London - paying for the tube with teens

[Happyasapiginshit]

We’re visiting London as a family of 4, with 2 dc ages 12 & 14. Last time we went With the kids they were free on the tube, but now they’re older I’m having a headache working out the best way to pay for their tickets. We don’t have Oyster cards, and the adults will just use contactless to tap in and out of the tube. What’s the best way of paying for the kids so they get their half price tickets?
Thanks!

You can get child visitor oyster cards

Buy a visitor Oyster card in advance. Then ask at the ticket office (will need to be a big station) to have a young persons discount put on it (you will need proof of age for the DC).

https://visitorshop.tfl.gov.uk/en/london-visitor-oyster-card

When are you going? My kids all have rooster cards so they can pay contactless for anything they want to, I’d highly recommend getting them one as when they are out without me they have access to money and I can add money onto it whenever I want, mine do chores and I add the money to their cards

To be honest if you are just there for the day and they have either their own contactless cards or can use ones of yours them just pay adult price.
The (non refundable) payment cost of purchasing an Oyster card plus putting money for payment on it usually works out more expensive than just paying the adult fare which is priced capped.
The Zone 1/2 daily price cap is just under £10.
Buying an Oyster costs about £7 and you then have to put money on it.
The photo card version for teens is £21.
Just use contactless.
Edit : Zone 1/2 price cap is £8.90.

No one will stop you going through the family barriers at least with the 12 year old. Maybe the 14 too unless they are having some pubsescent moustached growth spurt.

It depends what you plan to do in London and how long for but often it’s actually cheaper just to pay the adult fare for them. I used to have a child visitor discount applied to an other card for DD but unless you already have the oyster you would need to pay £7 for it. unless you are there for several days using lots of underground journeys it’s maybe not worth it. If you are arriving into a mainline station and mainly doing the sights you could probably just use a bus or 2 which would be much cheaper

I just normally give my teen my card to tap through, and I use my phone - we are never organised enough to sort out the Oyster cards in advance

I went a couple of months ago, my eldest is 14 now so needed to pay. We were only there 2 days so I couldn’t be bothered faffing around getting her an Oyster card so she just paid full fair, she has a contactless card that we put money on. It didn’t work out that much because of the daily cap and we used buses too when possible which are cheaper than the tube

Do they not have bank cards?

We had old oyster cards left over from before you could use bank cards so at first we just got the child discount added each time, but if you go to London more than a couple of time a year it's worth getting a zip oyster photocard for older children.

If you're just there for the day, you can get a child travel card - covers unlimited tube, bus, overground, mainline trains in London for 24 hours.
London Day Travelcard | Unlimited Travel Pass | Tfl Visitor Shop https://share.google/GvuUdfbCJFciPVgWn

had this last weekend; if you’re going in the train, look at adding a travel card from the train ticket website when you book the tickets; I had to go to the Thameslink website to do it, as I couldn’t do it in the app nor on the Trainline app

Thanks everyone. As it’s only a short visit the Oyster card probably isn’t worth it. We’ll either just tap them through as adults or get the day travel card. Thanks again