Historical version 39 of Oyster Card (view current version)
Oyster Cards are the replacement for the old paper travelcards, for use on tubes, buses, Trams and overland trains in London. They are contactless smartcards and do not need to be inserted into ticket machines, merely put close to a reader. They can be used in many different ways, either as a sort of season ticket, or as a prepaid purse to buy tickets with. They have replaced weekly, monthly and yearly travelcards of the old variety.
General
Tube and DLR
When being used on the tube and DLR you need to make sure that you touch the card on the reader at both ends of your journey so that the system knows how much to charge you. The system behaves in two different ways if you do not touch in at both ends:
- If your Oyster card has stored on it a season travelcard valid for all the zones you have passed through on your journey you DO NOT need to touch in/out and it is ok to only touch at one end (the system in this case assumes you are honest and your journey was entirely within the validity of your travelcard).
- If you do not have a valid season travelcard for the whole journey stored on your Oyster card you MUST touch in and out in at BOTH ends of the journey or you will be liable for a �20 penalty fare. If you touch at only one end of the journey you will be charged between �1 and �5 (depending on which station it is) and the journey will be charged IN ADDITION to any daily price cap (the system in this case assumes you are dishonest).
Interchange validators
There are validators on some platforms where you are likely to change from tube to train. There are several reasons to touch these:
- If you have used a paper ticket or pass for the first part of your journey and are now going to use Oyster for the rest of your journey (or vice versa)
- If you have started your journey using your Oyster season travelcard at a station where prepay is not valid and will use prepay for some or all of the rest of your journey after this point (or vice versa)
Bus
Buses have a fixed reader next to the driver's seat. [Bendy bus]?es are different though - most bendy buses now have Oyster readers at all three doors so you can get on at any door. Heritage Routemaster (9 & 15) conductors carry little readers that will read your Oyster card.
Recharging
In theory you can top up you Oyster card or add a Travelcard online. But you then need to take it to the Underground station you have named (and until then you can't use it on a bus or National Rail or from a different underground station). In practice it may be simpler to use a Oyster Ticket Stop (mainly newsagents).
Season Travelcard
The Oyster card can hold up to three season travelcards at the same time each with different validity dates and zones.
Annual
One of the benefits of buying a yearly travelcard (gold card) is that it gives discounts on some mainline trains (similar to the network card). However, as the oyster card shows no outward signs of what its validity is you need to carry around your receipt that you should have received when you bought the travelcard. For gold cards they are issuing special travelcard look-alike "Gold Record Cards" to use as proof. These record cards do not, however, act as a ticket, but merely as a shortcut to proof of your travelcard for those who do not have an oyster reader.
Prepay
2006 prepay fares
Single tickets on the tube and bus are now around 100-200% cheaper using Oyster card:
- Tube Zone 1 is �1.50 Oyster or �3 cash.
- Tube Zone 2 is �1 Oyster or �3 cash.
- Bus (7-9.30am) is �1 Oyster or �1.50 cash.
- Bus (all other) is 80p Oyster or �1.50 cash.
Price capping
Since February 2005, Oyster cards have supported daily capping. This means the most you will pay in a day is the cost of the appropriate day travelcard less 50p. If you only use buses and trams, you will be charged �3 which is the price of a day bus pass less 50p.
Transferability
A useful hint mentioned in the 2005 fares and tickets 2005 guide is that if your Oyster card contains only pre-pay (ie no travelcard) then any adult may use your card for pre-pay travel.
Auto top up
You can register a debit or credit card online. It is automatically debited by your choice of �20 or �40 when you touch a validator with a prepay balance of below �5. The light on the validator flashes and an email is sent to confirm each time this happens.
Zone extension
If you have a travelcard on your Oyster and travel out of your designated zones on the tube (and maybe mainline trains) then the gates will let you out, but you will not be able to use the card again until you put some prepay on it to cover the price of a zone extension ticket. This is a good reason to keep some prepay on your Oyster card even if you are a travelcard holder (see IvorW's comment below).
Prepay on National Rail
You cannot yet use pre-pay on most overground train routes. The exceptions are direct services between these stations only (and not at intermediate stations unless indicated):
- Chiltern
- Marylebone - Harrow on the Hill - Rickmansworth - Chorleywood - Chalfont & Latimer - Amersham
- Marylebone - South Ruislip - West Ruislip
- c2c
- Fenchurch Street - Limehouse - West Ham - Barking - Upminster
- Liverpool Street - Stratford - Barking (limited service)
- one
- Liverpool Street - Stratford
- Liverpool Street - Walthamstow Central
- Liverpool Street - Seven Sisters
- Liverpool Street - Tottenham Hale
- Silverlink
- Euston - Queens Park - Harrow & Wealdstone (all stations except Kilburn High Road and South Hampstead)
- Richmond - Kew Gardens - Gunnersbury
- Stratford - West Ham - Canning Town
- Thameslink
- Kentish Town - King's Cross Thameslink - Farringdon - City Thameslink - Blackfriars - London Bridge
- Farringdon - Barbican - Moorgate (limited service)
- Blackfriars - Elephant & Castle
- WAGN
- King's Cross - Finsbury Park
- Moorgate - Old Street - Essex Road - Highbury & Islington - Drayton Park - Finsbury Park
Customer service
This is a bit patchy and you can get different things done in some places but not others:
- London Underground ticket office
- Check balance
- Buy tickets, top up prepay
- Clear unresolved journey
- Printout of last 8 journeys, top up amount and tickets stored on card
- National Rail station ticket office which issues Oyster card (some Underground stations have National rail ticket offices)
- Check balance
- Buy tickets, top up prepay
- London Underground touch screen ticket machine
- Check balance
- Buy tickets, top up prepay
- View last 8 journeys, top up amount and tickets stored on card
- Newsagents
- Check balance
- Buy tickets, top up prepay
- Oyster helpdesk
- Check balance *
- Check which tickets are currently on card
- Report of last 3 months usage sent in post
- Clear unresolved journey
- Arrange for refund of any overcharge (either cheque, voucher to redeem at a tube station or direct to the card when you pass through a specific station barriers
- Oyster website
- Check balance *
- View tickets currently on card
- View online order history
- Buy tickets, top up prepay
- Arrange auto top-up
Note: * - the system is asynchronous with the most up to date balance stored on the card. Where the balance is checked from the Oyster card database (i.e the card is not presented) it may be out of date.
Documentation
Comments
I bought one of these recently. I love it. Getting on buses is great, too, because there's no more need for the driver to squint at your ugly photocard picture and the expiry date on the travelcard. Whist buying it, I was warned strongly by the man in the office not to lose it, because the process for replacing a lost card is slow, tedious and annoying. I felt that was worth mentioning here. -- Earle
I'm very happy with mine. The one problem I've noticed is that, sometimes, I can go through a gate too close to the person in front, and you have to wait for the light on the reader to go orange before you try and open it. -- blech
A useful tip with Oyster cards that are travelcards, is to keep an amount of top-up in the card as well. This is useful for those occasional journeys outside the travelcard zones. I keep about 5 in it for the odd trip to Heathrow and the odd party happening in outer London. -- IvorW