oyster card

[tucker1865]

Confused....Can a husband and wife share the same oyster card when riding a bus or the tube....thanks

[Twickenham]

Confused....Can a husband and wife share the same oyster card when riding a bus or the tube....thanks

 

No. It's a one-person smartcard, so you'd probably set off all sorts of alarms if a second person tried to take the same bus/tube line with the same card...

[fabnfortysomething]

no sorry you will each need your own oyster card as it is scanned every time to go through a turnstile or onto a bus-cant pass it back

[OCCALIF]

no sorry you will each need your own oyster card as it is scanned every time to go through a turnstile or onto a bus-cant pass it back

 

Another question for a local. Will be arriving at Victoria Coach Station and was wondering where GBP can be added to an existing Oyster card other than the Victoria Station where orignally purchased a couple of years ago.

[Cotswold Eagle]

Another question for a local. Will be arriving at Victoria Coach Station and was wondering where GBP can be added to an existing Oyster card other than the Victoria Station where orignally purchased a couple of years ago.

 

You can top up your Oyster card at any rail, tube or DLR station, or at Oyster Ticket Stops, which are various newsagents, small shops etc. According to the TfL website (http://ticketstoplocator.tfl.gov.uk/LocationLocator/), there is a Ticket Stop at Victoria Coach Station, so you should be able to top up straight away, or just pop down the road to the rail/underground station.

[sparkieplug24]

if you have an existing card you can also top up online at the tfl website.

[Cotswold Eagle]

if you have an existing card you can also top up online at the tfl website.

 

Thanks, I didn't mention this because I wasn't sure it could be done from abroad - I know Visitor Oyster Cards can't be topped up online, so maybe that was confusing me. There would be transaction fees on most foreign cards, of course.

[Globaliser]

if you have an existing card you can also top up online at the tfl website.

Thanks, I didn't mention this because I wasn't sure it could be done from abroad ...

I don't think there's a specific prohibition on doing it from overseas, although bits of the TfL website do mention online top-ups "if you live in the UK". I'm not sure what filters, if any, they have in place to enforce this.

 

However, AIUI you can't just top-up online. The top-up has to be physically (electronically) loaded onto your card at some stage. You have to nominate a specific station where this is to be done. The top-up is automatically loaded when you next pass through a ticket gate as you enter the station. There are time limits for collecting. You can collect starting from the day after you order the top-up, and you must collect it within a specified time limit (about a week) after which the top-up order expires and you get an automatic refund.

[Globaliser]

Can a husband and wife share the same oyster card when riding a bus or the tube

No - and there would be no legitimate benefits from sharing one card anyway as an adult fare must be paid for each person.

[2irisheyes]

Confused....Can a husband and wife share the same oyster card when riding a bus or the tube....thanks

 

You must scan in and scan out. Important to scan out or your card could be charged for a longer journey. I think there is a cap on the amount charged to the card per day but I am not an expert, never having used an Oyster card, only read about it. Although buses can be slower, you will see more of London from the top of a double decker than deep underground.

 

The area around Victoria train station is a bit of a mess at present owing to the major upgrading of the station. There are no lifts (yet) between underground and the mainline station at Victoria.

 

National Express bus from Victoria coach station to Dover will go into a few of the town on the journey which means you will see a little more of the local areas.

[Globaliser]

You must scan in and scan out. Important to scan out or your card could be charged for a longer journey. I think there is a cap on the amount charged to the card per day ...

You must touch in and touch out when using the Tube, DLR, Overground, the Emirates Air Line cable car, or any other journey by rail for which you can pay by Oyster (pretty much everything within the Transport for London area). You must do this even if the barrier gates are open.

 

You need only touch in when travelling by bus; no need to touch out. For Tramlink, touch "in" at the stop before boarding; no need to touch out.

 

The amount deducted from your card is capped at the total of the combination of one-day Travelcards and bus passes that will cover the actual journeys you have made. As this cap can change depending on the type of travel you do and the zones in which you do it, the cap is continuously calculated and applied to your travel so far that day. Looking only at the cost of travel on any particular day, if you are using an Oyster you can never be worse off than buying a paper one-day Travelcard. More information here.

[phabric]

We have bought the Oyster card for our trip in August with 30GBP on it.

 

How do you know how much is left on it after each use? How do you know when to add more money?

[Cotswold Eagle]

We have bought the Oyster card for our trip in August with 30GBP on it.

 

How do you know how much is left on it after each use? How do you know when to add more money?

 

When you 'swipe in' (or out) at a gate, there is a display that shows the balance. You can also check at ticket machines.

[SteveH2508]

We have bought the Oyster card for our trip in August with 30GBP on it.

 

How do you know how much is left on it after each use? How do you know when to add more money?

 

Some of the turnstiles will flash up the deduction and the amount remaining. Virtually all tube stations have ticket machines which will display your balance when you touch the yellow disc reader (and you can look at your recent journeys as well).

 

If you do not have enough credit for the minimum cost journey then the turnstile will not let you through. Bus's readers will flash the red light and some combination of beeps.

[SteveH2508]

<nerd alert on>

A list of all of the Oyster card error codes

 

http://www.geofftech.co.uk/tube/codes.html

 

<nerd alert off>

[Cotswold Eagle]

<nerd alert on>

A list of all of the Oyster card error codes

 

http://www.geofftech.co.uk/tube/codes.html

 

<nerd alert off>

 

:eek: :)

 

On the basis that a picture tells a thousand words (or several error codes) here's a page with some pictures of gates etc., which will probably make it a lot clearer...

 

http://oystercard.webege.com/equipment.htm

[phabric]

We will mostly be taking the bus. Is the same on the bus?

[Cotswold Eagle]

We will mostly be taking the bus. Is the same on the bus?

 

Yes, there will be a very similar terminal with a big yellow swipey thing (there's no swipe involved actually, you just hold the card against it) as you enter the bus by the driver. On some buses they are also found in the body of the bus. There are pictures on the link I posted above, about 2/3 of the way down the page.

 

Swipe your card, wait for the beep and the little green light, and your balance will flash up.

[phabric]

Thanks for the websites great information.

[Janice621]

We want to purchase an oyster card when we will be in London in June. We want to go to Hampton Court and I note on the National Rail website that there is a price using the oyster card. We also want to visit Windsor Castle but there is no price for the use of the oyster card. Does anyone know if the oyster card can be used for that visit? Also do we have to book the trip in advance or can we just purchase a ticket and take the train that we want?

 

Another question - On the website it is suggested that if you are using the oyster card for 3-4 days you should purchase 30GBP. Is it easy to purchase an oyster card when we get to London? Is there a maximum charge for the day? If you need more money on the card, is it easy to top it off? If there is money remaining, can you turn the card in? Sorry asking so many questions but the website is somewhat confusing.

 

Thanks.

 

Janice

[MATHA531]

We want to purchase an oyster card when we will be in London in June. We want to go to Hampton Court and I note on the National Rail website that there is a price using the oyster card. We also want to visit Windsor Castle but there is no price for the use of the oyster card. Does anyone know if the oyster card can be used for that visit? Also do we have to book the trip in advance or can we just purchase a ticket and take the train that we want?

 

Another question - On the website it is suggested that if you are using the oyster card for 3-4 days you should purchase 30GBP. Is it easy to purchase an oyster card when we get to London? Is there a maximum charge for the day? If you need more money on the card, is it easy to top it off? If there is money remaining, can you turn the card in? Sorry asking so many questions but the website is somewhat confusing.

 

Thanks.

 

Janice

 

Good questions...Windsor Castle is outside the tfl area and hence oyster card is not valid. You will have to go to a station where train service is available to Windsor and purchase a ticket. Somebody else here can help on that.

 

The best place to purchase your oyster card is at any tfl station. If you're coming in from Heathrow on the tube, you buy it there. If you're coming in fro Gatwick, there are some other considerations regarding certain discounts available for London site seeing but we'll leave that for others. Same might be true for the purchase of an oyster card regarding certain 2 4 1 discounts available. But assuming the oyster card is the right direction to go for 4 days in London, you can put £30 on it and you also need a £5 deposit but it's no problem. It's fully refundable when you leave London. If you have to top up, it's easy too. At every tfl station there are machines where you touch the oyster card to the yellow pad, it displays all the info as to how much is left and your most recent usage. You can then top up.

 

On the day of departure, after leaviing the control area wherever you are, you go to the booking window and you will be able to get a refund for whatever is left on the card and including the deposit.

 

But do some research on the 2 4 1 discounts not available on oyster which might although I'm not sure include Hampton Court.

[Globaliser]

The amount deducted from your card is capped at the total of the combination of one-day Travelcards and bus passes that will cover the actual journeys you have made. As this cap can change depending on the type of travel you do and the zones in which you do it, the cap is continuously calculated and applied to your travel so far that day. Looking only at the cost of travel on any particular day, if you are using an Oyster you can never be worse off than buying a paper one-day Travelcard. More information here.

Some news about price capping which I haven't managed to post before now.

 

This year, TfL have reintroduced a feature of price capping that's been absent for some years: the daily price cap on a pay-as-you-go Oyster is once again lower than the corresponding one-day Travelcard rate. The differential, though, is no longer a flat 50p as it used to be - it depends on zones covered and whether the cap is based on a peak or off-peak one-day Travelcard. Current pricing details here.