How do Oystercards work?

[Miljah]

What happens if you go into a station, ping your card, then come out elsewhere but you turn out to not have enough credit on it for that journey?

How do you check your credit?

Bumpkin up to the big smoke for a day using DH's card!

If you have a contactless card just use that, much easier! There’s a set limit each day, think it’s around £8/£9 so you won’t ever go over that no matter how many journeys. You just swipe your debit card where you would an oyster.

You can set it up via tfl website to auto top up when it goes below a certain level. But it's so much easier to use a contactless card.

You can check your credit by holding your Oyster against the Oyster pad on most ticket machines. If you have enough credit to check in for a journey but then not enough for the journey you end up taking it will let you out, but then you won't be able to take another journey until you top up.

Just use your contactless bank card, its much easier and the amount you can spend in a day is capped.

You can check the credit on the Oyster card at one of the ticket machines in the station.

Oh yes, agree with PPs that contactless payment is even easier. I use Oyster though because I like to track my journeys for work/expenses purposes and because it will show me what I'm spending when I touch in and out, which contactless doesn't. But if you're just here for the day it shouldn't matter!

You can check your balance on a station ticket machine by holding the card over the yellow reader.

I think you can track the cost of contactless on the ap now. Also wont let you through at start if there is no balance on oystercard.

Thanks, all. Another question- given that it doesn't beep, how do you know the reader has 'taken' your contactless? I guess the answer is- 'the gate opens'? Is that so?

That's so!

Contactless is really, really easy - just remember to use the same card at each end or it charges you twice, but otherwise it’s as straightforward as anything - there’s literally nothing to go wrong, it reads your card and the gate opens.

If you exit a station and there isn't enough credit on your Oystercard, it actually goes into a negative amount. You have to add more money to it before you can use it again.

This thread is timely. We're in London on Monday and usually just buy Day Travelcards but contactless seems to be the way to go now? We're just going to be travelling through zones 1 and 2.

Even though it doesn't beep it does flash green - I use my card on a machine that doesn't have a gate as I use the Docklands Light Railway (DLR)

Contactless is much easier. Apart from using the same card, the other thing to remember is to make sure the card you use isn't in a wallet with an Oyster / other bank card when you tap it, or the wrong card might be charged.

I always just use contactless now, though not sure how it would work with multiple children to go through the big gate with you?

If there isn’t enough money on the card you can still tap out, but it goes into negative and you need to top up before tapping in again.

So it’s £4.50 if just using buses all day and around £11.60 on tubes and buses if passing through zone 1 & 2.
It’s better to use contactless now and your journeys will be calculated at end of days jouneys and capped at set price.
Anyone over 11 yrs old has to pay with either a paper child travel card or an oyster loaded with a child fare.
When you touch an oyster on the pads or at a gate it does normally also give you your balance.
Don’t forget to touch in an out at every station but if something goes wrong where you cannot do this, contact TFL customer service on 0333-222-1234 and they will happily refund.
Members of staff at stations or on buses will gladly tell you your balance with their oyster reader.

P.s
You must use 1 contactless per person , so cannot touch twice for 2 ppl say.
Each person has to have own contactless, it’s done like this to prevent fraud

Can I ask a question? Is it cheaper to use oyster than travel cards? Also is it cheaper to use oyster than conractless? I am confused by the rules I read online.

The card always beeps so y always know that it's worked (I commute in and out of central London every day)
But yeh, just use your contactless debit/credit card 🤷🏻‍♀️

It is always cheaper to use Oyster/contactless than travel cards, because when you reach the cost of the cheapest travel card, you don't pay anymore. Oyster and contactless are usually the same price, except if you make multiple journeys, and even then it only happens sometimes. If you use Oyster, the money is deducted within 15 minutes of the end of your journey. If you use contactless, the money is deducted at the end of the day. This means that if you make multiple journeys, the system could find a cheaper route, and if you use contactless, that's what you will pay. ()

the money is deducted within 15 minutes of the end of your journey
Sorry, this is wrong. The money is deducted immediately from Oyster cards because the transaction is only conducted between the reader and the card - it is only sent to a server in batches.

Your balance is negative if you don't have enough credit then you can't use your Oyster again unless you top up. Contactless is easier as it caps and is cheaper than a Travelcard

Thanks! But still confused!

Contactless is easier as it caps and is cheaper than a Travelcard

So Oyster doesn't cap??

@easterholidays

You can set up your contactless card in your Oyster/tfl account and it will track your journeys with the spend same as the Oyster.