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London Oyster Card and Public Transit Questions

Hello,

We will be in London for about 12 days, with 2 adults, 1 senior, and 3 kids (age 8, 10, 12). We'll be using public transit exclusively and have a bunch of questions. I would appreciate the group's thoughts.

1) Based on my research, it seems the 8 and 10 year old can travel for free on public transit. How does that work? Do they just go through the turnstile with a paying adult? Or do they need their own Oyster Card?

2) I understand the 12 year old can get a Oyster Card with discounted rates by buying a standard card at Heathrow and then ask a staff member to add the discount to the card. Is that correct?

3) I don't see any discounts for senior tourists (the senior discounts seem to only apply to those who live in London). Is that correct?

4) For the adults and senior, is the Oyster Card the preferred method to pay for public transit? How much money do you think we should load onto the card (I understand the card is not refundable)?

Posted by
1082 posts

Last summer we used our tap credit cards for London Underground, no need for the oyster card. This was told to us by staff at the kiosk in the heathrow terminal. Our 6 and 9 year old grandkids didn’t need anything, they just went with their parents thru the wide gate that strollers go thru. There were no senior visitor discounts. There’s a staffed kiosk (large signs) in the Heathrow terminal that can help with the oyster card for the 12 year old.

Posted by
590 posts

One question 1, yes, they are free - just use the wide gates. On 2, correct. On 4, the preferred form of payment is up to you, but most people use contactless credit or debit card. The main advantage of this is not having to pay for the Oyster Card cost, and not having to guess how much credit to add to it.

Posted by
7991 posts

To add what Simon mentioned about (1), the Tube and train stations will have “regular” (narrow) gates, and also wider gates, which I presume are mostly for people in wheelchairs, but are also handy if you’re wheeling suitcases, or have kids in tow.

If you wind up riding any double-decker buses (which we did a lot on our trip last month), you only tap to pay when you get on, at the front door. When you get off the bus, just step out through the doors in the middle, no tap-out needed. With the Underground, you’ll tap in when you start at your first Tube station, and tap out again to leave at your destination station

(3) Gee, if there was a discount for this 70-plus American, I missed out.

(4) I used the credit card loaded onto my iPhone, and hovered the phone over the round yellow reader device. My husband occasionally used his actual Visa credit card, but mostly used the London Visitor Oyster Card (https://tfl.gov.uk/travel-information/visiting-london/visitor-oyster-card#on-this-page-1) he got on a trip long ago, still his traditional means used over many trips. When his Card was getting low (you can check the balance at a machine at any Tube station), he’d start with £15, then add £10 or £15, as needed. An advantage of the Visitor Oyster Card is that you can get any balance refunded to you, if you’re not coming back to London. The £5 price of the plastic card doesn’t get refunded, but any excess amount loaded onto the card when you’re heading home can be recovered.

Posted by
299 posts

For the 12 year old, you can get a a Visitor Oyster card and a then ask a staff member at a station to load the Young Visitor card on. It is good for 14 days. We did this last year and it was fairly seamless.

I don't have a credit card loaded on my phone and have Oyster cards from previous trips and friends. So I just use those.

Posted by
8134 posts

Re- Discounts for seniors. If you are travelling outside London by National Rail- to Canterbury, Bath or wherever and get a £30 senior railcard then that can be applied to your Oyster card to get 1/3 off off peak tube fares or on all Travelcards. Day travelcards being the way to extend the discount into the peak. That 1/3 off includes the Elizabeth Line from Heathrow.
Whether it's worth it depends on the individual's travel plans.
The trick with an Off Peak day Travel card is that it includes travel in the evening peak.

Posted by
1232 posts

There is absolutely no need to buy the Visitor Oyster card. If you order it in advance you will pay for postage on top of the standard non-refundable fee (now £7, not £5). You can get the Young Visitor Discount applied on a normal Oyster card which you can buy in seconds from a machine on arrival for the £7 fee.

Or, if over 16, just use a contactless card or phone or watch pay without any fees.

The actual costs you incur for travel will be the same whichever method you use - half price for 11015 year olds and full price for 16+.

A railcard may or may not be worthwhile depending on how much travel you do on the national rail network.

Posted by
214 posts

Basically just echoing what everyone else has said, but putting in my vote for Buying the Oyster Card. We got ours at Heathrow and I think put £50 on each initially. We had to re-up a couple of times. I think when we left we had it at or close to 0 balance. I felt safer using the Oyster card rather than my credit card, just in case I dropped it or fumbled it while I was putting it away. On a trip this expensive, £10 extra for extra peace of mind was money well spent. Plus we still have them if/when we return to London one day. Our kids were also 10 and 8 and we were always directed to to big double gates to enter and exit. Some stations don't have gates, but you still need to tap out.

Posted by
9261 posts

IMHO It’s a matter of choice.

After decades of London visits I still use an Oyster card. Why? Because I’d be livid if I lost a credit or debit card and I don’t like having to pull out my iPhone to tap in and out.

I also enjoy the card carriers you can buy for the Oyster. I have more than 1. My favorite I bought at British Library. It’s shows Sir John Tenniel’s illustration of Alice and the Mad Hatter from Lewis Carroll’s book, Alice in Wonderland.

PS. I do know the way to San Jose. Los Gatos childhood.

Old school here. No stress.

Posted by
590 posts

Personally I prefer contactless- it's what I use to pay for trains and buses at home, so I'm comfortable using it when traveling. That said, if it makes you nervous, £5 is not much to pay for peace of mind, so perhaps go for Oyster.