London public transport

[Professionalmess]

I'm a northern country bumpkin visiting London for a week (mon-sun) in a few months. First time in over a decade. The tfl website has me going in circles.

I'm likely using a mix of tube, bus and DLR to get about. Mostly between Oxford road and Woolwich areas (zones 1-3 I think).

Up here I buy a monthly pass as it's cheaper than individual tickets. There's no daily cap.

What's going to be the most economical way to pay for travel? Does the cap work if you use a contactless bank card to pay (if you even can) or only on oyster cards? Can you buy travelcards online in advance?

Hopefully some of you lovely London centered mumsnetters can make sense of the above.

Use your contactless bank card - it’s the easiest way and your fare will be capped. If you have it on your phone either use Apple Pay or the physical card, don’t mix the methods as you will be charged a higher fare for an incomplete journey.

Just use your contactless card , making sure it's the same one at each end of the journey, and it will cap at the daily rate, no need for an oyster card. Assuming all your travel is within the zones. You only need to tap in on buses and trams, not out, but both for tubes and trains.

The daily and weekly caps will kick in automatically on a contactless card. You don't need to do anything at all except travel round, touching in and out with whatever card you choose. Just make sure it's the same card.

The cap is applied as long as you use the same contactless card for all trips.

Yes, use your contactless card.

Also, if you’re using it on different travel means ie transferring from tube to tram or overground, you will need to do an intermediary tap - the machines to tap on are usually pink.

Thanks so much lovelies. Contactless it is. I'm quite excited.

Ignore the Tfl website, it's a disaster.

Download the Citymapper app, works a lot better.