egoud

Hey there is it worth getting an oyster if you visit London for 5 days?

lhrsfo

rcspeirs

:D!

This terminology is misleading particularly for new visitors to London. "Cash" is not massively more expensive on the Underground.

What they are calling "cash fares" actually means a "paper ticket for a single journey" on the Underground (tube) or the Docklands Light Railway.

You can buy such paper single tickets with cash or card and there is no difference in price. As mentioned, they are much more expensive than using Oyster or a contactless card.

You can buy and add funds to an Oyster using cash or a bank card, and again the payment method makes no difference. You could even buy a contactless prepaid debit card using cash, then use it to pay for travel fares (well, that is kind of what an Oyster is).

Thus you can certainly pay for bus tickets with cash, you just have to do it before you get on a bus. Non-contactless cards are also not accepted on buses.

(Btw, nobody seems to understand the meaning of "contactless" either: the card literally doesn't need to contact the reader.)

David-A

You don't say which days of the week your 5 days are, nor crucially how much travel you will make.

Beyond that:

Oyster only offers daily price capping (i.e. once you reach a certain amount you don't pay any more)
Contactless (i.e. contactless credit card or apple/android pay) offers both daily capping AND weekly capping - but note a week is defined as Monday to Sunday. So if your five days straddle the weekend, e.g. Friday to Tuesday etc you will not benefit from this.

If you will straddle a weekend, a paper ticket '7 day travelcard' COULD in SOME circumstances be cheaper. As it is consecutive days. But, as it is a payment upfront, rather than a cap, expected level and nature of useage is crucial.

Indeed, the huge question is how many journeys you will actually make and their nature.
Hopping about zone-1-2 is very different to say continually going out and back to zone-6, etc.

David-A

If you are using contactless (credit card or apple/android pay) - or indeed an oyster card - do note that you must have one card or device per person. You ca NOT just keep tapping the same card as people go through the gate.

WorldLux

I'd still use an Oyster card in that scenario. You can have travelcards on those as well and it saves you the trouble from safekeeping a paper ticket. Paper tickets tend to get damaged fairly quickly.

Badenoch

I've had an Oyster almost from the beginning and would have said yes were it not for contactless cards. So for just five days and no expectation of going back any time soon I'd just use a contactless card.

Worcester

I believe you can get a refund on unused credit and the cost of the deposit on the Oyster card.

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTo...n_England.html

UKtravelbear

even with contactless I would also suggest setting up an oyster account and linking your card to it.

That means you will be able to see your journey history and then have any issues fixed that you can't do if you just use the card without an oyster account such as have an incomplete journey (and so an overcharge) being fixed and refunded.

Badenoch

You can get the refund once the balance is under £10. I had an extra Oyster left from an earlier visit and once the balance was below the limit I received a refund for the deposit and remaining balance from an Oyster machine. It was paid out in £1 coins.

Shiv01

Contactless could be less interesting depending on the currency exchange rates and charges imposed by your bank...go for the Oyster card.