We’ll be in London in June and plan to use the trains & buses to get around. Is the Visitor Oyster Card a good deal?
Can we buy them on arrival at the airport maybe?
Do we each need one (my wife and I) or can we share a card? It looks like we each need to get one.
Is it easy to reload a Card? As in many places or a way to do it online?
Approximately how much do the Tubes & Buses cost?
ETA: Looks like tap to pay or Phones will work better these days.
ETA: Any Hotel recommendations for June? I’m thinking about the Tower Hotel near the Tower of London and the Tower Bridge. But might be better off nearly the British Museum.
We passed on using the Oyster cards when we visited last year. If you have tap-to-pay on your cellphone, it works perfectly. We have iPhones, but I’m sure it works with most androids as well.
Here’s the app page for an Oyster card on your phone. Has the benefit to reload money as you go (Android and iPhone…this assumes your phone is capable of doing NFC aka near-field communication…not all phones have it but it is pretty common these days but check to be sure):
Does Tap to Pay give you the discounts? The Visitor Oyster Card (and Oyster Cards in general) appear to give nice discounts and a daily cap of around 17£.
@Whack-a-Mole, that sounds great, thank you. I’ll look into it.
Yeah, if you use a contactless card or an NFC payment on a phone, it works exactly the same as an Oyster card (you tap it on the yellow pads at the barriers or entrance/exit of the platform) - at the end of the day, you are charged for the cheapest possible ticket price that would have covered the journeys you made.
The only point of question might be whether your card actually works for contactless payments abroad.
I’ll have to check that on the card’s website. Is contactless the same as Tap to pay, as at least that works on some machines here.
Otherwise I could try to set up the NFC on the phone.
NFC is not tap-to-pay but it is the underlying technology for tap-to-pay. Tap-to-pay is a program that uses NFC to work. So, not the same thing but close enough. Your phone needs NFC to do tap-to-pay but you also need a tap-to-pay program (which I think the TfL link above is).
I’m pretty sure my wife uses NFC on her phone often, I never set it up on mine.
My Amex Card should work with the Tap to Pay, they verified that just now. Next up is does the London Transit take Amex and I’m pretty sure it does, but will verify.
Only AI so I will dig deeper but:
Yes, American Express (Amex) is accepted for payment on London’s public transport, including the Underground, buses, and trams. You can use contactless Amex cards or mobile payment options like Amex Pay to pay as you go. Simply tap your card or device on the contactless reader when entering and exiting the transport system.
@Nars_Glinley kindly sent me some used cards which I took use of. If you are in the US I am willing to send them to you but I have no clue how much is left on them.(don’t think they expire)
Card 1 I used from LHR to Greenwich (Elisabeth Line to Canary Wharf – the dockland light rail was free)
Card 2 I used the water taxi from Canary Wharf to Westminster
Card 1 I used form Westminster to Baker Street and Baker Street to Hayes & Harlington *
Card 1? Used from H&H to Liverpool Street Station
PM if you are interested.
Brian
* My hotel (Premier Inn Hayes Heathrow) was close to the H&H station
I dunno about Apple but on Android Google Wallet is more than happy to store multiple cards (including transit cards). You can put them all in to your phone (if you want). I just use one in case the phone is lost/compromised but that’s paranoid me. My wallet is actually more likely to get lost and it has all the cards so not really rational on my part.
I was in London a couple of times last year, I just used Google Pay on my android. Tapped the phone on the yellow pucks at the turnstiles. My Google Pay is linked to a Visa card, there were no issues.
There was a 3% surcharge on the Visa for all transactions, though.
Was that a thing your card did or London transit did?
I have a card which guarantees no fees when used outside of the US. Wondering if I would avoid that extra fee (which isn’t a lot in the scheme of things).
I was in London earlier this year. We were there a week and the Oyster Card seemed like the cheapest option if you’re gonna use public transport more than a a couple times a day. The one zone is all you need if you’re planning on sticking in the central area.
One thing I’ll do differently next time though is tap to pay with my CC for the ride from the airport into the city, then buy the card once there. We got ours at the airport after we landed and used it right from Heathrow. But that’s out of zone so you have to top it up and pay the excess before you can use it again.
I have my credit cards, including AmEx in my phone. Tapping the phone works exactly like tapping the physical card. If either one will work at any pay station, the other will too. And from the card issuer’s perspective it’s the same card so any promos, cashbacks, miles, etc., accrue just the same.
In daily life I carry one physical credit card but the phone has a half-dozen credit cards in it plus an ATM/Debit card so I can get cash if needed. When I travel I carry 2 physical credit cards plus a ATM/debit card plus the phone.
Redundancy is good.
IME it is handy to have some local currency. And the best way to get that is from an ordinary ATM, not a moneychanger at the airport. And outside the US, ATMs that can accept a tap of your debit card (or your phone masquerading as your debit card) seem few & far between. Instead the norm seems to require inserting the physical chipped debit card.
Tap gets you the exact same rates as an Oyster Card, including daily and weekly capping. There is zero advantage to an Oyster Card unless you have a concession fare like the Young Visitors Discount for kids which can’t be added to a credit card payment.
Interesting. So you’re saying that if I just tap my CC, the amount I pay per day, regardless of how many trips I take, will be capped at the same max it would be with an Oyster Card? If so, why do they sell Oyster Cards? Why bother with them?