London Transportation

Either just get a regular Oyster Card from the machines in the tube or use Contactless Credit Card payments.

From what I’ve read, unless you have a UK credit card, using a contactless cc can be very expensive in fees.

Not sure where it says that. Weekly travelcards are still available. The ones which come attached to season tickets for Commuters are going. That doesn't affect visitors. But there is essentially no price difference between a weekly travelcard and daily/weekly capping on Oyster or Contactless. Travelcards are now really a legacy product. Capping is the better and more flexible product.
Just a normal Oyster Card, not a Visitor Oyster, if you choose to use Oyster, rather than contactless.

Margie, that is incorrect. It depends on whether your card has foreign transaction fees or not. Plenty of US cards (those without foreign transaction fees) work just fine.

Arrive. Deplane.

Use your debit or CC at the Oyster Card machines to get one. I go to every year to London and still use an Oyster card I bought ages ago. I merely add more £’s ( top up ) when I need to.

I’d load the card with £20.

I do this by using my no foreign transaction fee Capital One Credit Card.

I advise this because I’d freak out if I lost a debit or credit card. Losing and easily replaceable Oyster Card not so much.

Lots of info out there…..unfortunately but it does show in red on several of the online purchase sites that the 7day travel card is no longer available, just daily or monthly. Since we’re going to be in other parts of England before getting to London, I’ll just plan on getting regular Oyster Cards. It is nice to see that the 6 and 9 year olds will ride the tube free with us.

I do exactly what Claudia does :)

Lots of info out there…..unfortunately but it does show in red on several of the online purchase sites that the 7day travel card is no longer available, just daily or monthly.

The 7 day PAPER travelcard for London is not available. You can still load a 7 day travelcard on an Oyster card. The oyster card is just a vehicle to store tickets. You can store a travelcard or pay as you go (PAYG) funds or both on an Oyster card. Fares are here:

https://tfl.gov.uk/campaign/new-fares?intcmp=34454#on-this-page-4

What day of the week do you arrive? For example, if you are staying within zone 1 or 2, your options are as follows:
1) Use a contactless credit card. The fare is capped daily. It is also capped weekly, but the week runs Monday through Sunday
2) Get an Oyster card and load pay as you go funds (PAYG) on it. Fares are capped daily and weekly with the week Monday through Sunday.
3) Get a regular Oyster card and load both a zone 1-2 7 day travelcard (starting on the day of your choice) and some extra PAYG funds to cover trips outside of zone 2.

When I am in London for a week, I usually load a 7 day zone 1-2 travelcard plus about 10 GBP in pay as you fo funds. If I were arriving on a Monday, I’d just use PAYG funds. However, I already have an Oyster card.

I cannot address the credit-card fee issue from personal experience because 1) I use and Oyster Card and 2) I have multiple no-fee credit cards. However, I recall that someone posted on the forum that all credit card tap charges on the Underground for a single day are submitted as a single purchase. If that is accurate (and it seems logical to me), you would have one credit card fee each day, rather than potentially 2 or 3 of them.

Laura. We are arriving in London on a Monday afternoon, staying in Notting Hill Gate which I see is listed Zone 1&2. Looking at what our kids have put together, it looks like we’re going to be using the tube extensively. Thank you for your help.

Either get the Oyster and you could add to it next time your in London or use tap CC.

Since weekly capping runs on a Monday-Sunday cycle it will fit your trip perfectly. With kids, buying them Oyster cards and getting the Child Visitor discount would pay off if travelling extensively.

The weekly cap on Oyster/tapping is exactly the same price as the travel card at £40.70, and the daily cap is £8.10.
If you are only going outside Zone 2 occasionally then it may be worth just using capping not PAYG for those trips as the cap only rises in a Very shallow manner.
Check your fares for each journey outside Zone 2 on the TFL website to decide which is the best option.

I’ll just add after I used down my old Oyster card a few weeks ago I started using my American Express for contactless payment on the tube. I just went in and checked and there are no fees charged for any of the times I used it on the tube. You might want to try contactless a few times to see if your CC has charges. If not, this is so easy.

Any fees will come from your credit card company and not the Underground. If your current credit card charges foreign transaction fees, it's time to get a new card at least to use when outside the country.

I'm old school. I still use the same Oyster card I've used to years. It's registered to if I lose it I don't lose the money on it.

I think what you have read is about the paper version of the Travelcard - this has been ended (partly because they tended not to survive seven days) but you can still use a seven day Travelcard by loading it on an Oyster. In general terms take the daily cap rate and multiply by five, and add about 20 pence. That's how much it costs. It's about 14 to 15 trips to make it worth while.

All a Visitor Oyster means is an Oyster that has been sent to you - save your postage. You can get one at Heathrow or Gatwick on arrival. All you miss out on is a nit of functionality that you don't really need.

Or use contactless - no topping up or thinking required. Unless you are going to be doing over 15 trips it will be no more than the Travelcard. Just ensure your card has no fees

Because of capping Oyster/Contactless will never be more than the Travelcard.

Either get the Oyster and you could add to it next time your in London or use tap CC.

We are still using our oyster cards that were purchased in 2010(?). We just top them off when in London. We keep our credit cards secure in a neck wallet or a money belt.

Thank you for all the responses. I guess I should add that there’s going to be six of us, 4 adults, 5 and 9 year olds. Again, I’m reading that the kids travel free with a paying adult except on the Heathrow Express.

Actually kids aged 15 years and under travel for free on Heathrow Express, with tickets obtained when adult ones are bought.

But unless you have bought Heathrow Express tickets well in advance the adult tickets cost a fortune and these days with the Elizabeth Line it rarely makes sense to catch the HEX.

I just spent 8 days in London. Many have advised this already...when I arrived at Heathrow I bought an Oyster card at one of the machines. The machines are right by where you go to get on the tube or train. It was very simple. You pick what $$ amount to add to your card and can reload it later, if needed. It's very similar to metro cards I've had in DC and NYC. We used the tube a lot, the oyster card makes it very easy to swipe in and out.

We were in London 1st 7 days of April. No foreign transaction fee credit card added to iPhone Apple Wallet. Our cards have same #, but different names. Tapped in/out and then received daily notices (one for each card) from ccard bank - Citi Mastercard. With conversion rate ($1.00/£1.25) our daily cap was $10.10. We experienced zero problems.

As an aside - in busier tube stations use the wide gates if no one is - it’s just another gate!