Oyster in London, is there any way to save a bit ?

kobracai

Fo anyone who lives and works in London, do you know any schemes or ways to save?

I pay £31 for zones 1 and 2 to go to work weekly, I could get the bus pass and save quite a bit but I do have a second job on Saturdays which is quite far from where I live and isn't really flexible... so paying £15 weekly bus pass plus a £12 daily Oyster pass for Saturdays would send me back to square one (£27 against £31)

I am not on a great salary, hence the need to save (and the need for a second job)

A decent bycycle to go to work would set me back at least £300, plus it's not very nice in the winter !

anyone has any way to save?

thank you

expl0rer

30-day travelcards work out slightly cheaper than 7-day ones.

Furthermore, an annual travelcard will cost you the price of 10 x 30-day ones if you can afford the upfront cost, which would be £1296 for zones 1-2. That's £25 per week instead of the £32 you're currently paying.

When I bought one, they also gave me a Gold Annual card for free, which gave me a 1/3 discount on National Rail.

The_Groat_Counter

kobracai wrote: »

Fo anyone who lives and works in London, do you know any schemes or ways to save?

I pay £31 for zones 1 and 2 to go to work weekly, I could get the bus pass and save quite a bit but I do have a second job on Saturdays which is quite far from where I live and isn't really flexible... so paying £15 weekly bus pass plus a £12 daily Oyster pass for Saturdays would send me back to square one (£27 against £31)

Re the Saturday journey, the £12 figure you've arrived at doesn't sound right.

If the journey on Saturday only involves rail & Tube within zones 1&2, then the maximum you'd pay is the daily cap of £6.50. You might pay less depending on what journeys you make - and if you had a Bus Pass on your Oyster card, then you obviously wouldn't pay any extra for bus journeys on the Saturday.

£11.80 meanwhile is the daily cap for journeys across zones 1-6. All the daily caps for adults are listed here:
http://content.tfl.gov.uk/adult-fares.pdf

The_Groat_Counter

expl0rer wrote: »

When I bought one, they also gave me a Gold Annual card for free, which gave me a 1/3 discount on National Rail.

This is standard for any annual London Travelcard or annual rail season ticket issued for journeys in London and the south east of England.

Information about Annual Gold Cards from TfL

Information about Annual Gold Cards from National Rail

misiek404

kobracai wrote: »

A decent bycycle to go to work would set me back at least £300, plus it's not very nice in the winter !

You spend £300 on public transport EVERY 7 weeks. The bike would pay for itself in less than 2 months. It's free travel from then on.

ThemeOne

You could get a Zone 2 only travelcard which is valid on all buses. For your weekday job you could get off the train / tube at a 1/2 dual-zoned station such as Vauxhall, Elephant & Castle, and continue into zone 1 by bus.

It would mean you'll spend longer travelling, but that is nearly always the price of paying less. It may also be that your Saturday job is too far to get to by bus.

elverson

misiek404 wrote: »

You spend £300 on public transport EVERY 7 weeks. The bike would pay for itself in less than 2 months. It's free travel from then on.

You'll get through brake pads and chains quicker if you're riding every day, but overall cycling is cost effective.

Why not get a bike in March/April and use it until September/October, then go back to using Oyster in the winter months?

jon81uk

£12 on a Saturday sounds wrong, that is for a paper travelcard, use an Oystercard (or contactless bank card) for Pay as you Go and the cap is £6.50 a day or £32.40 a week. Cheapest is just to use contactless, that way if you don't hit the cap, you just pay per journey but it also caps for the week as well, so if you spend over £32.40 it doesn't charge any more than that. Oyster pay as you go doesn't have weekly caps as it runs on an older system.

Cornucopia

kobracai wrote: »

anyone has any way to save?

Apart from the big choices (like cycling), the other aspect of this is getting down into the detail. Although TfL likes to present London as a simple set of concentric fare zones, the truth is rather more complicated, and there are opportunities to save.

You need to look at all the underlying single fares using this: https://tfl.gov.uk/fares-and-payments/fares/single-fare-finder
and this:
https://www.oystercalculator.co.uk

You'll find variations in fares depending on the exact start and end points, time of day and use of alternate stations and services. As an example, Penge (East or West) - Oxford Circus has 6 different fares depending on the exact circumstances.

Travelling to/from "London Terminus" stations on national rail can also help, assuming that your destination is within walking/bus distance of one of them. e.g. Blackheath-Charing Cross is £3.40 peak single, but Blackheath-Leicester Square is £5.

Also, the fare caps work slightly differently between Oyster and Contactless (Contactless being generally more generous).

There are also a few split ticket possibilities for longer journeys in London.

So the answer is to get into the detail, and see what works for the journeys you make using the online tools, and then try them in practice to see how practical they are.

macman

£300 for a bike? You can get a perfectly good refurbed bike for around £100.

misiek404

elverson wrote: »

You'll get through brake pads and chains quicker if you're riding every day, but overall cycling is cost effective.

It's very cost effective.
Had my bike (£300) for 3 years of daily riding. Bought a good set of LED lights (£30), puncture repair kit (£2) and chain oil (£4). Just basic monthly maintenance (takes about 30-60 minutes including a wash). No squeaks, rattles etc. No need for pads or chain replacement yet.
So it's £336 versus nearly £7,000 that OP will spend in next 3 years on public transport. £7k that's a great holiday abroad every year for 3 years.