Is someone able to explain Oyster cards please (in small words!)

[Champagneforeveryone]

DS is off to uni in London (hopefully!) in September. Since halls and uni will be on opposite sides of the city he will need to use public transport, so I have directed him to the TFL website.

After a couple of goes he deemed it "too confusing", which I scoffed at. Until I tried to navigate the site and realised that, actually, he might have a point.

We live in the rural Southwest and due to Covid haven't been to London for at least three years. On this occasion I seem to recall we used our contactless debit cards, though maybe we didn't 🤔

From my frustrated research it seems that a contactless card does exactly the same job? But then there's a student 18+ Oyster card which I'm assuming will attract some sort of discount? Ideally DS would do this himself I know, but actually I'm as confused as he is, and it seems that travel may be a cost we hadn't completely factored in 😬

If there's anyone able to explain the best way to do this in simple terms then we would be extremely grateful 💐

He can just used his debit card. It's capped per. Just make sure he swiped in and out of each station.?

Download the app,

But can he get a discount as a student? In which case I assume he needs an Oyster card rather than just using his debit card?

He can use a debit card or credit card. Just make sure to create an account on the oyster/tfl website AND register his card.

This way he can check on his usage and (1) complete any incomplete journeys so he doesn't get charged extra (2) apply for refunds if he's over charged.

tfl.gov.uk/fares/free-and-discounted-travel/18-plus-student-oyster-photocard#on-this-page-0

Once he’s been accepted in his corse he can buy the Oyster card at a discount.

Ok yes. He'll need to get an 18+ student oyster card for the discount.
For this he"ll anyway need to sign up and the card will be registered.
He can also register his contactless card for emergencies.

So, he buys the card and loads up cash, he can get one for a year or anything between 6 weeks and 10 1/2 months

There is a 30% discount applied and there is a price cap - one he hits the usual 7 day travel card the rest of the journeys are ‘free’
so it automatically changes the fares

threelittlelambs thank you! I suspected it was there but has not banked on the fiendish difficulty of the TFL website.

I actually grew up in London and my father worked for London Transport so I sort of took these things for granted. I am aghast surprised at how much his daily travel will be <weeps>

Yeah 18+ Oyster Card.

DD saves a lot of money by getting off the tube at Notting Hill Gate which is in zone 1 and 2 and then walking 20 or 30 mins to her uni. She persuaded some of her friends to do it too.

I have mentioned this as a possibility to DS too, he is understandably sceptical of getting off and walking when he could just stay on the tube and go the whole way - I predict the next couple months being a steep learning curve 😆

In fairness to him, we have zero public transport where we live and his total experience since lockdown has been getting the train and then a taxi home from a nights clubbing on one occasion (that I doubt he remembers!)

Would buses be an option if the tube is expensive?

London transport always seems quite cheap to me, certainly less than travelling round my city, far more frequent and reliable too.

There's a journey planner on the website that gives different options or people mention the citymapper app that might also be useful.

DS will soon realize the benefits of getting off the tube earlier . (Especially in rush hour) !!!

Would buses be an option if the tube is expensive?

A single bus fare is £1.65 currently, for one unlimited journey, and you can transfer and make a second journey free within an hour, they call it the Hopper fare. You just need to remember to touch your card each time you get on and it all happens automatically. I much prefer the bus to the tube and I think they’re more convenient tbh. But they are slow compared to the fairly reliable speed of the tube.

There’s no adult railcard/Oystercard discount on buses, though DS could get a student Oystercard photopass and then buy a bus/tram pass, which would give a 30% discount. A 7-day one is £16.30, for example - but only for buses, obviously. And from what you say, OP, it sounds as though this might be a bit too much of a faff for him….? It really is a minefield and all needs weighing up in exhausting detail!

And yes, the Citymapper app is a good shout.

But buses are soooo slow.

It's been so long since I moved that I have no idea how far v how quick a journey is and truthfully I think that should be down to DS to work out.

We've also considered cycling (in decent weather at least) but have no idea about the feasibility of this either. I think we probably need to reconcile ourselves that the first half term at least will be an expensive exercise in trial and error!

i got a student oyster for my first year - and then COVID!

it was 30% off a weekly or monthly travelcard.

which sounds great but
terms were 5/6 weeks then reading week then 5-6 weeks. So you'd get 1 monthly and then 2 weeklys to cover that.
i didn't need to go in every day - some weeks 3 days some 4.
my usual trip was NO bus, 1 off peak tube zone 1-3 each way.
say 4 days a week?
so actually less than a weekly zone 1-3 with 30% off.
so if i was ALSO planning on going out and travelling around london every weekend it made sense. as a mature student, i was just going there and back each day.

So i'd do the sums once he knows the costs of a usual week.

Re buses, you might be surprised. Post-lockdowns, traffic is so weird now. I used to take a route that involved Tottenham Court Rd, which was always jam-packed. Now it’s like a desert. Buses whoosh through.

But it really all just needs working out, as burnoutbabe says, once he gets the lie of the land.

If he's got a railcard, which will probably be useful for trips home, then he can apparently link that to his 18+ Oyster card and get discounted off off-peak tube and Overground fares, which was news to me.

Thanks credibility, he does have one so that's really helpful.

Yes, you can do that. I’ve got a different annual railcard (alas, I’m far from 18 any more!) and it’s ‘loaded’ onto my Oystercard.

You used to be able to do this by going to the ticket windows at any tube station, but they’ve closed them all now. The best way to do it is approach a staff member by the ticket machines at one of the bigger tube stations (eg a mainline, I did mine at Euston) and ask them to do it. They just take the Oyster and tap various codes in on a ticket machine, then it’s loaded on and will automatically discount as you tap in.

In my experience, some staff members are a bit more helpful over this than others so it might need a couple of tries ….

When I went to London recently but forgot my Oyster, I found I could use my apple watch to just tap on the bus and it debits the £1.55

this is the way things are going now.

Despite being a very tech savvy young man, DS flatly refuses any sort of smart watch (even when offered DH's old one for nothing) in favour of a "tick tick watch" so this would not be an option for him (conversely, DH is a tech dinosaur who grew up in a home without electricity, yet is devoted to his Apple Watch) 😆

I've passed these tips onto him and will leave him to (literally!) find his own way - fingers crossed for results day now 😬

Tube , tap the reader on the way in and in the way out.
Bus , just tap as you get on the bus. Not as you get off.

If transferring you also need to do another tap.

Say Whitechapel and changing from London overground to tube

Or Wimbledon changing to trams.

It's all fun!