New student daily travel in London

johnbhoy70

Good afternoon. I've read a few guides, etc but some conflicting info sometimes on the above. 

So my daughter has digs in zone 1 and her Uni is also zone 1. About half an hour walk on a good day or a few tube stops. 

She already has an 18-25 National Railcard and I told her to buy an 18+ student oyster card. I believe you can then link them at an underground station? Do these give you 1/3 off PAYG fares at off-peak on tube? 

I believe you can also buy a travel card which is different again at a cost of £120.

She's only been down a week and it's obviously hard to guage travel so far as she will need to travel more in future compared to this week. I've told her just to guage the first month travel costs and take it from there what will be best value going forward. 

Fully understand this is hard to answer as we don't know her timetable yet but I'll assume she'll be in most of the 5 days and out at weekends. I wouldn't think she'll be out of zone1/2 much at all. Also, just thought, off-peak will lower costs for her but again I'm guessing that won't always be possible 

Emmia

The easiest solution is a monthly (or longer period) Zone 1-2 travel card this means she'll pay a fixed amount for all her travel in zone 1/2 plus buses - any travel into outer zones will be charged at a bit extra, so having some PAYG credit on her oyster card is worth it. I just have mine linked to a credit card and then an auto top up.

A zone 1/2 travel card is £171.70 a month there's no zone 1 only card available. £120 sounds like the student price 

Information on costs and  price caps is here.

Caps and Travelcard prices - Transport for London https://share.google/v0DAU1VfQ7Uqa94Lf

18+ Student rates 
https://tfl.gov.uk/cdn/static/cms/documents/18-plus-student-oyster-photocard-fares.pdf

johnbhoy70

Thanks very much for your response. Yeah i think £120 is the discounted price travelcard for students. If she is spending regularly on the tube alone more than £30 per week then i'll tell her she would be better off with travelcard.

Thanks again

Emmia

I think from a budgeting perspective paying for a monthly/longer travelcard means you have certainty on the costs. You can also buy odd period cards online, so you could buy a card for the exact term dates upfront.

silvercar

She already has an 18-25 National Railcard and I told her to buy an 18+ student oyster card. I believe you can then link them at an underground station? Do these give you 1/3 off PAYG fares at off-peak on tube? 

Yes, get the railcard linked to her student Oyster card. If she only used the Oyster card, the amount charged would be capped at the daily or weekly rates for the journeys taken. So there may not be need to by a season ticket,

https://tfl.gov.uk/fares/free-and-discounted-travel/18-plus-student-oyster-photocard

Emmia

silvercar said:

She already has an 18-25 National Railcard and I told her to buy an 18+ student oyster card. I believe you can then link them at an underground station? Do these give you 1/3 off PAYG fares at off-peak on tube? 

Yes, get the railcard linked to her student Oyster card. If she only used the Oyster card, the amount charged would be capped at the daily or weekly rates for the journeys taken. So there may not be need to by a season ticket,

https://tfl.gov.uk/fares/free-and-discounted-travel/18-plus-student-oyster-photocard

There's a cheaper travelcard for monthly travel for students as well.

johnbhoy70

Thanks folks appreciated. Any savings even modest is a help for us.