There's a quarter of a billion pounds sitting on dead Oyster cards

Somewhere in your house there is a blue card with £3.08 on it.

That is the average balance left on an Oyster card that nobody has touched for a year. Transport for London counted 84,597,225 of them in September 2023, and the money on them added up to £261 million. By June 2026 the pile had grown to more than 95 million cards and about £292 million of credit, before you even count the old £5 deposits.

The money is still yours, and TfL will hand it back whenever you ask. Hardly anyone asks, because it is £3. After two years of silence TfL moves the balance into its reserves and spends it on the network, with a promise to refund you if you ever turn up.

How 95 million cards ended up in drawers

When Boris Johnson became Mayor in May 2008, the credit sitting on unused Oyster cards came to £4.25 million. By 2014 it was £55 million across 17 million cards. By September 2023 it was £261 million across nearly 85 million cards, and by June 2026 about £292 million.

Two things happened in between. The first was contactless. From 2014 you could tap a bank card at the gate and get the same fare, so millions of Londoners simply stopped topping up. The card went in a drawer with whatever was left on it.

The second was tourists. Every visitor who bought a card for a long weekend, took four Tube rides and flew home left a small balance behind. TfL says many of the dormant cards belong to occasional visitors who make a handful of journeys each time they come. Multiply a few pounds by tens of millions of visits and you reach a quarter of a billion.

Why nobody claims £3.08

The refund rules are not unreasonable. They are just slightly more effort than £3 is worth.

If your card has £10 or less on it, you can touch it on a ticket machine, select refund and take the cash. The catch is that you have to be standing at a London Underground ticket machine, which is exactly where most of these cards will never be again. If the balance is more than £10, the machine won't do it. You need to register the card online, or phone TfL, and the card is cancelled when the refund goes through.

So the maths runs against you. A trip to a station, or ten minutes on a website, to recover the price of a coffee. Most people decide, correctly, that their time is worth more than that. The money stays where it is.

The balances tell you how long this has been going on. Of the £261 million counted in 2023, £237 million sat on cards unused for three years or more, £180 million for five years or more, and £57 million on cards last touched more than a decade ago.

What TfL does with it

TfL does not let the money sit idle. Its rule is that any balance unused for two years is transferred into reserves and reinvested in the transport network. The organisation says the money remains ringfenced and that every refund request is honoured, however old the card.

The Mayor's position, when the 2023 figures came out, was that every penny was already being used sensibly, and that the idea of hundreds of millions lying around was wrong. That is true as far as it goes. The money is not lying around. It has been spent on the network, with a promise to pay you back if you ever ask.

Caroline Pidgeon, the Liberal Democrat Assembly Member who has chased these figures for over a decade, has proposed going further: any balance untouched for five years would be forfeited to TfL outright. Her reasoning is that if nobody has asked for the money in five years, nobody ever will.

That is probably true. It is also a useful reminder of what a stored balance actually is. A number on an Oyster card is a promise from TfL to carry you. A number in a bank account is a promise from the bank to pay you. The holder of the promise sets the rules about what happens when you stop asking, and those rules can change. Pidgeon's proposal would turn £180 million of other people's money into TfL's with a vote.

How to get your money back

If you have an old card, the quickest route depends on the balance.

• £10 or less: touch the card on the yellow reader of any Tube station ticket machine, select Oyster refund, and the machine pays out in cash. The card is cancelled.

• More than £10: sign in or register at the TfL contactless and Oyster site, add the card, and apply for a refund to your bank account. You can also phone 0343 222 1234.

• Deposits: cards bought before 23 February 2020 carried a refundable £5 deposit, which comes back with the credit. Cards bought on or after 4 September 2022 carried a non-refundable fee instead, so only the credit is returnable.

One former MoneySavingExpert staffer who had collected a stack of cards over eight years in London reclaimed £67.85 in five minutes. Most people will get less. The point is that it takes five minutes, not that it makes you rich.

Bitcoin has 85 million Oyster cards too

Bitcoin has the same pile, and the numbers are almost identical. A Bitcoin splits into 100 million pieces, the way a pound splits into pence, and your wallet holds those pieces in chunks, like coins in a purse. The catch is the fee. Bitcoin charges to move money based on how much data the payment takes up, not how much it is worth, so a chunk worth 24p can cost more than 24p to spend. When that happens nobody bothers. Bitcoin people call it dust.

Researchers at mempool.space counted it in April 2025. Of the 173 million chunks on the network, 85 million were worth less than 50p each, and together they held 419 Bitcoin, about £20 million. The average one is worth 24p. So: 84.6 million dormant Oyster cards averaging £3.08, and 85 million pieces of Bitcoin dust averaging 24p. The difference is what happens next. TfL can move a forgotten balance into its reserves after two years. Nobody can do that with Bitcoin dust. It sits where it was left until the owner moves it, and if the owner has lost the keys, it sits there for good. Bitcoin's price moves a lot, so these pound figures are a snapshot, and none of this is advice to buy anything.

Go and find the blue card, claim the £3.08, and put it somewhere nobody can sweep it. At today's prices that buys about 6,400 satoshis. Not much, but it's yours, and it stays that way.

Frequently asked questions

How much money is left on unused Oyster cards? As of June 2026, TfL held more than £292 million of pay-as-you-go credit on cards unused for a year or more, plus about £267 million in old deposits. In September 2023 the credit figure was £261 million across 84.6 million cards, an average of £3.08 per card.

Does Oyster credit expire? No. TfL says the credit never runs out and a refund can be claimed however long the card has been dormant. After two years of inactivity TfL moves the balance into its reserves, but still pays refunds on request.

How do I get a refund on an old Oyster card? Balances of £10 or less can be refunded in cash at any Tube station ticket machine. Larger balances are refunded to your bank account through a registered TfL online account, or by phone on 0343 222 1234. The card is cancelled when the refund is paid.

What is Bitcoin dust? Dust is a piece of Bitcoin so small that the fee to spend it would cost more than the piece is worth, so it never moves. Research by mempool.space in 2025 counted 85 million such pieces, worth about 24p each on average.

This article is for education, not financial advice. Bitcoin is volatile and you could lose money.

Jordan Walker is the founder of The Bitcoin Collective and the Bitcoin Business Network. He organised the UK's first Bitcoin-only conference, hosts The Bitcoin Collective podcast, and writes the weekly newsletter read by thousands of UK professionals.