Confused about Oyster

jessielicious

I'm having real trouble understanding the concept of the Oyster card, can someone help me? It sounds as though it only saves you money if you make occasional journeys or only use short term season tickets. I travel to Charing Cross from zone 3 daily, and then take the tube from Embankment to within zone 1. I make very occasional additional train, tube and bus journeys during the week and/or at weekends. I currently get a season ticket loan from work and buy an annual travelcard at around £1000 for the year. Would there be any benefit in me getting an Oyster card?

isasmurf

Oyster is not just for people who make occassional journeys or short term season tickets. All season tickets and travelcards (except 1 day) bought from a Transport for London ticket office are issued on Oyster. If you buy your season ticket/travelcard from a National Rail ticket office then it will still be issued on paper.

Your travelcard entitles you to unlimited travel in Zones 1-3, and unlimited travel on all buses in London. An Oystercard to you would only be suitable to you if you use the tube in Zones 4-6. It would save you £2 on your journeys not covered by your travelcard if you don't travel into zone 6, or £2 at weekends and weekday evenings (after 7pm), and £1.20 during weekday daytime (before 7pm) for any journey into zone 6. Unfortunately, Pay as You Go Oyster is not valid for travel on most rail routes in London.

I, like you have a season ticket loan, and a Zone 1-3 Annual Goldcard. This is stored on my Oystercard. I can also add some money onto my Oyster card, so that when I travel outside of Zone 3 on the tube it will automatically deduct the correct fare for the extension off my Oyster. I can add this money using the internet and have it credited to my card when I touch in for the start of my journey. This saves me having to make a detour to the ticket office to ask for an extension.

As far as I'm concerned Oyster is the best thing since sliced bread, and I can't wait until National Rail starts to accept it (I fear I might have a long wait). I frequently make journeys out of London and the most annoying thing for me is having to queue up at a National Rail ticket office to ask for a ticket from the Zone 3 boundary to wherever I'm going with a Gold Card discount.

Bargain_Rzl

There is one other very important thing you should remember which is one of the reasons I'm still without an Oyster Card.

As you say you commute to Charing Cross from Zone 3, I'm assuming this is via National Rail from a station served by SE Trains. IF AND ONLY IF you bought your paper season ticket from a SE Trains station (i.e. not a tube station), then you get a 5% discount when you renew your season ticket at a SE Trains station. This is standard compensation for substandard service levels and is something to do with the rail passengers' charter - it applies to all monthly or longer season tickets bought from SE Trains stations. This is not a time-limited discount as it's been applicable for the entire time I've had season tickets (since early 2000!)

If you decide to switch to Oyster you will no longer get this discount. Please remember to factor this into your calculations as to what works out cheaper for you. My current season ticket saved me approx £60 (from zone 4) but as annual travelcards issued on paper are now more expensive than annual travelcards on Oyster, I'll have to work out whether the discount is worth more than the price difference next time I renew (in July).