An Oyster card is a smart card that you add money to, so you can pay as you go. You can pay as you go to travel on bus, Tube, tram, DLR, London Overground, most Elizabeth line, IFS Cloud Cable Car and Thames Clippers River Bus services.
People Also Ask
Is it cheaper to use Oyster or contactless? As both cards use the same Pay As You Go system and are compatible with the TfL Oyster & Contactless app, the costs are comparable. As a tourist in London, it can be worth getting an Oyster Card as part of the London Pass.
If you're visiting London for 3 days or less, the best option is to get the Oyster Card, as it's the most cost-effective system. For stays of over 4 days, we recommend getting the 7-day Travelcard, since it's cheaper than getting 7 x 24-hour travelcards.
Your Visitor Oyster card offers daily capping. This means you can travel as much as you like in a single day and the amount you pay for your travel is limited (or capped). Find prices for daily capping and Day Travelcards. Use your card and save money at restaurants, shops, galleries and entertainment venues.
60+ London Oyster photocardThis allows you to travel for free on most public transport in London. You can apply from two weeks before your 60th birthday.
Supports cash: If you want to pay for your transport in London using cash, you can buy and top up an Oyster card with cash. This is normally a lot more cost effective than paying for a cash ticket, with the rare exception of a one-off single journey as you have to consider the cost of the Oyster card.
As a general rule a Travelcard is more expensive than an Oyster card or Contactless payment card. The exception is if you make 3 or more journeys for 6 days or more within a 7 day period. In this case a 7 day Travelcard works out cheaper than an Oyster or Contactless payment card.
Pay as you goYou don't have to work out the cost of your journey in advance. You can pay as you go using contactless (card or device), an Oyster card or a Visitor Oyster card. It also offers great value as pay as you go is cheaper than buying single tickets and you get daily and weekly capping.
No, it won't work with the same card. 2.6 Only one person at a time can use a contactless payment card for travel. You may pay another person's pay as you go fare with a contactless payment card only if they are travelling with you and you have paid your fare by another means.
Oyster fares and caps are the same whether you use a standard Oyster or a Visitor Oyster, a common misconception. Visitor Oyster cards you pay an activation fee (£5 in 2023) which is non-refundable. If you buy a standard Oyster card in London or online after 4 September 2022 you now have to pay £7 for the card.
Touch your Oyster card in at the start of your journey and touch out at the end on yellow card readers to pay the right fare. Only touch in on buses and trams.
Never expires: You can stash your Oyster card for your next trip and, even if it is many years later, it will still work. All you need to do is top up when you're there and you're ready to go!
60+ London Oyster photocardThis photocard gives those aged 60 or over living in a London borough: free travel on bus, Tube, tram, DLR, London Overground, TfL Rail (excluding between West Drayton and Reading) and most National Rail services in London.
You can use your Oyster card to pay as you go at any time without providing your personal information to TfL. You can also add weekly and monthly season tickets to your Oyster card without needing to register your card or create an online account.
About a quarter of contactless payments are now made using either Apple or Google Pay, a figure that is ticking up all the time. In contrast, only 5.7m of the tens of millions of Oyster cards in circulation are still active. And as for paper tickets, in the past month just 1.7% of passengers bought them.
Only one person can travel with an Oyster card at any time. If 2 people are travelling together they need 2 Oyster cards. However another person can use your Oyster card when you are not travelling.
In conclusion, the main difference between Standard and Visitor Oyster cards is that Standard Oyster cards are reusable, while Visitor Oyster cards are disposable. In addition, standard Oyster cards do not come with a daily price cap, while Visitor Oyster cards do.