Oyster + Railcard Discount

[methethpropbut]

I'm in a slightly interesting situation now...

So basically my friend and I both have 16-25 railcards, and we're intending on doing a day trip in London one day. I have an Oyster card with the railcard discount loaded, but I'm intending on purchasing a paper travelcard for use on the day. My friend however does not have an Oyster, and is intending on using advances to get down into London.

My question would be - could I just hand my oyster to her to use with her valid railcard, while I use my travelcard with my railcard? Common sense says that since we're both paying the correct fare it shouldn't be an issue... but I figured with our railways it can't hurt to be a bit more cautious...

 

[gray1404]

The answer to this is no. Once a railcard is loaded to an Oyster card it may only be used by the railcard holder who also has the railcard on their person when travelling.

In practice it would depend if you were stopped and subjected to a revenue check. If so, it would then depend how closely the RPI checked the railcard. It may be your friend would simple present their valid railcard and that would be accepted. However, when your railcard is loaded onto your Oyster can you remember if the staff entered your railcard number into the system? They normally do.

The other option is for your friend to buy an Oyster card. Or if you really didn't want to you could have LU gateline staff remove your railcard (at which point your friend could use it) and then even add their railcard discount onto it. You could then remove theirs and add yours again at the end of the day.

If your friend is buying an Advance to London though, some website allow you to buy a Travelcard as an add on. Could they do this? (although I do not think this is the cheapest option)

 

[bb21]

Is there any reason why your friend could not just buy her own Oyster card? It appears to me that you are unnecessarily complicating this whole thing.

If she is coming into London on an Advance I assume you will start from one of the interchange stations with the Underground?

 

[Hadders]

Couldn't your friend just buy a discounted paper travelcard. Depending on the type of travel you're doing this might be the best ticket anyway.

 

[MikeWh]

I'm in a slightly interesting situation now...

So basically my friend and I both have 16-25 railcards, and we're intending on doing a day trip in London one day. I have an Oyster card with the railcard discount loaded, but I'm intending on purchasing a paper travelcard for use on the day.

I have to start by asking why? As long as you are making distinct journeys with an attraction visit between each one* you should have no trouble using an Oyster card for the day. The cheapest railcard discounted day travelcard is zones 1-6 at £8.10. The same daily cap on Oyster is £7.90, but if you only travel within zones 1-2 then it's just £4.35.

My friend however does not have an Oyster, and is intending on using advances to get down into London.

If you can expand on your and your friends travel plans we may be able to suggest improvements, but for now I'll assume that the advance tickets will only get your friend to and from London.

My question would be - could I just hand my oyster to her to use with her valid railcard, while I use my travelcard with my railcard? Common sense says that since we're both paying the correct fare it shouldn't be an issue... but I figured with our railways it can't hurt to be a bit more cautious...

Obvious suggestion, give your friend the travelcard and use your own Oyster. The discount setting on your Oyster has the expiry date recorded and it is possible that an RPI might spot if the railcard and Oyster card didn't match.

Other suggestions: your friend could get an Oyster card on arrival in London and get their railcard added. Yes there's a £5 deposit, but that is refundable, or just keep the Oyster for a future trip to the capital. Or, if all travel is within zones 1-2 your friend could use a contactless payment card and be capped at the adult rate of £6.60 which is still cheaper than the railcard discounted paper travelcard.

*If the purpose of your trip is to spend a day on trains and nothing much else then we would strongly advise buying paper travelcards anyway.

 

[gray1404]

Cheapest option overall then is that your friend uses your Travelcard (as you both have the same railcard type) and you use your Oyster card. Strictly speaking tickets are non transferable though.

Your friend can then just give you the £4.35 if you are just going in Zones 1-2 (or more if more zones).

 

[methethpropbut]

Thank you all! To answer a few questions

- I'm coming from outside of London, so I figured that purchasing a day travelcard would be cheaper than a day return + the pay-as-you-go fare, apologies if I wasn't clear. We don't have much fixed at the moment but it'll lean more towards the distinct journeys with an attraction visit in between, in zones 1-2.

- Yeah she'll be coming in on an advance to Euston, never tried purchasing a travelcard as an add-on actually and I've always assumed it's the full price at £8.10. Never tried getting an oyster there and having to load the railcard before, so I thought it'd be much easier to just slip mine to her instead.

Many good points I hadn't thought about though, such as the expiry dates not matching and the fact I could simply pass her the paper ticket in the first place, effectively reversing the situation. I guess that's what I'll be doing, and thank you for all the help!

On that note though, I wonder if anyone has ever been caught out doing this, especially considering it's a case where there's no clear, or even clearly no intention of avoiding any fare at all. Not going to ruin my day out in London with this, but one can wonder...

 

[gray1404]

Just make sure you do not forget to get your ticket back from her before you travel back home. You do not want to end up ticketless.

Just to clarify, I would NOT advise getting a Travelcard as an Add on to a normal rail fare online (such as what Virgin offer you as additional options). It is very expensive and using Oyster or contactless is much cheaper.

I have only ever do this when claiming business expenses and I've wanted to get all my travel money back in go.