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Advice on fares - To Oyster or not to Oyster

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mrrobward

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Hi all,

I am going to London next week for 2 days (on a business trip so all monies will be returned, but I need to save as much money as possible)

Now I will be going into Liverpool Street and then we are jumping on the Central line and jumping on and off a lot and then heading to Richmond, the next day I will be hopping on and off a lot going to various sites and these could be anywhere in zones 1-6 on both days.

Now is it worth buying 2 travel cards at £15 each or should I get an oystercard with a set amount or just pay at the station? I just like to feel assured I have enough to get around.
 
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bb21

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Now is it worth buying 2 travel cards at £15 each or should I get an oystercard with a set amount or just pay at the station? I just like to feel assured I have enough to get around.

Do you really need an Anytime Day Travelcard?

If you're travelling after 0930 only, then it is sufficient to buy an Off-Peak Day Travelcard, priced at £8.50 for the Zones 1-6 version for one day.
 

soil

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You can get a record of journeys using Oyster online, but for 2 days 2 travelcards will certainly be more convenient, albeit also more expensive.
 

MikeWh

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Hi all,

I am going to London next week for 2 days (on a business trip so all monies will be returned, but I need to save as much money as possible)

Now I will be going into Liverpool Street and then we are jumping on the Central line and jumping on and off a lot and then heading to Richmond, the next day I will be hopping on and off a lot going to various sites and these could be anywhere in zones 1-6 on both days.

Now is it worth buying 2 travel cards at £15 each or should I get an oystercard with a set amount or just pay at the station? I just like to feel assured I have enough to get around.

With that description it's a no brainer to me - get an Oyster card. Put £15 on it for day 1 and top it up on day 2 when you see how much went.

Do you really need an Anytime Day Travelcard?

If you're travelling after 0930 only, then it is sufficient to buy an Off-Peak Day Travelcard, priced at £8.50 for the Zones 1-6 version for one day.

Absolutely right. And here is one of the best advantages of Oyster. Say you need to make one zone 1 tube journey before 0930. It will deduct £2 for that, then at 0930 it will start the off-peak capping process at zero. So the most you would pay that day would be £10.50. Without Oyster you would either have to pay £15 for the Anytime travelcard or pay a cash single fare of £4.30, or if you could do so, wait until 0930 to start.

The other big advantage, particularly if your itinerary is somewhat fluid, is that Oyster decides what cap to apply as you go. If you stay within zones 1-2 then you pay £7.00, add zones 3-4 and it goes up by 70p and only if you venture into zone 5 would the cap rise to the full £8.50. With the paper travelcard you would have to guess what you need in advance which might mean you un-necessarily pay the full £8.50.

The small downside. You'll need a £5 deposit on top of your initial balance, but this can be refunded at Liverpool Street Underground station just before you return home. Or you could keep the card for your next trip, or indeed anyone elses trip in the company. That's because a PAYG Oyster card is fully transferrable as long as only one person uses it at a time. And if the company does decide to keep the card then register it online and they'll have access to the full journey history for accounting purposes. In fact, if you intend to do that and have time, order the card online now so that the history is set up straight away. It'll also save time at Liverpool Street and means that the company could pay the initial charge with a credit card.
 
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