progol

My brain is hurting trying to make sense of the 7 day travel card vs Visitor Oyster card. We will be in London from 9/22 to 9/29 and I am trying to figure out what is the best option. Do we get the 7 day travel card loaded onto a regular oyster card? Do we get a visitor Oyster card? And, where do we get them? We will be arriving mid-afternoon by train from Paris on the Eurostar.
https://www.londontoolkit.com/briefi...ard_oyster.htm

1) Is it possible to buy the visitor Oyster card in the train station? It looks like we can't buy a visitor Oyster card in London, though, only a regular Oyster card.

2) Or are we buying regular Oyster cards which we then load on it a 7-day travel card? We can buy that card it at the train station, am I right? And, assuming we will need to get this pass, which option for zone coverage do we choose? I think we will be doing most of our traveling within zones 1-2, but I still haven’t sorted it out entirely, and we do plan on going to Greenwich one day.

Travel brain overload.

Tulips

There's no need to buy a 'visitor's oyster card'. You can buy an Oyster Card from a machine at any London Underground station, and load a 7-day travel card on it. Load on some extra money in case you go out of zone 1 and 2.

What is even easier is to just use a contactless payment card and use that instead of the Oyster Card. You will automatically be charged the maximum daily or weekly rate.
You'd need to check if your creditcard supports contactless payments, and if there is a foreign currency charge.

progol

Tulips, I saw the mention of contactless, but don’t really understand what this is. I’ve looked it up and I’m more confused than ever. How does this work? We are there Saturday to Saturday, so a Monday start doesn’t seem to make sense, either.
https://tfl.gov.uk/fares-and-payment...actless-for-me

Tulips

Your debit and/or your credit card will have a contactless symbol on it. You can just touch the barrier with your card, just as you would with an Oyster card.
Many Londoners don't use Oyster cards anymore, they use contactless cards. You can pay other small purchases the same way, without having to put in a pincode or sign for it.
Advantage of using contactless is that you are never short of money to pay your fare. The system charges the maximum per day; it's cheaper than buying a one-day travelcard. It also charges the maximum in one week period (Monday-Sunday)

This works with other European credit or debit cards. If you are American, I don't know if it will work with your card. If your credit card charges a fixed fee for foreign transactions, this would be expensive, so check that.

The easiest thing to do is just get an Oyster when you arrive in St Pancras - from one of the machines. You can put a weekly travel card on it when you get it. This will then work from the Saturday until Friday. Add some extra money to the card to cover the additional day, and any travel outside of Zone 1-2.

janisj

Don't faff around with a Visitors Oyster. A silly way for TFL to get your money early is all it is. Just a plain ole vanilla Oyster is fine. And don't worry about contactless. It is easy but many US cc's don't work for that.

There is a semantic problem though. A 7-day travelcard can be loaded on an Oyster OR it can be a paper ticket bought in a train station. Both work for all your bus/tube/DLR travel. However . . . if you want to get the terrific 2for1 Days Out discounts, you MUST use a paper travelcard from a train station

https://www.daysoutguide.co.uk/2for1-london

For either - start date doesn't matter -- it is 7 days total

StuDudley

We will be in London for 15 days starting December 1. What is the "smart" thing to do if we want to take a bus/tube every day?? We already have an Oyster card & it may have some money left on it from our last trip (how do we find our how much money is on it?)



Will this scheme work?
Purchase a 7 day Travelcard AND add some money on it for day 8. Then purchase another 7 day Travelcard on day 9 (what happens if we purchase the 7 day Travelcard on day 8 before we take a bus or tube - I assume it will "grab" from the second of our two 7 day Travelcards). We may want to go out of zones 1 & 2 on one of our outings, but we can add some money for that also. Will this work????



Is there an "add fare" within the "gates" where we can do so if we go outside zones 1 & 2 and don't have enough money on the Oyster card when we try to go through the exit turnstile? What happens on a bus for the same scenario?


I hope my questions are "adding" to progol's knowledge, instead of hijacking the thread.


Stu Dudley

Dukey1

I believe on the busses that a yellow light flashes when your card does not have enough value

As to the "add fare"...you can easily check the value on your card at the machines prior to use and top the cards up. I have never used ours when they didn't have enough on them so I cannot say for sure what happens at the turnstile but someone here will tell you I am certain.

StuDudley

>>(what happens if we purchase the 7 day Travelcard on day 8 before we take a bus or tube - I assume it will "grab" from the second of our two 7 day Travelcards)<<


Probable answer to my own question:
It will grab from the money remaining on the Oyster card for our trip on day 15.


Stu Dudley

StuDudley

>>I believe on the busses that a yellow light flashes when your card does not have enough value<<


What do I do then??? See the bus driver????


Stu Dudley

janisj

Stu -- If you want to use any of the 2for1's I'd just add some PAYG ££ on your existing Oysters and buy 7-day, zone 1-2 paper travelcards. Then you can use the Oysters for your outside-zone-2 journeys and get the amazing discounts using the paper travelcards everywhere. The 2for1's are not just in central London but there are covered properties/sites all over so they are useful on day trips too.

Dukey1

Look at this, Stu:

https://tfl.gov.uk/info-for/media/pr...london-s-buses

janisj

Didn't see your last post - You can't top up an Oyster on a bus. But they do let you ride once on an expiring/insufficient balance. But then you'd have to top up. Just make a point of checking the balance now and then.

janisj

didn't see dukey's post -- that is what I was talking about

Dukey1

Stu, you need to get into the habit of checking the value left on your cards when you go into a Tube station. You don't need top do it every time and there can be lines of people in front of the machines but you'll get some peace of mind. I have Oyster cards from a visit SEVERAL years ago and I keep topping the things up whenever I am in London. The charge for the bus ride is a flat amount as I recall

StuDudley

Thanks - that answers my question about a "surprise" when I go outside zone 2 on my 7 day Travelcard & don't have enough cash on the Oyster card. I assume if I have 0 cash balance on the Oyster card but I'm somewhere within the 7 day Travelcard range, I'll get a "top up ticket" even though the explanation on Dukey's post says I must have some positive balance. Is is a "smart" thing to always carry some cash balance on a Oyster card with a 7 day Travelcard?? I have no interest in trying to zero out the cash on our 15 day trip. Leaving 20 pounds on each of our cards when we go home will not break our bank.



I'll check to determine how many things we plan to see are on the 2for1 deal.


Stu Dudley

StuDudley

Dukey - we mostly take buses everywhere we go in Paris & London. I don't recall seeing anything on a bus that tells me my balance. Since we'll be in London in December and we might have more days we want to take the tube because of bad weather, we will likely have more tube trips.



Stu Dudley



Stu Dudley

rialtogrl

When you tap your Oystercard when boarding a bus or exiting the tube, it gives you your balance left.

StuDudley

Thanks!!!


Stu Dudley

progol

Stu, glad you asked so many questions! It’s beginning to make some sense to me.

So so if we get a 7 day pass with an Oyster card, and I choose the 1-2 zone option, what happens if we go out of that area? Are we charged the rate we would pay if we didn’t have a pass?

And if if we get a paper pass, it would be good for the 7 days. No option to “top up” (obviously).

progol

OOOOHHHHH..... PAYG= Pay As You Go!!

So, assuming we get the regular Oyster Card for Zones 1-2, we then add additional cash for fares outside the zone. That’s it, right? Unless we decide to go for the paper pass (which is making my brain hurt again thinking about this).