Me and Mrs. S are off to London for a weekend to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary. First class train travel and two nights in a rather posh hotel 😀
As a London novice, what's the most economical/convenient method of paying for tubing around?
A contactless debit card. Gives you the same fares as an Oyster without having to faff and pay the deposit etc.
Contactless card will give you the cheapest fare.
Buy a travel card for the day, limitless use on trains and busses, discount on river taxis.
[url= https://tfl.gov.uk/fares-and-payments/contactless ]Contactless - Transport for London[/url]
Daily capping on debit card is the same price as a travel card.
Just remember to use the same contactless card each time. Put it in a different part of your wallet to other contactless to avoid card clash.
You'll need one contactless card each.
Ah, cheers, useful thread...mrs dd is having a girls weekend in London next weekend and we were wondering about getting her an oyster card. Contactless it is then.
contactless defo saves a lot of hassles... ain't every debit/credit card contactless now?
If you need a contactless card each, how does it work if you are travelling with children?
You need to get kids an oyster if they need to pay.
https://tfl.gov.uk/fares-and-payments/travel-for-under-18s/travelling-with-children
I use my spare contactless pre-paid credit for my kid before when we went to london tube service.
ain't every debit/credit card contactless now?
No 🙁 Including my work credit card, so if I travel by tube I have to pay for it myself or arse about with an expense claim. First world problem, I know ...
Depends on the age of the kids. Under 11, like mine, are super easy. You just pay for yourself and they're free. Just aim for the luggage barriers on the underground and all walk through after touching yourself (fnar).
Apple Watch, obviously
No Including my work credit card
Report it as lost or damaged, the replacement probably will be.
Remember to zap out if the barriers are open & your not going to the end of the line.
Not sure how true, but someone told me they charge you as if you've gone all the way otherwise.
They do, but they're quite good at correcting errors if you get on to them afterwards (anecdotally).
Yeah don't forget to touch out.
Last time I was in London I remembered I had forgotten to touch of of the DLR when I was just about to join the m4 on the way home. Logged into my account to sort it but had to call them, it's not a big deal really as the worst case is they charge you the daily max. The silly thing is you are supposed to nominate the station you will next touch in at to trigger the refund bit for a nob-londoner that is not really going to work so they just refund back to your bank account over the phone and then your card (oyster) gets sorted next time you touch in anywhere.
wot they said, contactless.
If you don't have a contactless card you could use [url= http://eandt.theiet.org/news/2016/apr/barclays-apple-pay.cfm ]ApplePay [/url] instead to make your phone your contactless card although it's a bit more of a faff at barriers and you will have people huffing and tutting behind you.
Unless you want to look like a total n00b I'd suggest you and the Mrs stand in front of the barrier and stare angrily at anyone who tries to use it
MTB-Idle - Member
wot they said, contactless.If you don't have a contactless card you could use ApplePay instead to make your phone your contactless card although it's a bit more of a faff at barriers and you will have people huffing and tutting behind you.
Good point that; while I'm using Apple Pay more and more for small purchases, I'm not going to use it on the Toob tomorrow just because there's that slight delay as you have to touch the home button to activate it and get it to register, and it doesn't always read perfectly first time, so it'll be debit card.
I do have an Oyster as well but the two cards can interfere, as has been said, so I keep it as an emergency backup.