You might not know this, but if you don’t check in or check out your Oyster card at the Tube station – or if the yellow reader is not working – you might be charged the full single fare for the journey, which is £7.
Figures obtained and published by BBC London (available here as a PDF document) show that at Wanstead and Snaresbrook Underground Stations in 2010, £100,000 was charged to people’s cards by this method. That’s £50,000 at each station which people had deducted from their cards either because they didn’t swipe their cards properly, or because there was a technical fault.
But if that sounds bad, a cursory glance at the figures will show that, in the scheme of things, neither station is anywhere near the worst for this happening. But even so, £100,000. (TfL says people can apply for refunds, but that depends on them being aware of having been charged.)