I will be in London next month with the gf for a day out. So which card should I get for her? Chances of her visiting London again in the next 12 months are high.
First trip will be zones 1-5 as I intend to park at Harrow and Wealdstone on a Sunday.
Next trip will propably be for a few days
So which card do I get?
Standard Oyster will cost you a returnable deposit, alternatively you can use a contactless bank card, or other methods including Apple Pay.
Hasn't she got a contactless bank card? That's all you need these days, but make sure you use the same card to tap in and tap out all day
She has not got a contactless bank card.
Some time back some friends got engaged. Many congratulatory cards were displayed on their mantelshelf, including one from a mate having a well recognised dry sense of humour,
"in deepest sympathy..."
If you have both an Oyster card (eg from previous visits) and a contactless card you could lend her your Oyster and use contactless yourself. TfL permit this:
"Lending your Oyster card to others
If your Oyster card only has adult rate pay as you go credit on it, you can lend it to someone else, even if the card is registered in your name."
If you want to visit any of the attractions at
Otherwise use a standard Oyster.
Owain
I did that for my brother, many years ago. Black edge and all.
It depends on how much you will use PT. Oyster is PAYG. You can get a one day travel card that gives unlimited travel. However, it looks like PAYG with capping may be the best of all.
I thought TFL would charge you the lesser of the sum of individual journeys you made, or a one day travelcard that encompassed the zones you'd been in? Hence the recommendation to use the same contactless card for all journeys.
Nowadays the Oyster/contactless PAYG cap is usually less than the cost of a Travelcard - and also avoids the need to decide in advance the zones you need to cover.
Detailed fares are in
Thanks, I never used oyster before you could use bank cards with it, but did remember hearing that it should "play fair" and charge you the minimum for all your journeys, I've never actually checked up on what it did charge me on the rare occasions I've used it.
Do we both have to have paper cards?
I have an Oyster card with automatic top up.
Yes, if you want to use 2-for-1.
Or you can buy 'dummy' train tickets from eg Queenstown Road (QRB) to Vauxh all (VXH) inbound dated for the first day you need 2-4-1, and an outbound s ingle VXH-QRB dated for the last day of your visit. You can get these from any station but you will need to ask the booking office clerk not get them from a machine.
Note that 2-4-1 will be valid with these 'dummy' tickets at all attractions for which a train journey into central London is appropriate. They won't b e valid at attractions "behind" Queenstown Road, where you would need to tr avel in the opposite direction (e.g. Hampton Court, All England Tennis Club at Wimbledon and Kew Gardens). Another decoy rail ticket (or actual ticket for out of zone travel) would be needed for each of those.
Owain
Now of course you need to keep your contactless credit or debit card in a tin box so it does not get accidentally charged instead of the Oyster.
Brian
It happened to me once, I keep Oyster (loaded with a season pass) and bank cards on opposite sides of my flip wallet, and while I was on the train realised I had tapped in with my bank card. Luckily, I caught a platform attendant at the destination, checked and got the bank transaction cancelled.
If I had forgotten that detail and left the destination station presenting my Oyster, I would have been deducted a default full days maximum charge on my bank card for not tapping out.
This happens to a lot of people. Accidental charges add up into the £ millions. :-(
I'd imagine it's a real problem at the many suburban stations with no barriers. And for someone not familiar with the system.
I have a PAYG oyster card and if I log in to my tfl account there is an option to register a contactless card. This makes me suspect that an unknown contactless card will be ignored, though its proximity to a registered card might result in card clash. The advantage of an Oyster card is that you can keep it seperate from your money cards which also means eagle-eyed pickpocketers don't see which pocket your wallet goes back into.
Yesterday I was in London for the St Patricks day 'procession' which was a joke, utterly forgettable. From Sussex, with my 60's railcard it cost me £13.45 to travel 50 miles to and from LOndon and anywhere in zones
1-6, so just for the hell of it I went to the new T5 building to be nosy. V Impressive steelwork frame and because it is only 10 mins walk from the end of the runway it was easy to watch the incoming planes.While walking up past 10 Downing st I noticed black 'donut' tyre marks in the middle of the road, quite a distance from the cenotaph, outside where the horses are usually sitting ducks for tourists. Today I heard that Chris Evans was apologizing for 'desecrating a war grave'.
Can you still use the returnable deposit as payment for travel? You used to be able to run up a £5 deficit on an Oyster card.
That will do me.
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