin fee. As a separate process the applications are looked at again and a further refund of the days between last use and your claim, plus the admin fee, will be processed. At the moment this is taking around 2 weeks.
If you’ve been waiting longer than that then you can call the Oyster helpline. Call volumes have subsided significantly now the majority of queries have been answered so it is possible to get through.
I have applied for a refund and tfl have obliged however they have not done so correctly. Yes I have been refunded in 2 parts but I am down over £100 as apparently the last 6 weeks of an annual travel card is ‘free’ travel and so not included in the calculation. I have lost the ‘benefit’ of paying in advance for an annual card!!! This is unfair nowhere can I see that the ‘last 6 weeks of travel are free’ Of course there should be a benefit of me paying a huge sum in advance of travelling – refunds should be based on the annual fee paid!! I welcome your comments
Hi Georgia,
I can understand your frustration, and I wish they wouldn’t use the over simplified explanation that the last 6 weeks are free. What they’re actually taking into account is that over the course of a year you will take a certain amount of holiday when you won’t use the ticket. Of course the further through the year you are the more likely you will have ‘used’ the holiday, so the switch to the relevant monthly rate ticket makes less sense. Sadly I don’t think there is anything that can/will be done. The refund policy is clearly laid out on the website, although the removal of the admin fee due to the current crisis has been added into the page for now.
As a side note, the majority of annual tickets are purchased between Christmas and New Year to take advantage of the old pricing before the annual increase on Jan 2nd. Most of those people won’t actually have lost out too much, especially given the relaxation that said that the refund could be backdated to the start of lockdown. I think the outcry would have been much bigger, and probably dealt with, had the lockdown started in October.
It’s the same with GA. They say the last 2 months of your annual season ticket are free. But if that was the case then why will they still pay out delay repay in those last 2 months? If it’s free they should have no need to refund ticket prices as you apparently haven’t paid for that journey and they refund on the basis of what you paid for your ticket (ie annual season ticket holders get a couple of £ and on the day ticket buyers can get the whole cost of their return ticket for a long delay.).
They all just need to be honest really and not be rude.