To have not reasoned how expensive travel within London is!

[Flippingflamingo]

Niece started uni in London a few weeks ago and I offered to pay to keep her Oyster card topped up as my contribution.

However I have just discovered she has spent £27 on it from Monday to Thursday this week!!

I really want to be able to pay it for her, but it’s not sustainable for me to keep topping it up constantly.

I didn’t realise it was this much and thought there were daily caps on travel!

It’s £6.50 for a return trip on a bus in the city I live. Any extra trips on top of that are extra cost so I don’t think it’s that unreasonable tbh

You sound a really lovely aunt by the way. My children would have really appreciated something like that.

Here you are

Why don’t you give her a set contribution towards travel instead? That will also help her to learn to budget more. She will have to make her own decisions on cheaper bus v free walk v pricier train and the time trade offs, rather than just knowing that Auntie Flamingo has it covered

My DD has a student travel card which works out better.

I live here and find it very expensive indeed. Most Londoners I know walk or cycle as much as possible ,but that isn't always possible/safe. I wouldn't have thought a student would need to spend that much per day, though: surely two bus journeys a day — £3.50? Then, going out every night would double that and bring it to the cap.

I've always thought London is really reasonably priced for all travel within. I'm not sure what you expected? It's more expensive for buses etc in other towns and cities in the uk

London transport is an absolute bargain for what you get for the money. Unlimited functional transport all over a massive city for £50 a week?

The rest of the country would bite their own arm off for that service.

Plus a student oyster card is a no brainer once the system gets sorted out unless perhaps she never enters zone 1 and starts to look at alternatives like walking more.

Especially as some tube journeys are misleadingly long compared with walking because the standard map doesn't always represent the reality of the journey and obviously you have to walk a lot underground. I think there's apps that show you which journeys are better to walk.

Busses are much cheaper here than in other parts of the country.

Also,for some reason the Overground (the orange line) is strangely cheap.
If I start my journey on it then change line onto the tube it’s only £3. I mean,I think that’s cheap as it’s £6 a day rather than £12 but still not far off what you have said for 4 days of travel!

You can get an 18+ Oyster which then entitles you to a 30% discount on a travel card. Unfortunately due to the TFL security breach, they're not accepting applications at the moment. I think you can also link your railcard to it for further discounts.

Tell her to apply for either a student oyster, or get a rail card and link it to an oyster (30% off peak prices). Works out much cheaper this way

If she live z3 and travels to 2 then she can get a monthly travelcard which is sat zones 2-4. My DS has one of these and way cheaper, £69 per month. She does need to make sure she doesn't go via Z1 and tap the pink oyster at interchanges. Works quite well though and saves a bundle.

Sorry if someone else has said this but have they got a student oyster card. Can save money
https://tfl.gov.uk/campaign/student-travel

Does she have a young persons Railcard? If she gets an oyster card (student one when they are working again) and takes it to a person at a tube station, they can connect the cards and she'll get a third off off-peak pay as you go fares.

I would do auto top up for an amount per week / month you're happy to pay and she can cover the rest herself.

You're kind to do that for her OP.

Buse fares are £1.75 in London.

@Flippingflamingo it depends on the zones she travels through. Has she applied for a Student Oyster card as she’ll get a 30% discount?

if she’s not eligible then the contactless and oyster rates are the same but she must use the same card. And if you use a card on your phone, you can’t swap between the phone and the card as the caps won’t apply as the payments treated as different payment methods.

normal rates
https://content.tfl.gov.uk/adult-fares.pdf

Student rates
content.tfl.gov.uk/18-plus-student-oyster-photocard-fares.pdf

Giving her a set contribution would have been a more sensible approach tbh - then you know it’s what you can afford and no surprises. It is very generous of you to do that at all.

Just tell her you'll put X amount on her oyster card every month. It's a lovely gesture and will save her money even if it doesn't cover the full amount. I'm sure she'll appreciate your support.

But if you take those 4 buses within an hour, it will only cost you £1.75 as there's a charge cap of an hour. I quite often take a bus to the tube, travel for half an hour then hop on another bus and the 2nd bus is then free as it's within an hour of me swiping in on the first bus.

Plus there's a daily travel cap of about £4.50 on the buses, so you never pay more than that per day if you only take the bus. So 4 buses plus 1 tube journey is £4.50 plus whatever the tube costs. I think the cap comes in on the 3rd bus ride, so any buses after the 3rd will be free

She needs to get a student oyster for discounted travel. Off peak tube fare kicks in after 9.30am if she has any flex in her schedule. Also, buses are much cheaper... £1.75 per journey and if you need to use 2 or more buses, within an hour of tapping in on the first, you only get charged once. She can change her settings in Google maps to prioritise showing bus routes.

https://tfl.gov.uk/fares/free-and-discounted-travel/18-plus-student-oyster-photocard

tfl.gov.uk/fares/find-fares/bus-and-tram-fares

Getting a student oyster card is valid advice, but it is just not possible at the moment due to the tfl cyber hack!

She needs to apply for a Student 18+ Oyster card, and/or link her 16-25 Railcard onto it for top discounts, including on the daily and weekly cap. If ordering the oyster doesn’t work (according to PPs) she should get herself to one of the big tube stations and link her railcard!

Another thing to be aware of is that there is a peak and an off-peak daily cap, and if she starts her first journey of the day after 9:30am, her daily cap will be the off-peak one, even if she then makes trips during the evening peak hours. Of course peak hours can’t always be avoided if she has morning classes at uni for example, but I would encourage her to plan and limit morning trips if she can - eg if she needs to leave 9:15 to meet up with friends, maybe agree a slightly later time that has her tapping in to the first station / bus, from 9:30 onwards. That would give her a third off her daily / weekly cap.

Get a 16-25 railcard and link it. But I’m afraid London travel isn’t expensive.

It's getting so expensive