An oystercard question

[GigantosaurusRex]

Apologies for sounding daft but we haven't been to London for years. We are taking DS8 to London for the first time over Easter and plan to do the touristy things in Zone 1. If I preorder an oystercard online the fee is £5 before topping it up. If we get one at the Tube station in London would we still have to pay the £5? Its not much of a saving having an oystercard for a single weekend use if we have to shell out a tenner for it IYSWIM. Thanks for any advice.

You can use a contactless bank card now so it's not really necessary anymore

You can just use any contactless card for you and DS won't need anything - just go to the manned gate and they'll let you through with under 10's.

Oh wow, I really am behind the times!! I feel like a proper country bumpkin! Thank you!

Yep, just use a contactless bank card.

I haven't seen an oyster card for years!

If he's 8 you don't have to pay at all. Just go through the family/luggage barrier together.

Oh sorry obviously the rest of you do! yes use contactless

Be aware that only one person can use a contactless card for travel at a time, so two of you can't travel on the same card.
You can also set up/ register contactless on an oyster account so you can track journeys.
To answer the question, last time I bought oyster for visitors we did pay the deposit at the station too.

I had the same question recently as we haven’t been for years and always used Oyster cards before.

This time we traveled with 2 children. I just used my bank card on all the contactless gate points and the children came through with me.

You will need one bank card per adult.

It automatically charges the minimum amount over the day so you don’t pay anymore than the capped day rate etc

Brilliant, thank you everyone!

You can also use your phone/watch if you're one of the technologically advanced!

@NuffSaidSam

Yep, just use a contactless bank card.

I haven't seen an oyster card for years!

Students and anyone with a 16-25 railcard uses them but yes, everyone else tends to use contactless

Make sure you stick to one card. If you tap one card and later another, it won't know it's the same person and won't apply the daily cap.