Is it cheaper to use an Oyster card or buy a ticket?
You can add money to an Oyster card or use contactless (card or device) straight away. You only pay for the journeys you make and it's cheaper than buying a paper single or return ticket (train companies may offer special deals on some journeys).
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You can add money to an Oyster card or use contactless (card or device) straight away. You only pay for the journeys you make and it's cheaper than buying a paper single or return ticket (train companies may offer special deals on some journeys).
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).
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.
Cons: A £7 cost applies when you get a standard or visitor card. You'll need to top it up in advance of travel. You can't use an Oyster card at any station between Reading and Iver.
Great value. Pay as you go fares are cheaper than buying a paper single ticket or Day Travelcard. 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).
Oyster used to be the go-to way of paying for travel around London, but 66 million of the blue plastic cards haven't been used in at least a year. And while they languish forgotten in drawers, bags and wallets, Transport for London (TfL) has amassed a fortune in unclaimed balances and deposits - now worth almost £400m.
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.
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.
What happens if my value/credit runs out? If you need to add more value/credit to your Visitor Oyster card you can simply 'top up' at one of the machines in the stations, or by going to one of the Transport for London ticket desks. Any credit you don't use can be kept on your card for use at a later date.
Peak fares - Monday to Friday (not on public holidays) between 06:30 and 09:30, and between 16:00 and 19:00. Off-peak fares - at all other times and if you travel from a station outside Zone 1 to a station in Zone 1 between 16:00 and 19:00, Monday to Friday.
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.