Visitor Oyster Cards

Do not buy Visitor Oyster cards. You don’t need them and they cost more and are less flexible than normal ones. A waste of money.
When you arrive at Heathrow go to the tube station. At the machines buy regular Oyster cards and ask a member of staff to apply the Young Visitor Discount to them. It’s as simple as that. There will be staff there and they are well versed in the needs of tourists. They can also advise on the amount of money to add to the cards for your trip. You don’t need to go to any Visitor Centres.

Thank you! I should have come to the forum earlier instead of trying to figure it out on my own.

And I would suggest holding on to them if you think you will return; you can use them on your next trip. When we return home, we store our Oyster cards with our passports.

I still have an Oyster from my 2021 trip. Used it 2022 as well. Intend to use it later this year. Still has 10 pounds on it.

Can you purchase a 7 day Travelcard at the Tube station too?

Can you purchase a 7 day Travelcard at the Tube station too?

Yes, but it needs to be applied to an Oyster card. It isn't a separate product now.

I thought you could purchase a 7 Day Travelcard as a paper pass. Not added onto an Oyster card!

We just got back from london. It’s a card. We top it up and have it saved for our return visit in November

I thought you could purchase a 7 Day Travelcard as a paper pass.

The paper cards were discontinued.

Things change. Paper cards are gone.

Once upon a time, a travel card was cheaper. Now it seems to be no different than the weekly cap. What would be the purpose of them now?

The real purpose of a weekly travelcard now is that it can run for any 7 days, whereas the weekly cap can only run from Monday to Sunday.

Ah, so if I arrived on a Wednesday and added a travel card, the cap will be good til the following Tuesday, whereas with no card, a new weekly cap would start on Monday. Have I got it?

Correct, or to pay it another way, if you stay in Zones 1 and 2, then you pay £40.70 for your Travelcard for the Wednesday to Tuesday.
If you used the DAILY (not weekly cap) that is £8.10/per day. So 7 x £8.10= £56.70, whereas had you arrived on the Monday rather than on the Wednesday you could have utilised the weekly PAYG cap of £40.70- the same price as the travelcard.

Now with the Zone 1 to 6 daily cap (that is including Heathrow) being £14.90, you would need to do the math, to see what works best. On arrival and departure day travel in by tube and it is £5.60 from the airport or £13.30 on the Elizabeth Line.
So it may be cheapest to use the Zone 1 to 6 cap on arrival and departure days then 5 x £8.10 daily caps [which is 4 tube journeys a day] on the other 5 days.
A Zone 1 to 6 weekly travelcard is £74.40 so that probably isn't cost effective- just depends on your own plans.

Thank you! That is valuable information. I wouldn’t have thought there any value to the Travelcard otherwise.

You do have to know your travel pattern to be sure. If you are grouping things together and thus minimising travel, or using bus rather than other modes it might not pay off.

Is there any difference between using an oyster card and contactless phone payment now? Do you just walk up and use your phone...no need to register first?

Essentially yes. There is no need to register anything. You can just walk up to a reader and use a contactless card or phone or smart watch pay. Just make sure that you use whatever method you choose you use it all day to get the best deal.