Is a new Oyster card free?

You can get a new Oyster card online and at many locations across London. You need to pay £7 and add a minimum amount of pay as you go credit, or a season ticket to your new card to use it straight away.



People Also Ask

How much does an Oyster card cost? The Oyster card costs £7. You then add money to the card to pay for your travel. The £7 fee is not a deposit.

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If you're 60 or over and live in a London borough, you can get free travel on our transport services with an Oyster photocard. Who is it for?

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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!

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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.

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A card with a negative balance may only be reused once it is topped up. The Oyster card deposit has been there specifically to prevent customers having an incentive to discard cards with a negative balance.

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London buses are all cashless, so you need an Oyster card, Travelcard or contactless payment card to ride. Bus fare is £1.75, and a day of bus-only travel will cost a maximum of £5.25. You can transfer to other buses or trams for free an unlimited number of times within one hour of touching in for your first journey.

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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.

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If you don't have time to buy your card online, you can also buy a Visitor Oyster card before arriving in London from different locations in the UK and overseas.

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It's more than 50% cheaper than buying a paper Travelcard or single tickets with cash. Oyster cards have a daily price cap – once you reach this limit, you won't pay for any additional journeys (excluding Thames Clippers River Bus where there is no capping).

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It is significantly cheaper to travel in London using an Oyster card than it is to purchase individual tickets for each trip. The only reason you would want to just buy individual tickets is if you are only using public transportation once or twice during your stay.

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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.

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You can get an Oyster card:
  1. Online with a contactless and Oyster account, if you live in the UK.
  2. At Oyster Ticket Stops in many newsagents in London.
  3. At all Tube, most London Overground and most Elizabeth line stations.
  4. Some DLR stations.
  5. At Visitor Centres.
  6. At the Tramlink Shop in Croydon.


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All orders of Travelcards and Visitor Oyster cards are dispatched within 24 hours of being placed, Monday to Friday. Our fulfillment warehouse is closed at the weekends. Any order placed after 08:30 (GMT) on a Friday will be dispatched the following Monday (excluding public holidays).

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Buses are also cheaper than trains, with a flat fare of £1.65 per single journey. You can take two bus journeys for the price of one if you touch in using the same card on the second journey within an hour, thanks to the “Hopper Fare”.

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There are a number of ways to save on your bus and tram journeys in London. Children under the age of 11 travel free, and other discounts are available for children, students and concessions. Freedom Passes provide free travel for wheelchair users, as well as for older people and travellers with disabilities.

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Please wait at least 48 hours as you might receive an automatic refund: Oyster - we'll automatically add it to your card the next time you touch in or out of a rail journey Contactless - the refund... If you forget to tap in or out with your contactless card you'll get the same maximum fare as you would with Oyster.

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Daily capping Once you have made around three journeys (peak or off peak) in a day on any Tube, DLR, London Overground, the Elizabeth line or National Rail train within Zones 1-6 using Oyster/contactless you will pay no more and will be able to travel for free for the rest of the day.

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So no matter how many times you travel on public transport using your Oyster card in London's zones 1 and 2, you will never be charged more than £8.10 a day. As of September 2021, Oyster cards also have a weekly cap. This runs from Monday to Sunday, and means you will never pay more than the weekly cap for travel.

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