Availability of Oyster cards

[ian]

Indeed, my wife still has an Oyster to hold her travel card, while I'm Oysterless and just use either my debit card (for personal) and work credit card (for work travel). Contactless works fine and I've never had a problem. Reaches all the way out to Gatwick now, presumably because they got fed up with confused tourists trying to tap out.

[andrewc]

I'm an occasional London visitor (every couple of months) but keep an Oyster on the go so I don't need to fish my main debit card out of my wallet each time.  Losing the Oyster would be a lot less inconvenient than losing that.

[orienteer]

Have a couple of Oysters for foreign visitors, with just enough credit to get them started.

(Our own are Freedom passes).

[Jaded]

As to not having your contactless card registered with TFL, if there was a problem you can access journey history for 7 days.

https://tfl.gov.uk/fares-and-payments/contactless/benefits-of-an-online-account Refers.

[ian]

I'm used to contactless now so using it for travel is second nature. It also makes London transport probably the best system in the world for payment and ticketing (as a regular international traveller, I can vouch for the many kinds of awful when it comes to buying a ticket and travelling on public transport).

[Cudzoziemiec]

Quote from someone else somewhere else: "Where is the sense in having to use a bank card to buy a ticket when you could use the card to board the bus?" Applies equally to Oyster as both are a means of paying fares without needing tickets.

[Jaded]

We found Berlin to be fantastic, once you know what was gong on. i.e. that you had to have a ticket, but it wasn't ever checked or needed unless a plain clothes ticket inspector asked you - and if you don't have one you get to pay an on-the-spor fine.

So, no barriers, gates, etc.

[Kim]

Quote from someone else somewhere else: "Where is the sense in having to use a bank card to buy a ticket when you could use the card to board the bus?" Applies equally to Oyster as both are a means of paying fares without needing tickets.

Quite.

At least until the government go full Handmaid's Tale on us.  But I'm already on their list, so I don't think using alternative methods of paying for travel is likely to help much anyway.

[Gattopardo]

Off Topic... What really fecks me off about this is that if I ride to Shenfield (17km) and it's about £4 on oyster (contactless card) to head in to London or I can spend £16 to go from my local train station (2 stop down the line, 3km from home).  On the same train - Its £6.30 from Chelmsford to Shenfield grrrr.... total fare just over £10! rant over!

On topic, you can register your contactless bank card on the TFL web site and use that as an oyster card without having to top it up.

Think it maybe something to do with subsidy of London transport.

[fuaran]

Can you use an Oyster for bike hire yet?

[Cudzoziemiec]

Quote from someone else somewhere else: "Where is the sense in having to use a bank card to buy a ticket when you could use the card to board the bus?" Applies equally to Oyster as both are a means of paying fares without needing tickets.

Quite.

At least until the government go full Handmaid's Tale on us.  But I'm already on their list, so I don't think using alternative methods of paying for travel is likely to help much anyway.

I've read the Handmaid's Tale but not seen the TV series; I get the impression the connection is quite loose. Context for the quote was Bristol's long-awaited MetroBus system (note use of CamelCase), which requires passengers to buy a ticket before boarding from a machine at bus stops (probably also available elsewhere, I'm not sure). Ticket machines obviously and sensibly don't take cash (cos thieves), and I presume you're still expected to wave your proof of passage-entitlement at the driver as you board, so you don't even get the full reduction in boarding times.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Can you use an Oyster for bike hire yet?

Now that would be sensible!

[Kim]

Quote from someone else somewhere else: "Where is the sense in having to use a bank card to buy a ticket when you could use the card to board the bus?" Applies equally to Oyster as both are a means of paying fares without needing tickets.

Quite.

At least until the government go full Handmaid's Tale on us.  But I'm already on their list, so I don't think using alternative methods of paying for travel is likely to help much anyway.

I've read the Handmaid's Tale but not seen the TV series; I get the impression the connection is quite loose.

They both have a scene early on where the protagonist's debit-card-like-object is rejected for a purchase, and it transpires this is because all the bank accounts with a female gender marker have been frozen.

It resonates more in the TV version, because online authentication of card transactions was still the stuff of science fiction when the book was written, and people routinely used nontrivial amounts of cash.

[Wowbagger]

Can you use an Oyster for bike hire yet?

You can't use a travel card for bike hire, which is a massive oversight in my view.

[Kim]

Can you use an Oyster for bike hire yet?

You can't use a travel card for bike hire, which is a massive oversight in my view.

You couldn't last time I used a Boris Bicycle (a few weeks ago).  Presumably the issue is the ability to chase you up if you don't return the bike (an anonymous mollusc with a tenner on the balance not being much use for that).

They're about to roll out a bike hire scheme here in Middle Earth.  Rumour has it this will integrate with the bus/tram card thing somehow.

[hellymedic]

Can you use an Oyster for bike hire yet?

You can't use a travel card for bike hire, which is a massive oversight in my view.

Agreed.

[Paul H]

Quote from someone else somewhere else: "Where is the sense in having to use a bank card to buy a ticket when you could use the card to board the bus?" Applies equally to Oyster as both are a means of paying fares without needing tickets.

Budgeting is one possible answer.  It's a lot easier to keep track of various expenses if they're kept separate.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Quote from someone else somewhere else: "Where is the sense in having to use a bank card to buy a ticket when you could use the card to board the bus?" Applies equally to Oyster as both are a means of paying fares without needing tickets.

Budgeting is one possible answer.  It's a lot easier to keep track of various expenses if they're kept separate.

Are you talking about the passengers' budgets or the operators'? Assuming it's the passengers, yes I can see you might want to use Oyster to keep travel expenses separate; but the context of the quote was Bristol MetroBus, which forces you to use a bank card but doesn't give any of the molluscular benefits such as fare-capping or reduced dwell times, because it still uses paper tickets.

[ian]

My work credit card, when used on the trains and buses, automagically feeds my work expenses with journey and other details. Which is actually quite nice (Uber does the same because the mothership has a business account) and enables me to keep my work and home expenses separate (I used to have two Oyster cards which were forever getting muddled).

I think part of the reason they keep Boris Bikes out of the Oyster system is that they originally wanted to discourage commuter usage (and the resulting tidal flow of bikes), which they mostly seem to have given up on. And I suppose they do want to make sure they some way to claim your cash if you abscond with the bicycle. Not that it seems much help with the other bike schemes, I don't think I've seen an Ofo-or-whatever in circulation that hasn't obviously been stolen.

[grams]

The hire bike system is overtly considered a massive loss making albatross* by TfL. Replacing all of the terminals would cost a fortune, as would making journeys free to Travelcard holders.

(* of course the system of red buses everywhere is also a much bigger loss making albatross, but you’ll never hear anyone from TfL describe it that way, even as they quietly cut back routes)

[grams]

An ordinary contactless card will notch up the debits, but there is a limit to the amount you spend. I think it's about £8 daily. Make sure you use the same card all the time. I understand that your card is debited by £2.40 every time you touch-in-and-out, but if you exceed the daily limit on your single card the difference is refunded to you at a later date.

It makes a nominal £0.10 hold at the first touch of the day, then all other touches are simply logged. The final charge is calculated at the end of the TfL day and charged as a single transaction.

The best use of contactless travel is with an Apple Watch. It’s a lifesaver if carrying anything.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Apparently in Lisbon you don't have to put a deposit on their equivalent of Oyster. Though I'm not sure how it works. And ordinary tickets are valid 24 hours, rather than being cut off at some arbitrary time.

Tickets are valid for 24 hours from the point of use

This is honestly a revolution, and is probably the last serious point we’ve got for you, but golly it’s a good one. It’s a simple premise: buy your day ticket and it’s then valid for 24 hours from first use. So if you buy it at 3pm on a Sunday, it’s valid until 3pm on Monday.

By way of contrast, if you find yourself in a similar situation in London, your day pass will only work up until the last tube that day.

You also don’t need a deposit to get a reusable card. The Lisbon Metro dolls out reusable (and non plastic) cards for a mere €0.50 a time.

https://www.citymetric.com/transport/11-reasons-lisbon-metro-blows-every-other-transport-system-out-water-4127

[hellymedic]

TfL cut-off time is 0430.