London tube prices

Just use a contactless card or phone or smart watch pay to pay. The system will work out the cheapest option for you based on your journeys. The maximum you will pay will be the £10 zones 1 to 3 cap, but it may well be less.

So I just tap in at each station and tap again when leaving a station?

That's correct - use the same credit card to tap on and then off again. If there are multiple people traveling, each person needs their own card to tap on/off with. It's very easy to pay this way and you don't have to calculate what you need on an Oyster card. Just be sure to use a card with no foreign transaction fees.

Jemma - yes for the tube, but if you take a bus you just tap on entry and not when leaving. That’s because all bus fares are the same - £1.75 a trip.

use the same credit card to tap on and then off again.

To add a bit, not only the same "card" but if you use a card loaded to your phone, use the same card and your phone getting out, same with your watch, don't switch back and forth, always watch, or always phone, or always card.

If there are multiple people traveling, each person needs their own card to tap on/off with.

If more than one of you, you can each use the same card loaded to your own phone as well.

Just be sure to use a card with no foreign transaction fees.

It would be best, but if you have no other options, the 3% you will likely be charged is pennies, so do not let it stop you.

Don't tap out of buses. Only tube. But don't forget or it can get expensive.

So me and mum went to London yesterday. We both tapped in and out of every station. My charge was £8.50....my mums was £18.20!!!!!!!!!! Can anyone help lol??

As you are in the UK currently create an account each with TfL. That will allow you to check the charge for each journey made, even retrospectively. It sounds as if for some reason a maximum fare has been applied for one journey, probab!y it has been marked as incomplete when a swipe has gone wrong. That can be traced by each of you looking at your journeys.
Through the account you can apply for a refund.
I believe staff can check journey history on the machines at a station, but they can't do refunds.

Another way unexpectedly large charges can happen is if two journeys that you think are separate have been joined together and exceed the maximum time. This can happen at "out of station interchanges" where two separate stations are considered as one for charging purposes.

To give a real example, if you exit Bond Street and enter Oxford Circus taking a walk along Oxford Street between them, then if this is less than 20 minutes then the journeys are joined together:

A->B ...(walk down Oxford Street) ... O->Z is not charged as 2 journeys A->B & O->Z but as one A-Z.

This is usually neutral or cheaper but if A-Z happened to take longer than 90 minutes (if all in zone 1) it results in a maximum fare.

(There is a reason for the above as you might exit the Hanover Square exit of Bond Street which is close to Oxford Circus to change lines.)

These are revealed by a journey history but are harder to get corrected than max fares from a missed tap.