Originally Posted by
rcspeirs
Oyster refund. You are correct that - at the moment - you can get the deposit back. It has leaked (in specialist media) that tfl intend to remove that feature during 2020.
You will still be able to get the deposit back, but you will have to wait for a year after buying the card. The deposit will be added to the card as PAYG credit, so if you hold on to the card for a year effectively there will be no deposit.
I am not sure how this works for TfL as if you play the long game and take sufficiently expensive journeys with the minimum starting balance, resulting in a negative balance you can throw the card away - which was the entire rationale for introducing a deposit in the first place.
The reason they want you to now wait a year is probably partly to do with the people buying Oysters en masse using credit cards and refunding as cash to generate Amex or other CC reward points, without ever using the oysters. The problem is partly TfL's fault because instead of collecting refunded oysters to be reissued, they just permanently deactivate the cards creating a lot of plastic waste.
The only comparable system to my knowledge is Brisbane's, but they avoid the manufactured spend issue as cards can only be refunded in cash if they were purchased with cash.