Frommer's London 2010 says that the maximum charged to the Oyster Card on one day is £3. Is that out of date?

Keith

Very much so out of date if it ever existed....oyster card PAYG caps now at the same price as the corresponding one day travelcard for the services used although it can get somewhat more complicated...until this year the cap was 50p less than tyhe corresponding one day travelcard...so for example if you stick to zones a & 2 during a day, last year the cap was £5.20 50p less than the £5.70 charged for an off peak zone 1 & 2 travelcard...it is now the same as they didn't raise the price of one day travelcards so the off peak cap of a one day oyster PAYG would be £5.70...the same is true for a one day bus pass on PAYG...if you stick only to buses on a given day, the cap is at I believe £3.90, the same as 1 one day paper bus pass, last year it was 50p less.....I also think the cut off between using a 7 day travelcard on oyster rather than PAYG is probably at least 5 days...it used to be a tad more economical to go with the 7 day as they used to waive the £3 deposit if the first purchase was a 7 day card on oyster but the difference certainly isn't enough to quibble over although I found there were some days, even if I were in London say for 5 days, that my total expenditures for the day was a bus trip to central London in the AM and a bus trip back to the hotel after a show, didn't feel the necessity to return to the hotel mid day...a couple of days like that and PAYG becomes a better deal buyt I really won't argue with anybody who feels 4 days warrants a 7 day card on oyster.

We are Back from London
xyz123 ,soshh and others have covered the subject quite well so I thought I would show the actual costs fo anyone about to purchase the "Oyster" You can always add on more money.
Arrived LHR 11/05 PM from Berlin. On advice of the ticket clerk purchased two oysters for L20 +3 deposit for a 4-day stay traveling to and from the city core from at a hotel in Zone 3.
Note: I have to use the letter L for pounds because my PC keyboard "ain't got no Pound sign" key

11/05 14;27 add Pre Pay Heathrow T5 L 20.00
11/05 16:00 Heathrow T5 - Turnham Grn L1:30
12/05 11:02 Turnham Grn - Monument L1:80
12/05 14:18 St Pauls-Waterloo L1:80
12/05 18:41 Victoria - Turnham Grn L2:00
12/05 18:41 *** cap applied ***
Current Balance L 13:10

We ended up with L6:30 remaining when we departed Turnham Green for LHR and San Diego on the 14th.

I feel the Oyster is the way to go even though ours now reside in a drawer because cashing them in for L3 was the last thing we ere concerned about at LHR

On most PC's and most bulletin boards, if you need the £ sign. just hold down the alt keyh and on the nmeric keyhboard type 156 ALT156 gives this...£

BTW if you want a euro symbol, hold down alt and type on the nmericd keyboard 0128 (€)....if for some reason you are on a Japanese bulletin board and want a Yen symbol, it's alt157 (¥)...if you need a US cents symbol, it's alt155 (¢)...while not always true, on this bulletin board use of these keyboard shortcuts will give you (see for yourself) the symbol you want!

I usually just copy a £ from existing text and past it into my post.

Thanks for the update, Don.

You can use HTML code on Fodor's, so typing "& pound ;" (without the spaces) is an easier way to get the £ symbol when you're posting here. Same for "& euro ;". It won't work anywhere that doesn't use HTML (like a Word document), but it's a lot easier for me to remember than alt+numbers.

"I feel the Oyster is the way to go even though ours now reside in a drawer because cashing them in for L3 was the last thing we ere concerned about at LHR"

AND THEY ARE READY FOR YOUR NEXT TRIP!

Wish that numeric /alt thing worked on a laptop! Good idea Keith

...actually, it should work on most laptops...there is a numeric keyboard on all the laptops I have had but it's a bit of a pain to use...the keys just to the right of centre have numbers...pushing the number lock key on makes them a nmeric keyboard....I guess it's what we're used to...I've used the alt key combinations so often that I never remember the HTML shortcuts but that's what makes life fun eh.

Can the collection date and place of an Oyster card be changed?
I am trying to do so contacting with TFL but they do not answer.
Otherwise, if you have not collected the card by now, do they give your money back? How?

<<< That may be because the National Rail ticket office at Heathrow >>>

There isn't a National Rail ticket office at Heathrow which is why you can't get a National Rail issued Travelcard there for the 2-4-1 offers

<<< "I feel the Oyster is the way to go even though ours now reside in a drawer because cashing them in for L3 was the last thing we ere concerned about at LHR" >>>

Except that the 2-4-1 offers can easily save you more than the cost of the Travelcard / Oystercard PAYG and generally Oystercard PAYG is more expensive that a 7 day Travelcard if you use it for more than 4 consecutive days - ie you effectively get "free" days using 7 day Travelcards

One other option if staying for 4 days or less and arriving at LHR

Buy an Oystercard there and put some PAYG money on it.

Then on days when you want to use the 2-4-1 offers go to a train station the previous day to buy the Travelcard. Then the next day you can use it and leave the PAYG card at the hotel

>>Can the collection date and place of an Oyster card be changed?
I am trying to do so contacting with TFL but they do not answer.
Otherwise, if you have not collected the card by now, do they give your money back? How?<<

Have you bought a Visitor Card? For those you need to deal with VisitBritain rather than TfL:
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/termsandconditions/13245.aspx

No I haven't, it's a normal one (11-15) for my child.

From the TfL website:

"Your child's Oyster photocard will only be available at the Travel Information Centre nominated by you, from the expected collection date you specify in your application, for a maximum period of 14 days, after which it will no longer be available for collection "

I would have thought trying to change the collection point isn't really worth the bother, since they're not that far apart. But you could always try telephoning their phone sales line +44 1561 376081 to see if they can advise.

Thank you very much for your answer Patrick, the thing is we are Spanish and it is not only difficult but very expensive to make an international call.
Even though I see what you mean but it is not possible for us to collect the card in another station.
I think that the best option would be to purchase another card with the correct date and place of location

:(

Yours sincerely.

* sorry for that "but"

Not wanting to pry, but would it really be so difficult to get from one station to the other? Could you advise on what they are/were?

Yeah, Patrick but that's not really the problem, the problem is that I'll not be in London that day because of a change of plans that was not expected but happened. Therefore I need to collect the card the 27th, one day earlier, the station now is the least important thing. I have been trying to contact TFL several times but they never ever answer, they are not serious enough.

You'll stand a much better chance if you telephone.

yeah, i don't know how :(