Cheapest London tube tickets required

jon81uk

pem said:

Many Thanks to Momanns for clarification

just one last question - currently what is the capped daily charge mid week Wednesday to Friday

Depends on what zones but £11.70 for zones 1-4.
Caps and Travelcard prices - Transport for London (tfl.gov.uk)

MilesT6060842

pem said:

Many Thanks to Momanns for clarification

just one last question - currently what is the capped daily charge mid week Wednesday to Friday

There are 2 caps in fact.  A daily cap (per day, obviously) and a weekly cap but the weekly cap is strictly Mon-Sun, and you may not hit the weekly cap with 3 days of travel.

The cap is applied in an overnight run (post 4:30am which counts as previous day) and the card is then charged appropriately.

The overnight calculations look at all the travel and optimise it to the lowest possible cost, which may be e.g. Zone 1-3 cap and then a single train/tub/bus fare to Zone 4 (also taking peak and off peak tube travel into account).  Contactless zonal train fairs don't always optimise the same as a a zonal tube fare for commercial/political reasons (back to rail franchising days) but the difference isn't huge, and only matters if you don't hit a daily or weekly cap. 

oysterfares.com has all the minor details, and also highlights the very few cases where a Oyster would be cheaper than contactless (again not by much, and almost certainly not concerning in your case).  Contactless is set up to be always cheaper than Oyster, at least for a UK bank card (disregarding overdrafts, credit card balances etc.).  Just remember to tap in and out with same card (in your hand not in a card wallet to avoid "card clash"), and tap out on train/tube/DLR/cable car to avoid a penalty fare being charged (expensive, but can be challenged with a call to the call centre when you get your card bill).  Buses and trams are tap in only.  (And bus hopper fare--no additional charge after first bus within 1 hour, but always tap in).  If you spend too long on a train/tube then you can get a "maximum journey time" penalty (would need a really long delay, just call the call centre with an explanation to get a refund)

You can check your spend for last 7 days without an account: https://contactless.tfl.gov.uk/UnregisteredCustomer/Show  Do this as day after you get home.  It asks for full card details including expire/CVV to prove it is you asking but doesn't make a change (will make a £0 or £0.01 auth to the card I think to check your details as that's the only way it can do that securely)

One additional point:  for contactless, at the start of the day your card will have a "credit block" of 1 maximum TfL fare applied (some online card websites will show this "Authorisation").  This hasn't been removed from your balance, doesn't "cost" you anything in the long run.  The block is there to test the card for liveness/not stolen and to protect TfL to ensure that they can charge you for a days travel next morning. The actual charge applied removes the block/authorisation.

Jaybee_16

You will need a separate card for each traveller. A contactless card will not allow two travelling together on a card reader

pem

Thanks for all of the effort put in by forum users to advise and clarify my ticket requirements