London Underground, Disabled Railcard and Foreign Visitor

daveboy

I'm seeking some advice as I have a visitor from Australia with me towards the end of June and am doing my best to plan things.

I have a digital Disabled Person's Railcard and wondered what the best course of action was with tickets on the London Underground. I have searched and the threads I found were from 2010 and 2012, and I know since then rules will have changed.

The Disabled Person's Railcard gives the holder and someone travelling with them, one third off. How does this work on the Underground? I have read that I will need to have this added at an underground station when I am there. But does this mean my visitor does not also get the discount (as you either need to tap in/out or have a paper ticket to get through the barriers). Old posts mention purchasing an off peak childs ticket - I don't know if the rules have changed since that was posted which was some time ago.

Edited to add that I am aware that the discount can only be added to one Oyster card, if the Oyster card is possibly the best option 

There will be some travel before 9.30, I think on a Monday as the other days will be at the weekend.

If someone could give me some help on the best way to go, I'd greatly appreciate it.

I've seen the Visitors Oyster Cards, I simply don't know what to do when I have the Disabled Railcard.

Many thanks and best wishes to you all.

spenderdave

Is this for multiple trips all within London or are you just visiting London for day trips. If the latter you can get a Travel Card which will give you and your visitor unlimited travel on the tube network on the day (off peak) and the fare to and from your local station. This must be a paper ticket to use with the ticket barriers in London and each of you would get a ticket.

t0rt0ise

The discount with the disabled railcard on the underground only applies to the card holder. Your visitor would need an oyster card for pay as you go fares. It is possible to buy a one day underground travelcard with your main British Rail tickets to London at a discount for both of you, but not for use before 9.30.

daveboy

Thanks for the replies.

We are travelling to London by coach which is already booked.

Would the best option be for us both to have a visitor Oyster card then and me add the railcard to mine once we are in London?

MilesT6060842

For a short trip, contactless payment card is likely the best option for your friend from Australia, if they have a card that works (they should check with bank/card provider before they travel). They may have to pay one foreign transaction fee per day, the outstanding balance for the day is settled once early in the morning, rather than per trip during the day.

For a longer trip, adding credit to an Oyster card from a foreign payment card minimises any fees, as long as you judge the amount of credit correctly.  Or use cash.  There is no financial benefit to a visitor oyster anymore.  Visitor oyster costs £5 plus postage, vs. £7 for a new regular oyster card from the ticket machine on the spot at your first station.  Neither oyster card version has a refundable deposit anymore, nor does the cost become a credit in the future.

Best option for oyster is to borrow a working oyster from someone.  Sometimes working cards are available for less than £7 on eBay (check not registered on the TfL website, and get proof of positive balance or at least an email assertion that the card works and has positive balance), and a working card can be sold on eBay (best if it is not registered, probably best if sold back in Australia to get a premium price for a traveller that wants the convenience of a card on arrival) as a way of recovering outstanding credit and cost of the card (getting refund of remaining credit from a ticket machine deactivates the card, which is a waste of £7). Use the credit balance check on a ticket machine at the last point of use and take a photo to facilitate a sale.

Or keep a working card (with outstanding credit, never expires TfL promise) for a future occasion.

jon81uk

You can get the railcard discount added to the Oyster card by talking to a member of staff at any tube station near the ticket machines https://tfl.gov.uk/fares/free-and-discounted-travel/national-railcard-discount
Be sure they add the correct disabled persons railcard as the others don't get discount before 0930.
If you don't already have one you will need to pay £7 for an Oyster card.

If you don't think you will save enough with the railcard discount to make it worth paying the £7 then just use a contactless bank card.

spenderdave

And if you have a concessionary bus pass (being disabled you probably qualify) note that buses in London (but not the tube etc) are free, just show the pass to the driver. Obviously your Australian friend won't have one of those.

t0rt0ise

daveboy said:

Thanks for the replies.

We are travelling to London by coach which is already booked.

Would the best option be for us both to have a visitor Oyster card then and me add the railcard to mine once we are in London?

You can't get the National Rail card added to a Visitors Oyster. You can only get it added to a regular Oyster, and it needs to be registered on the TfL website first.

MilesT6060842

t0rt0ise said:

n London?

You can't get the National Rail card added to a Visitors Oyster. You can only get it added to a regular Oyster, and it needs to be registered on the TfL website first.

By "it" I think you mean the Oyster card needs to be registered on TfL website.  Didn't know that, and I didn't think that used to be the case (although you may have had some credit and travel history first). 

Slightly annoyingly TfL website now uses "multi-factor authentication" for logins (per recent announcements), code by text to validate login, which means the account has to have a mobile number registered as well (and this may not work well for visitors who don't have a Uk mobile phone, automatic texts not as fast/reliable as you might hope for when travelling)