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 💐

When I was a student in London 10 years ago, the student oyster gave you a discounted monthly travel card which was better value. You needed to be enrolled on your course, so use his contactless first

YY, and for DLR tap in and out, but the card reader machines will be standalone, not with barriers like the tube.

Some stations (I think the ones which interchange with mainline trains in the same building, like Stratford) have pink Oyster card readers. These are so you can tap in or out without physically leaving the station and coming back in again. If you’re just travelling on the tube and have already tapped in, ignore them.

When I was a young slip of a girl we bought a one day travel card for a very small amount of money, then just mooched about London at will. I had no idea things would get so complicated 😆

You can do that still. Costs more for a paper ticket but it's possible.

They just give you the option to pay as you to and then it will be capped at same price as a travelcard. Which is handy. Think it also caps at a weekly travelcard too (but here you have the option of a 30% off student one so ignore that option)