Changing from Oyster to contactless

I currently use an Oyster card that is set to auto top up and managed via the Oyster website. I use it for work and pleasure and when a I use it for work I log on, download the journey history and claim the cost of the work journey on my cash expenses to my employer.

If I switch to using my debit or credit card rather than Oyster will the journey cost be the same and how do I get the journey history / cost in order to claim back the cost of the fare on my expenses? Would the card need to be registered on my Oyster account etc? Or do I need to set up a separate account?

TIA

If you register your card with your Oyster account then the journey history should be available in exactly the same way. Charges are pretty much the same. I say “pretty much” because I think there are circumstances where a days travel may be calculated in a slightly smarter manner to come out a bit cheaper but I’m not an expert. (It may also be that this has recently been migrated to Oyster use as well in which case the charges will be exactly the same.)

Just to add, both cards and be registered under the same account but capping is applied at the card level.

Good point, which reminds me to further add that if you use Apple Pay (or equivalent ‘Device’ Pay) then that is treated as a separate card to your physical card. Don’t mix and match!

You don't actually need an account to see your journey history, it can be accessed for 7 days via the TfL website but if you do add your contactless card to your existing Oyster account the journey history is visible for 8 weeks.

To all intents and purposes contactless is the same price as Oyster but there are a handful of niche examples where it is cheaper. This is because processing of contactless is done in the 'back office' rather than on the card. The same daily and weekly caps apply.

Contactless has a larger area of validity as it can be used as far out as Luton Airport Parkway, Welwyn Garden City and Reading.

Oyster is only cheaper if it has a railcard discount applied, because railcard discounts cannot be applied to contactless.

Hadders said:

Oyster is only cheaper if it has a railcard discount applied,

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I think that should say "Oyster PAYG is only cheaper".

Oyster can also be used as a carrier for weekly or longer travelcards, which AIUI do have some advantages compared to capping.

1. They can start on any day.
2. They don't require touching out, so you can combine them with a paper rail ticket.
3. They can be bought for periods of longer than a week.

Hadders said:

if you do add your contactless card to your existing Oyster account the journey history is visible for 8 weeks.

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13 months, for contactless.