Calling all Londoners- Oyster cards

[LadyPoldark]

I am going to London next month with my DH and 3 kids ,aged 11-13. I'm so confused about oyster cards.
Do I need visitor ones or regular ones or do I need them at all? (In my day it was just travelcards)
I had tried to order visitor ones but it wouldn't go through. I live in another country but I do have a UK address I can send things to.
Thanks for any help , it is much appreciated.

You don’t need one you can just use a contactless card. Your kids need to pay so I would probably buy kids tickets on the day.

Paper tickets rather than oyster

I'd recommend getting proper oyster cards, simply because you can't use cash on busses.

Alternatively, if you have a smart phone that can make payments or a contactless debit/credit card those will perform as oyster cards, even calculating the maximum fare costs as required.

You can pay with de it but not sure how the exchange rate/bank charges may affect you. I’d just go to a station and buy the cards. I buy same card for my kids. You can top them up if need be. You do have to put £5 deposit but you can keep them til next time (or sell them back? You could ask at a station).

How many days will you be in London for?

You and your DH don’t need an Oyster card if you each have a separate contactless card, because you can use that on all buses, tubes and eligible trains (e.g up to Watford for Harry Potter). Your contactless card will act like an Oyster with journeys being free once you exceed the daily travel card rate, for example. But you have to use the same card.

However you can’t then use the same contactless to pay for the kids’ tickets. As soon as you arrive you can go to a tube station ticket office and get an Oyster card with Young Visitor Discount which will give you half price tube tickets. I think they only tell you to buy in advance to save time and queues.

Ah: using a non UK bank card contactless could be expensive if you get charged per transaction.

In which case an Oyster or Travelcard will be better.

How does it work if it is a foreign contactless card? Will there be a transaction fee on every use?

Xpost :)

Get oyster card for the kids. Any staff member at the stations can turn them into "young visitor" cards for the duration of your stay and then they pay half price.

Contactless for the adults

If you don't have a UK contactless card you will most likely be charged a transaction fee on every transaction. Easier to get Oyster cards for all of you, and after the transaction fees it may well work out cheaper. Also they don't expire, so if you come back again just top them up and use them again!

My non-UK contactless card didn't work on the Tube when I tried earlier this year. I ended up buying an Oyster card from one of the machines in the station.

Thanks everyone! We are just coming for 3 days so I will get oyster cards when we arrive and then get the child discount. That certainly saves the faff of ordering them!
I don't have UK contactless so won't risk any extra charge .
Thanks again.