Pay-as-you-go Oyster card for several persons
 

Can I use the same Pay-as-you-go Oyster card in London for several people travelling together ?

No.

You need one each

BUT assuming you are adults and doing touristy things, you should really be lookign at paper travelcards for the offers on www.2for1entry.co.uk

You can't travel as a group on one Oystercard. If you're worried about not wasting money, you can reclaim any unspent PAYG balance.

you need to understand how an oyster (or paper travelcard for that matter) works.

You swipe it on a reader as you enter the station and then must swipe it again to leave. The card releases the gate so you can enter/exit. Only one person can go through at a time. So there is no way to share a card. You can't enter and then hand the card back across to your friend to use since the reader will catch the fact that that card already entered and hasn't exited yet.

Now - if you never travel together nor at the same times, you <i>could</i> share an oyster/travelcard. But the logistics would be a nightmare and your individual travel time severely limited.

Thanks for your replies. We didn't know that we can reclaim unpaid balance, so high granularity of L10 increments was a concern.

Now I am reading 2FOR1 FAQ, and it is not clear: what is the difference between &quot;paper train ticket&quot; and &quot;Underground/tube only tickets&quot; ? I thought they are the same. We were planning to use Underground only.

A paper train ticket is one that is valid on trains rather than one that is only valid on the Tube system.

BUT London PAPER Travelcards (not Tube tickets) are valid for travel on trains and hence are valid for the offers

1 &amp; 3 day paper Travelcards are available from all Tube stations BUT 7 day paper travelcards must be bought from a train station booking office

Alan, thanks for the clarification. Do one day Travelcards cover this DLR thing to Greenwich ? I know that the Oyster card does.

It covers all train, tube &amp; DLR travel within the zones it's valid for.

It also covers travel throughout London by bus or tram regardless of which zones the card is valid for

AlanRow: &quot;<i>1 &amp; 3 day paper Travelcards are available from all Tube stations . . . .</i>&quot;

Maybe I'm wrong here - but I thought for a paper ticket to be valid for the 2 for 1's it has to have the National Rail logo on it. If so, those are only sold at mainline stations. (talking about the rail 2 for 1's not the TFL 2 for 1's)

If paper Travelcards purchased at the Underground do not carry any additional advantages (like 2for1), isn't it true that the Oyster card is strictly better than the Travelcards, provided that we ignore the initial L3 card cost ?

There are some 2for1 offers associated with Oystercards, but they are much more limited than those associated with National Rail paper travelcards. Your best deal PROBABLY is to buy one-day National Rail paper travelcards for any day you want to take advantage of their 2for1 offers and use your Oystercards for all other days. When you leave London you can get a refund for any unspent money you loaded on the Oystercards PLUS the &pound;3 deposit.