London Underground Annual Travelcard Worth it?

lundun1

My company offers to buy us monthly or annual travelcards for travel in London and we pay it back through our salary throughout the year with 0% interest.

My journey is: Zone 4 - Zone 1
I travel to and from home (2 journeys a day, 5 times a week) and occasionally make another 2-4 one way trips on the tube (but this is by no means every week).

Annual travelcard price: £1,960. I'm also confused by TFL's website. Sometimes it says the only peak times are between 06:30-09:30 but in other places it also says 16:00-19:00 is peak.

Has anyone figured this out? There seems to be no discussion on the internet?

chunkytfg

Price cap for Zone 1-4 is £9.80.

If you're commute reaches the cap then that works out as £2352 a year assuming 4 weeks annual leave a year.

Obviously if you don't reach the price cap each day it could work out worse for you.

You need to sit down and work out how much your commute costs you each day then average out your extra travel and see what number you get.

Personally i'd probably go of the annual though for the simple fact that you never have to worry about 'having enough money' or remembering which contactless card you used to tap in etc.

If you use an oyster card currently and not a Contactless card log into your account on the TFL website and have a look to see how much you pay?

NBLondon

How do you travel to work now? If by public transport then the annual card will be better than Pay as you Go if you do those 10 journeys a week most weeks and the other trips are a bonus. If you are comparing with driving or something else it's more complex.

Buying it through your employer is a better deal than taking a loan (unless you have a 0% credit card deal that gives you a benefit) but check what would happen if you were to leave part way through the year - can you pay off the rest and keep the card?

lundun1

Thanks for the reply. Yes in London it's pretty much 100% public transport o seems like travelcard is worth it. (Not sure about what happens if I leave, will investigate!).

lundun1

Thank you that's a very helpful reply!. I did some more maths and a £7.8 per day normal commute cost x 5 x 50 (weeks, subtracting 2 weeks for holiday) comes to £1,950 which is £10 cheaper than the £1,960 travelcard. This means that I have to make 2 extra journeys with the travelcard to make it worth it. I think!

agrinnall

Why would you only subtract 2 weeks for holiday? The legal minimum in the UK is 5.6 weeks, which would make quite a difference to your calculation.

NBLondon

lundun1 wrote: »

Thank you that's a very helpful reply!. I did some more maths and a £7.8 per day normal commute cost x 5 x 50 (weeks, subtracting 2 weeks for holiday) comes to £1,950 which is £10 cheaper than the £1,960 travelcard. This means that I have to make 2 extra journeys with the travelcard to make it worth it. I think!

Is this a train-plus-walk commute? In which case the best deal may be a season ticket from the train company - but you'd have to ask if your employer scheme covers that. If you are adding a bus journey or some Tube travel across Zone 1 then the Travelcard should usually be a better deal. Or by paying only £10 more per year you have the advantage of jumping on a bus anytime you like... That's any bus in any Zone - so you could go from Zone 4 out to Zone 5 or 6 with it - or the tram from Wimbledon to Croydon and Beckenham if you wanted.

The thing about peak is complicated but basically TfL decide what is peak at what station - and depending on the demand it might be morning or evening or both. And if you have the Travelcard - it's irrelevant. So again - it might be worth a little more for the convenience.

lundun1

You're right, it is worth the extra just in case I use it for other journeys in and around London, which come to think of it I probably do end up using the bus sometimes.

Thank you all for your help!