Visitor Oyster Cards

Whilst you can get a Visitor Oyster card from TFL you can't get it in London. It has to be posted to you and the postage is an extra cost on top of the £5. There are I think one or two discount offers on the Visitor card but nothing of any great value.

I can't see any value with the Visitor card therefore. If you want to have an Oyster card then just get one when you get here. they cost £7 non-refundable but no postage so still cheaper and they will do everything a visitor card will. You will need an Oyster for any 10-15 year olds to get the Young Visitor discount added but any adults can just use a contactless card or phone or smart watch pay.

For anyone in the PNW you can avoid the international postage cost by buying at Go-Today in Bothell or in NY state at Rail Europe at White Plains.
Two of the discounts you get with a Visitor Oyster over a regular Oyster are 26% off the IFS cable car, or 19% off uber boat single fares.

But you get better Uber boat discounts if you are using a travelcard (a different debate again without a clear answer- PAYG vs Travelcards).

I'm not sure there is any huge advantage or disadvantage, just seems an inconvenience having it mailed to you. On the other hand it's a cheap souvenier/keepsake.

Get over the mailing issue and is the £5 a deal breaker in the context of the overall trip cost? Who knows? The price of a takeout coffee.

It's kind of why bother when you can buy an Oyster here easily- if lucky one of the special limited issue Oysters.

Everyone paints the £7 normal cost of an Oyster as a big issue vs contactless, but again I don't see the £7 as a problem unless budget is really tight. To me it's like the $3 Orca card cost in Seattle- annoying, but so what.

In summary I am on the fence. No clear disadvantage, bar the mailing. To me do whichever you want to do.

Whilst you can get a Visitor Oyster card from TFL you can't get it in London. It has to be posted to you and the postage is an extra cost on top of the £5...

I don't see that the difference between £7 & £5+postage as being a significant difference in cost that would necessarily persuade someone away from the visitor card. There use to be distinct reasons to not select the visitor card that do not seem to exist now.

In my experience giving advice to coworkers planning trips, there are those that easily grasp contactless and Oyster Cards. Then there are those with no experience using and paying for public transit and they find the visitor cards attractive because its the one tool in hand and it gets them past whether systems they have no experience with actually works.

We were in London in July this year and did not get oyster cards. We just "tapped" our credit card. Each person needs to have their own credit card though. You save by not having to pay for the oyster card fee and also not leaving "money" on the card. Using a credit card was so easy!

"Then there are those with no experience using and paying for public transit and they find the visitor cards attractive"

I would have thought contactless payment is easy to understand, even for those with no experience of public transport.

Good information here! What about combining tube and bus fares in one day?

Does the PAYG method with daily cap (around £8?) include bus fares? Or would bus fares accumulate on a separate PAYG cap/charge?
Let’s say a I take 4 tube rides and 2 bus rides within zones 1-2.
Thanks for sharing your expertise! Happy holidays :)

Yes the cap is for bus, tube, overground and National Rail trains in any combination in whichever combination of zones is chosen- Zone 1 and 2 being the least combination of zones- or you cab have Z1-3, 1-4 etc or even just certain outer zones, excluding Zone 1.

There is a different, lower, bus only cap (all zones, as flat fare). But no train only or tube only cap