Is Oyster card cheaper than debit card?

There is no price difference between the Oyster card and contactless card. Every time you travel on London's public transport, your contactless payment card is charged the same fare as your Oyster, including cap prices (the maximum amount you'll pay daily and weekly to travel throughout London).



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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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Pay as you go You 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.

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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.

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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).

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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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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.

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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.

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  • 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.
  • Some funds are likely to remain unused.
  • Taxis don't accept Oyster Cards.


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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.

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Though many credit cards charge an annual fee, debit cards don't. There's also no fee for withdrawing cash using your debit card at your bank's ATM. Credit cards, on the other hand, can charge a cash advance fee plus a steep interest rate for that convenience.

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Anyone with a contactless debit or credit card can use it to pay for travel in London. It's ideal if you don't have or want an Oyster card. Or if you run out of pay as you go credit on your Oyster card.

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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.

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You can't use Oyster on the following rail services on any journey starting or finishing outside the Pay as you go area: East Midlands Trains, Grand Central, Hull Trains, Virgin Trains, or London North Eastern Railway services.

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60+ London Oyster photocard This allows you to travel for free on most public transport in London. You can apply from two weeks before your 60th birthday.

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The pay as you go credit on your Visitor Oyster card never expires so you can keep your card until your next visit, or lend it to family and friends. If you don't need your Visitor Oyster card, you can get the remaining credit refunded.

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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.

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What to do? As Oyster for Visitor cards can't be registered, the balance can't be checked on line. You'll need to touch in at a Tube, DLR, or Overground ticket machine which will show the balance remaining on the card, and that balance will remain in situ until used.

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