One day travelcard or contactless card for Tube travel

[cakeorwine]

Very used to getting a one day travelcard for travelling around London as a tourist.

But I am aware that people do just use their contact less card to pay and it will never charge you more than the equivelent travel card?

Is it that simple? Just use your contactless card to enter and exit and once you've reached the same cost as the travelcard, it won't charge more?

And you could potentially pay less?

Does it work on the bus as well?

The admin fee is £5 @viques so it is still cheaper than a travelcard. Anyway, I was wrong, it is only the visitor Oystercards that you order online to be posted that have a non refundable admin fee. Standard Oystercards have the £5 refunded after 1 year as top up credit to the card.

@chesirecat99

The admin fee is £5 *@viques* so it is still cheaper than a travelcard. Anyway, I was wrong, it is only the visitor Oystercards that you order online to be posted that have a non refundable admin fee. Standard Oystercards have the £5 refunded after 1 year as top up credit to the card.

Though apparently travel cards are cheaper if you use them for 6 days with a minimum of three journeys a day! I think TFL need to get their act together on this one and spell it out in words of one syllable for me and other people hard of thinking! I have a freedom pass btw, so am not used to hard travel thinking.

@AtomicBlondeRose nope!

@chesirecat99 thank you, that’s really helpful

Oh, that's where it gets really complicated, @viques

There is a weekly cap on pay as you go too but it runs Monday to Sunday so if you are in London for 7 days starting on any day other than a Monday, the 7 day travelcard will be cheaper. Actually, I think it is a couple of pounds cheaper than the weekly cap anyway. But you can put a 7 day, monthly or annual travelcard on an Oyster too...

TFL fares have always been complicated. It always used to annoy me when they still had ticket offices and I would see them selling child travelcards to unsuspecting tourists for children when they were entitled to travel for free with an adult (they were meant for teens). When my DC were little there used to be an amazing off peak parent and child ticket that was cheaper than the adult fare that was a well kept secret, although I think they were only for single/return journeys

Does anyone know if all the above applies if you travel into London on the overground and then use tubes? I tap in at my station and then out at Liverpool St and transfer to the tube (also tapping). Is the cost still capped or should I be buying an all zone travel card? Never thought to check my bank balance as I don't go often.

@cakeorwine

So a Zone 1 - 2 Travel Card is £14.40 and the Daily Cap is £7.70?

That seems like a bit of a rip off for people who get travel cards such as tourists.

Other cities have a specific tourist tax - this seems fair enough for people who don't do the research!

It applies for the Overground within London, @Billandben444, but I think there are some National Rail routes that you can use Oyster/contactless on too that are outside zone 6 eg Reading and Watford Junction so I guess they are charged differently.

@viques

They still sell paper ones because its not always best for tourists to get an Oyster card. If they have more than £10 on their card and they want a refund they have to phone up. Or if they are here only 2 days, from what I remember you have to wait at least 3 days before you can hand back your oyster card in and get a refund on the deposit and any remaining money.

Travel cards are way more expensive than using contactless, the exception being if you have an add on as part of a mainline train ticket.

That still doesn't make any sense, @Spectre8. Tourists really shouldn't end up with more than £10 credit at the end of their trip unless they have been foolish and topped up with way more than they need at the beginning of the trip rather than topping up as they go. If they put enough credit on to cover the zone 1-2 daily cap for every day of their trip and didn't get a refund for the unused credit when they left, that would still be cheaper than buying a travelcard everyday because the paper travelcard costs approx twice the daily cap IYSWIM?

You can't get a refund for the first 48 hours after you buy the Oyster but even then, unless you are travelling out to zone 6 on both days of a 2 day trip so need to put on £30 to cover the daily £14.10 cap for zones 1-6, you would still be better off with an Oystercard and not getting a refund than buying a travelcard at £14.40 per day.

And is an 'tourist' is in London less than 48hours than paper tickets are perfect for them, albiet more expensive, but they often aren't coming back through London or what not and won't be get their refund from Oyster.

Not everyone coming into London is staying more than 2 days.

Also some just don't want the faff of having to do refunds.

Some people rather pay a bit more.