The Oyster Card - I don't get it.

[Andy J]

Using this thing in London is confusing me. I've heard someone tell me it just costs £1 in certain areas for the trains, as long as you tap out. If you don't tap out you get billed a lot the next time you use it or something. Then there's the areas, you can tap in but then get to a station that doesn't have the oyster service, so you end up out of pocket.

Could someone explain in basic terms how this fucking thing works? Is it any better than rail cards etc.

[MarJay]

I was under the impression that the system charges you the lowest possible fare for the journey you make?
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[Bendy]

You get cheaper fares by using it.

If you're all over the place for a day, it works out the cheapest way you could have done it.

It means you don't have to bother buying tickets or travelcards and removes the need to know where you intend to go for the rest of the day and choose zones appropriately.

Afaik there are no stations where you can't tap out. There's ones where you could walk out without tapping if you wanted to (ie. the oyster thing is just a post, not a barrier) but that would be a silly thing to do.

More a tube and bus thing than a train thing though, I thought? I'm not au fait with what the restrictions are for mainline train use.

[arry]

[angryjonny]

I have in the past used my on-line Oyster-card tracking thing to work out exactly how I got home from particularly heavy nights out.

If you commute in London on a day-to-day basis an Oyster card is awesome because (1) it's way cheaper than buying tickets and (2) it auto-debits your bank account (if you want it to) so you never have to queue at a ticket machine.

[BigJoe78]

you can also remove the chip, put it in a wand and pretend you are a wizard
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2013 ZX6R 636

[nowhere.elysium]

Travel costs are capped, so after making n amount of journeys in a day, the remaining ones become free.
If you don't touch in and touch out, it'll assume that you're gaming the system, and will charge you full whack for the day.
It also costs half what paying cash does.

That's about it. If you're still struggling after that precis, then you're guaranteed to be bankrupted by ~1 week's worth of travel expenses.
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[BigJoe78]

Payment can be pay as you go whereby you top it up via the ticket machines with a card or cash - good if you only use it occasionally and if you loose it you just loose the cash you have on it. But you have to keep iy topped up.

Or you can have it linked to a debit card/bank account whereby it automatically tops up a set amount when it gets low so you never run out of credit

https://www.tfl.gov.uk/tickets/14836.aspx
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2013 ZX6R 636

[arry]

[Bendy]

You can also report it stolen and freeze it online, so the risk of someone racking up loads of journeys on your auto-topup card is pretty small unless you don't realise its gone.

[Andy J]

I've worked out that travelling to and from Deptford to London Bridge (zone 1-2) once a day 5 days a week will cost me approximately £700-900 a year.

Or I could cycle just over 4 miles each way.

I'm off to get my bicycle pump.

[Skudd]

I only like prawns.
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