Oystercard and child tube fares... for a non-Londoner! I'm confused!

[LittleOwl153]

We are in London for 2 nights / 3 days.

We being 2 adults, 1x 14yr old and 1x 9yr old.

We have 2 standard first generation oyster cards registered to the adults- which I've just asked for updates on by post.

14yr old has a 11-15 Zip photocard.

We are staying in a zone 1 hotel, and likely won't leave zone 1.

We will want to use the tube, we've been looking at the cable car and the river 'uber boats'?

What the heck do we need in terms of tickets! each timeI read I see something different! Do I need an oyster for the 14yr old as well as the photocard... do I need to get the 9yr old a Zip?

We would like to do london more often but currently dont have plans to visit again...

For the adults using a contactless debit or credit card would be easier than having to top up oyster.
For the 14yo the photocard is the Oyster card, it’s not a separate thing. You will need to load money on it either online or at a ticket machine.
The 9yo will be free on tube and bus, so if you’re not needing to use overland you’ll be fine without
not sure about boats and cable car as I don’t use them I’m afraid.
Enjoy your trip!

An adult takes the 9yr old through the wide gates (luggage/pram gates) when you go in & out of the tube stations x

Make sure you always tap out with the same card or device to tapped in on. I had no idea that the same card on
An iPhone and an iwatch counted as different ones. Got a refund. But it was still
Ore than it should have cost.

I’m sure when I took the riverboat I loaded my ticket onto my oyster, and bought paper tickets for the kids at the stand.
Bus they don’t pay, tube as mentioned take them through the big gate

You should check whether there is a balance on the old Oyster cards (online or maybe you can still put them in a ticket machine). If so you should be able to use it - i don't think it expires. Otherwise yes a contactless card is easier. The system will calculate for you at the end of the day whether it would have been cheaper to buy a travel card and charges you the travel card rate if so.

Thanks all. The set up to go to London for a few days seems so expensive!

So I can use either the oysters we have or contactless for adults, 9yr old doesn't need anything and 14yr old needs her photocard topping up. ... now I need to figure out how to top up the photo as that doesn't appear on my oyster account...

You can add the photo card to your oyster account online - log in and I think it's Add an Existing Card.

Once you've added it, you can top it up (or transfer the balance of your old oysters onto it if you want to switch to contactless).

Children have to pay for the boat and the cable car, though they are free on the bus and tube.

There is an app you can download for the Uber Boat, but I find it easier to buy a child’s ticket from the machine as the app is buggy for me. (Admittedly I have an old phone.) There’s a machine and sometimes also a person that will sell you a child’s ticket at every pier. Adults can just tap in as normal, but if a child tapped in they would be charged as an adult, and zipcards don’t make the boat a free journey so wouldn’t work. Paper ticket then.

Cable car has a giant window to walk up and buy their tickets. Adults can tap in. There’s a round trip family ticket so that might be the best fare for you. Make sure you realise Maritime Greenwich (park and the Cutty Sark) and North Greenwich (cable car and the O2) are a fair distance apart and not really a pleasant walk. Not impossible or anything but not picturesque and one bit of the walk has some of the worst air pollution in all of London.

Keep in mind for adult fares on tube and bus, you don’t specifically need an Oyster card now. You can use any contactless debit / credit card or the same on your phone like ApplePay etc. Just pick one method and use it the entire trip, as there are daily and weekly price caps and in order to not pay over the cap, it all needs to go to the same card in the same format. (Don’t use the actual debit card sometimes and that same card on your phone sometimes - that reads as two different cards and you will be overcharged.)

Last thing that often gets confusing: if you take a non-TFL train within London, then children need a zipcard for it to be free. Say you want to go from Charing Cross to London Bridge. If you go by bus, they just get on. If you go by tube, they go with you through the big gate. If you take a Southeastern train, they are only free with a zipcard and otherwise need a paper ticket for a child fare. Many staff will let you walk through the big gate with them but some won’t, and it’s really not worth the risk of the penalty fare.

Children over 5 pay child rate fare on mainline trains eg southern, south eastern etc. The zip photo card should work if you just tap in and out as usual. Otherwise you need to buy child tickets.

Dsis (who lives out of London) uses her friends and family card (if you have one) to buy day travelcards when she's in town and that works out much cheaper than normal too.

Thank you. I think the adults will stick to the new edition oysters as I can imagine DH getting very stressed about swapping cards and loosing his bank card on route!

So I'm adding the zip to my account - can I choose then what to top up? Can I transfer balances when we get back so from my oyster to the zip.. 14yr old is going to London with school a few weeks later...

In terms of cost I'm thinking adults will cap at £8.10 day ticket, 9yr old is free but we need to stay off tube till 930 to get cheap fair for 14yr old?

Looking at the cable car - it's further out than I thought... I think we must have done it on a trip to Greenwich last time (long time ago!)

Looking at the tube map we could use North Greenwich and Royal Victoria- but that takes us out of zone 1.. wondering if there is a way to combine with the boats... or a cheaper option!

The daily fares cap is the same £8.10 for Zone 1 and for Zone 1&2

North Greenwich is in Zones 2&3 so that's OK. But Royal Victoria is Zone 3. Canning Town is Zones 2&3. Again it's not the prettiest walk, but it's only 10-15 mins (much shorter then Greenwich/Cutty Sark to North Greenwich) and saves you the ticketing hassle