Oyster Card vs Travelcard for Students
 

Hey guys. I'm going to be studying in Kingston Upon Thames for a year. I wanted to know if anyone could give me advice about which card I should purchase as a student. This whole oyster card/ travelcard thing is proving to be extremely confusing!

The Oyster Card is the card used by all londoners who use public transport. You can either put pay-as-you go money on it, or put a weekly or monthly travel card on the Oyster.

The paper travel card that is sometimes mentioned on Fodors is a card that you buy from a train station, and gets you 2for1 discounts to sites in London.

You will need an Oyster Card. As a student, you can get discounts. More info here: https://www.tfl.gov.uk/fares-and-pay...s-and-children

But check wether you will be needing any sort of pass at all. If it's just to travel into London occasionally, get an Oyster Card with some money loaded on.

Are you going to be travelling by public transport to Kingston Uni or staying close by? That could help you decide if you need an Oyster card or not.

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/fares-and-paym...nt?intcmp=1768
The university needs to be registered but it's a decent discount

Kingston University is registered with TfL:
https://photocard.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/got...archStudent.do

Doesn't the University or Students' Union provide information and advice on this in their pre-registration information, or when you arrive? These days, I'd imagine they might have some sort of messageboard of their own where you'd get the benefit of very local knowledge and experience. A lot might depend on the extent to which you expect to be going into central London or commuting within the Kingston area (and since you'd be close to the outer edge of the TfL area, it could be an issue as to what TfL services you would be using, as opposed to Southwest Trains). Might be as well to wait until nearer the time.