TFL contactless for kids?

[diy_dude]

What is the best/cheapest way for a group of 3 adults and 1 child to travel round London for 5 days? The contactless with daily cap works really well for me as some days very few journeys are made. Can the child prices be applied to contactless for under 16's? We would use 4 separate debit cards. We also have a family railcard and will be travelling together if that makes other options preferable.

 

[transportphoto]

Cheapest will likely be to get hold of an Oyster card and ask any London Underground or Overground station for the young visitor discount to be set. Add a pay as you go balance to the Oyster card. Half rate fares for up to two weeks.

Bare in mind that children under five travel free, children under eleven travel free on Buses and trams
Tube, DLR, London Overground, Elizabeth line and some National Rail services. In both cases, they must be travelling with an adult who is using pay as you go (e.g. contactless), or has a valid ticket (excluding Group Day Travelcards). Up to four children per adult.

 

[drueberflug]

Unfortunately, railcards discounts are not valid for contactless.

However, besides discounts on Oyster, you may want to look into buying travelcards, with the F&F-Railcard-discounted Off-Peak one for zones 1-6 only costing £11.00 and £3.20 a day for adults and children respectively.
Just so you know, the Family & Friends railcard only allow for up to 2 adults to travel discounted, so the third adult would need to tap in/out by contactless. (edit: see below)

RailUK's ticketing partner actually sells Travelcards under the ticket section without booking fees, just select an Open Return within London for that day to get an option for an Off-Peak Travelcard.
These tickets are not available as e-tickets, and have to be collected at a National Rail station with facilities to collect these, e.g. a ToD-enabled ticket machine or some ticket offices.

 

[Haywain]

What is the best/cheapest way for a group of 3 adults and 1 child to travel round London for 5 days? The contactless with daily cap works really well for me as some days very few journeys are made. Can the child prices be applied to contactless for under 16's? We would use 4 separate debit cards. We also have a family railcard and will be travelling together if that makes other options preferable.

How old is the child? On London Underground under-11s travel free when accompanied by a fare paying adult.

the Family & Friends railcard only allow for up to 2 adults to travel discounted,

This is wrong - the F&F Railcard covers any combination of 1 to 4 adults and 1 to 4 children, subject to a minimum of 1 of each.

 

[drueberflug]

Unfortunately, railcards discounts are not valid for contactless.

However, besides discounts on Oyster, you may want to look into buying travelcards, with the F&F-Railcard-discounted Off-Peak one for zones 1-6 only costing £11.00 and £3.20 a day for adults and children respectively.
Just so you know, the Family & Friends railcard only allow for up to 2 adults to travel discounted, so the third adult would need to tap in/out by contactless.

RailUK's ticketing partner actually sells Travelcards under the ticket section without booking fees, just select an Open Return within London for that day to get an option for an Off-Peak Travelcard.
These tickets are not available as e-tickets, and have to be collected at a National Rail station with facilities to collect these, e.g. a ToD-enabled ticket machine or some ticket offices.

Just for your information, restriction code B1 applies to the Travelcard. -> nre.co.uk/B1

TRAVELCARD FARES
OFF-PEAK TCDSTD ODT​	Route .​	Validity ON DATE SHOWN Restrictions B1 OFF-PEAK​	Adult FAM £11.00​	Child CHFAM £3.20​

 

[diy_dude]

Cheapest will likely be to get hold of an Oyster card and ask any London Underground or Overground station for the young visitor discount to be set. Add a pay as you go balance to the Oyster card. Half rate fares for up to two weeks.

Bare in mind that children under five travel free, children under eleven travel free on Buses and trams
Tube, DLR, London Overground, Elizabeth line and some National Rail services. In both cases, they must be travelling with an adult who is using pay as you go (e.g. contactless), or has a valid ticket (excluding Group Day Travelcards). Up to four children per adult.

Do Oyster cards still cost £7 each?

 

[drueberflug]

How old is the child? On London Underground under-11s travel free when accompanied by a fare paying adult.


This is wrong - the F&F Railcard covers any combination of 1 to 4 adults and 1 to 4 children, subject to a minimum of 1 of each.

Sorry for my mistake, the F&F Railcard does allow for up to 4 adults.

Passengers Information​

Adults

• Minimum: 1
• Maximum: 4

Children

• Minimum: 1
• Maximum: 4

 

[diy_dude]

How old is the child? On London Underground under-11s travel free when accompanied by a fare paying adult.

15

 

[drueberflug]

Do Oyster cards still cost £7 each?

Yes, but the fee is non-refundable.
You can find further information here.

 

[Haywain]

Do Oyster cards still cost £7 each?

Yes, but they also benefit from lower fare caps than the price of paper Travelcards.

What is the best/cheapest way for a group of 3 adults and 1 child to travel round London for 5 days?

OK, the question is how far out of central London are you likely to be travelling?

 

[drueberflug]

Yes, but they also benefit from lower fare caps than the price of paper Travelcards.

I can confirm that, but then, one would need to look at whether the savings are worth getting the Oyster card.

TfL seem to not accept F&F Railcard discounts on Oyster. (link)

The following Railcards can be added to your Oyster card to get 1/3 discount on off-peak pay as you go travel and to buy discounted Off-Peak Day Travelcards:

• 16-25 Railcard
• 26-30 Railcard
• Senior Railcard
• HM Forces Railcard
• Disabled Persons Railcard

However, an Oyster card might still be useful for a future trip to London as it has no expiry date.

 

[Watershed]

It depends on the zones you'll be travelling through. Do you have any Railcards yet (e.g. a Family Railcard, or Two Together)?

If you'll mainly be travelling in Z1 & 2, the fact there is a PAYG cap available for these zones (but not a daily Travelcard) means it will probably be cheaper to use contactless PAYG for the adults. You'd pay a maximum of £8.90 per day for all modes, or £5.75 if purely using buses. You can see the daily PAYG Oyster/contactless caps for each combination of zones here.

If travelling more widely (e.g. into zone 4 or beyond) it might be worthwhile buying Family Railcard-discounted Z1-6 Off-Peak Day Travelcards as referenced above, costing £11 per adult and £3.20 per child.

You can't apply any discounts to a contactless card, but you can on Oyster cards. You can get a 50% Young Visitor discount for the 15yo child (this expires automatically after 2 weeks). This can be applied at any Underground station by the station staff. You can either buy an Oyster card at an Underground station for £7 (plus the top-up), or buy Visitor Oyster cards online for £5 (plus postage and top-up). Both can have the Young Visitor discount applied.

Alternatively, you can apply for an 11-15 Zip Oyster card at a cost of £10; this provides free bus (and tram) travel, whilst most Tube/rail journeys are heavily discounted and tend to cost no more than £1 (peak-time National Rail journeys are more expensive). There's a daily cap of £1.90 for all journeys made from 09:30 onwards.

 

[Haywain]

However, an Oyster card might still be useful for a future trip to London as it has no expiry date.

For the 3 adults in the group there is no benefit in getting Oyster cards because they can use contactless. For the child, one option is to obtain an Oyster card and have the young visitor discount applied (probably the best option), another is to obtain daily Travelcards on paper at the child rate (maybe for one adult as well to get the railcard discount), and a third is to obtain a weekly Travelcard season issued on a smartcard.

you can apply for an 11-15 Zip Oyster card at a cost of £10;

Now £15 according to that link. Another downside may be the two weeks that needs to be allowed for delivery.

 

[Watershed]

Just to do some quick, indicative calculations:

First example: if you were to only travel around Z1-2, contactless PAYG for 5 days for the adults @ £8.90p/p per day would cost a maximum of £133.50. 5 days of Young Visitor discounted caps, plus £7 for the Oyster card, would cost £29.25, making for a total cost of £162.75.

Second example: if you were to only travel around Z1-2, and used a Family Railcard-discounted Travelcard for the child and one of the adults whilst the other asdults used contactless, it'd cost £160 in total. This makes it cheaper for the 15yo, as they get 60% off the already 50% discounted child fare.

Third example: the Family Railcard option begins to get better value if you're going to be travelling more widely, e.g. if you travelled across Z1-4 you'd be looking at a £12.80 daily contactless cap - thus the first example would instead cost £221.25. In that case the total cost including buying the Railcard, with everyone on Family Railcard-discounted Travelcards, would be £181.

And if you're travelling to/from Zones 5/6 the Family Railcard option cost stays the same, whilst contactless PAYG costs even more.

If mainly travelling in Zones 1-2, getting the 11-15 Zip Oyster card is almost certainly the cheapest option (it costs max £24.50 including the cost of the application) if you have enough time for it to get to you before the trip.

 

[Haywain]

Second example: if you bought a Family Railcard

The OP states they have a Family Railcard.

 

[Watershed]

The OP states they have a Family Railcard.

Sorry, I missed that. I'll update my post.

 

[diy_dude]

Yes, but they also benefit from lower fare caps than the price of paper Travelcards.


OK, the question is how far out of central London are you likely to be travelling?

Unlikely to stray outside of zones 1-4. Probably staying within zones 1&2.

 

[Watershed]

Unlikely to stray outside of zones 1-4. Probably staying within zones 1&2.

In that case the best option would appear to be to apply for an 11-15 Zip Oyster for the child, and use contactless PAYG for the adults. If you know you'll be travelling beyond Zones 1-2 on a particular day, you might want to buy paper Family Railcard-discounted Travelcards for everyone that day instead.

 

[Haywain]

What is the best/cheapest way for a group of 3 adults and 1 child to travel round London for 5 days?

Should have asked sooner, but when will this be?

 

[diy_dude]

Should have asked sooner, but when will this be?

Monday, which rules out the 11-15 Zip Oyster option. I didn't realise it would be complex. I naively assumed there was a way to put a child discount on a contactless card.
Thanks all for the really good ideas and information. I'll probably go for the visitor oyster with discount for the under 16.

 

[Haywain]

I'll probably go for the visitor oyster with discount for the under 16.

I think that is your best option, and it can be done at any Underground station.

 

[zero]

Cheapest will likely be to get hold of an Oyster card and ask any London Underground or Overground station for the young visitor discount to be set. Add a pay as you go balance to the Oyster card. Half rate fares for up to two weeks.

You can get a 50% Young Visitor discount for the 15yo child (this expires automatically after 2 weeks). This can be applied at any Underground station by the station staff.

Do you know if the child would need to carry around some identification while travelling (particularly if they look over 15)?

Also I assume once the discount expires the oyster would then return to being usable by adults? And is there anything to stop another Young Visitor discount being applied in the future, not necessarily for the same child?

 

[transportphoto]

Do you know if the child would need to carry around some identification while travelling (particularly if they look over 15)?

No. There is no requirement for children to prove their age.

Also I assume once the discount expires the oyster would then return to being usable by adults?

Yes.

And is there anything to stop another Young Visitor discount being applied in the future, not necessarily for the same child?

No, nothing to stop it being applied again.

 

[diy_dude]

Hi all. The Oyster card with the young persons visitor discount was really easy to get and works well. A helpful member of staff was next to the ticket machines at Kings Cross underground station. He showed me how to buy the Oyster card, then applied the child discount for us. My 15 year old was with me but no questions were asked.

Thanks for your help. I wanted to feedback in case it was of use to others.

PS it’s useful to know it will become a ‘normal’ Oyster card when the young visitor discount runs out. I read that getting credit refunded prevented it being used again.

 

[pitdiver]

Can a PAYG Oyster Card be passed on to another person once the original purchaser has finished with it. It's not mine as I have a Priv Discounted one.

 

[drueberflug]

Can a PAYG Oyster Card be passed on to another person once the original purchaser has finished with it. It's not mine as I have a Priv Discounted one.

I believe that that question belongs in a separate thread, but, as long as it has no name, no discounts and no product on it (meaning it is not personalised at all), I don't see why not.