Is it still worth buying an Oyster card in London.

No and yes.

Thank you! That helps a lot

Agree with above. My preference is contactless CC. ApplePay works, but I find using the phone is sometimes cumbersome (probably my fault). CC is easy.

Some feel more comfortable using an Oyster as they are concerned about losing a credit card. This is not a personal concern of mine and the ease of the CC over Oyster loading and balance checking concerns trumps the slight extra care I take in monitoring where I carry my card.

I like my oyster card. It is registered and gives me extra discounts with my rail pass. In my case it is a no brainer.

In addition we have a few oyster cards that float around between friends and family members. The next person going on a trip uses them and then passes them onto to the following group that is traveling. We use the same cards year after year.

Discounts are another possible reason to need (rather than choose) to use Oyster such as Young Visitor. Even if qualifying, for a short one-off visit you have to be able to offset the £7 purchase price for this to make sense from a purely financial point of view.

I think I got my Oyster Card when Disraeli was prime minister. (I can't remember a time I didn't have one.) But any contactless credit card or Apple Pay/Google Pay will work.

I used my phone for awhile until I started seeing phone theft warning signs in stations. My phone stays secure during my time on public transit in London.

I used my Apple Watch for contactless payments in London (and beyond). No fumbling for my phone or wallet.

An Oyster card will cost £7 to purchase, before any money is added to it. For an adult, there is no reason to buy one, just use a debit or credit card to tap in and out.
If however you belong to a group that is eligible for a discount, say a young person or an OAP that has a 33% train discount railcard, the discount can be carried across to the Oyster so that the discount can be received on the tube and buses.
If you are familiar with travel in the Netherlands, it's a bit like the OV pay card where an OAP discount can be authorised and applied to your linked contactless card.

I also use an Oyster card as I don’t want to be waving my cc around in public and possibly losing it.
I don’t buy anything with my phone as it’s unable to be used for tapping.
It’s old….bit like me…

It's worth it to me. I've had mine for years. It's easy to reload and I don't have to worry about having my credit card or phone out in crowded tube stations.

For those using a cc, maybe this helps. I put the credit card I use for tap in and out transportation in a luggage tag that is clipped/hangs from my purse. The tag can be tucked inside, but easily grabbed out of my purse. I've been able to use it without removing it from the tag.

As others said it depends on your situation and preference. We bought the cards several years ago for 10 days in London and knew we’d be back to London on future trips so the cost was worth it. If only going for 4 days may not be worth the cost. The biggest advantage for our situation is my husband has mobility issues and uses a cane, sometimes a walker, and the oyster card is easier than a cc and less stressful for me worrying he’d drop/lose a cc or his phone. For your shorter trip you may want to just tap in and out with the recommendations of the other posters

Good: Oyster.
Better: Contactless card.
Best: Phone with Apple Pay / Google Pay.

I used to say yes, but after most recent trip I think disadvantages (GBP 7 non-refundable fee; having to either measure your need precisely or leave unused balance until your next visit, ie interest free loan to TFL) outweigh advantages (possibly some discounts).

I've never understood the concern about losing your contactless card. You literally have to have it in your hand to tap it, so can't see how one could lose it. But even so tapping your phone is even easier.

I have not used an oyster card in over a decade. For me, contactless payment is very easy. Unless you qualify for one of the discounted oyster cards I would just use contactless payment. I know a lot of people are worried about dropping their cards but if it falls on the ground you can just pick it up. If you don't want to take your card out, you can even tap your entire wallet, but I would only do this if you only have one method of contactless payment in your wallet (otherwise it will take multiple payments).

I've never understood the concern about losing your contactless card. You literally have to have it in your hand to tap it, so can't see how one could lose it.

For many people using a contactless card on the tube means they have it in a pocket or wallet, not their moneybelt. The risk is not only is it more accessible but by getting it out and putting it back you've shown any pickpocket exactly where it is.

Nobody who lives in London uses Oyster anymore. Contactless is so much easier.

Can't speak for London, but when we were in Rome a few months ago, my husband couldn't get thru the turnstile for the metro. He kept scanning the card to no avail. Finally, we realized that he and I were using the same credit card. The VISA card we were both using even had different numbers, but they were linked to the same account.

I use my Apple Watch so did not have to take out CC or phone.

Actually plenty of people in London still use Oyster cards.

Not least because anyone resident in London and over 60 can get an Over 60 photo Oyster which entitles them to free off peak travel. That is until retirement age when they get a Freedom Card. Anyone under 60 and disabled also gets a Freedom Card.
Another major reason why Londoners use Oyster is to load travelcards. With a travel Card (same price as the caps) cross boundary travel (say to Windsor or Bletchley Park) is much easier as you don't have to swipe out at the boundary station (or even know what that station is) but just pre purchase an excess fare from Boundary Zone x.
Also many lower paid people can't actually get credit. They load Oyster as and when.
That can even apply to travel to Zones 7 to 9 where there are fare oddities meaning that excessing from Zone 6 can be cheaper than a Zone 1 to 9 fare.
All that is before the usual reasons of security and all that. Londoners know all those quirks!

We have oyster cards from previous trips with small balances and we will take them with us in November. After the amount on them are used up I may choose to use my Apple Watch to pay. My husband does not have and does not want a watch so he would have to use his credit card or phone. After reading about phone thefts in London that would make me nervous, and if he uses his cc people would see where he keeps his wallet so I would worry about that as well. I guess the solution is to add £ to his oyster card.

I used my phone for awhile until I started seeing phone theft warning signs in stations. My phone stays secure during my time on public transit in London.

For many people using a contactless card on the tube means they have it in a pocket or wallet, not their moneybelt. The risk is not only is it more accessible but by getting it out and putting it back you've shown any pickpocket exactly where it is.

Same reasons I still use an Oyster card.

I don't even use a CC in case I should drop it, or someone with theft in mind observes it being put back into a pocket, etc. If I lose the Oyster card, no big deal. I use the same Oyster card I first purchased many years ago (pre pandemic, maybe 10 years ago?).

I think it is a generational thing...

I was complimented yesterday at Waitrose for how proficient I am on all the phone apps. I am only 72.

I’ve seen loads of people use Oysters in London.

Apart from fear of dropping a card etc. There is also a whole thread about phones being grabbed out of people’s hands in London.

It really comes down to personal comfort.

In some cases, a travelcard loaded on an Oyster saves you money.

The daily cap for zone 1-2 is 8.90 GBP. This is true for both Oyster and contactless.

The weekly cap for contactless is 44.70 GBP but the week runs Mon to Sun. If you are arriving on a day other than Monday and staying 6 or 7 days, a travelcard might save you money. A weekly travelcard can start on the day you choose.

I am in London for a week from Thurs to Wed. I loaded a zone 1-2 weekly travelcard on my Oyster. I have taken more than 5 trips everyday so I easily hit the daily cap. If I’d used a contactless card, 7 days x 8.90 = 62.30 GBP. I paid 44.70 and thus saved 17.60 GBP.

My son just got back from London, he bought an Oyster card and said it was a complete waste of money. He used his iPhone with Apple Pay instead. Much easier than loading money on an Oyster card (which means guessing how much to put on it and most likely putting too much on, wasting even more money). I’ll be there in September and will do the same.

The risk is not only is it more accessible but by getting it out and putting it back you've shown any pickpocket exactly where it is.

But no concern for your Oyster card? If it makes it easier, simply slip your credit card into one of those sleeves for oyster cards, and keep that in your front pocket. No shuffling with your billfold and the legions of pickpockets are fooled, they really have no interest in a mere Oyster card.

Everyone should do what they are most comfortable with. London is a big city and crime does happen, and anyone visiting or living here needs to be alert, aware of their surroundings, and take precautions to secure their valuables.

With that in mind, we don't really hear about phone thefts or card thefts from people entering the tube. The most common type of crime we are hearing reported now is people getting their phone snatched out of their hand on the street. This normally happens when someone is walking down the street or waiting at a bus stop, looking at their phone and not necessarily paying attention, and someone on a bike or scooter comes by and snatches it out of their hand and is out of sight before the person realises what has happened. This is really the type of crime to be focussed on right now. When you're going thru the ticket barriers on the tube there's no one down there on a bike/scooter for a quick getaway. The main thing is to ensure that once you've used your phone/card to enter, you put it away somewhere secure you can monitor (e.g. not a back pocket). I hope this is somewhat reassuring for visitors.

"The risk is not only is it more accessible but by getting it out and putting it back you've shown any pickpocket exactly where it is."

My card is in my wallet, in my pocket. Never been pickpocketed. The same way most people on London get around- not sure why there is such a concern - what would you do for public transport at home?

Tube stations are a really safe area in terms of theft. You just don't seem to get much. There isn't really the problem with pickpocketing on public transport in London the way you might have in one of the big Italian cities for instance.

I'm all for freedom of choice on using an Oyster or not. It's not the worst idea a visitor could have. There are lots of Londoners using them still, presumably not all because they're too skint to have a bank account with a debit card.

Tube stations are a really safe area in terms of theft.

I hope that is true now. Granted it was 25 years ago but the only place I have ever been pickpocketed was coming out of the Notting Hill Gate tube station. Back then, the transit police had the phone # for Visa International in the office because it happened so regularly. They let me call from the station to cancel my card.

I got an Oyster card a few years before the pandemic. It's pretty useful for me, with re-loading money on the card pretty seamless. I've used contactless once, which was fine (this was due to forgetting my Oyster card at home). But I prefer Oyster.

I've had my Oyster card for so many years I can't imagine not using it. I love being able to top it off at the stations and it is so easy to keep in a pocket in my slacks or jacket and not have to worry about losing it (as well as being so accessible.) It's become part of my adventures in London and I hope they never get rid of them in favor of phones or credit cards.