An absolute must if travelling in London (Oyster Card)

Member Name: Ghostkov

Product:	Oyster Card
Date:	26/09/09 (53 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheaper fares than cash, automatic caps, less hassle than paper tickets, easy to to up

Disadvantages: Need to keep it topped up or pay cash fare, cannot travel without one as prices become exorbitant

The Oyster card has over the last few years become an absolute must for anyone considering to use London transport services.

When the Oyster card first came out, prices for paying cash versus paying using Oyster card were virtually identical (a few pence difference), but fast forward to 2009, and prices when using an Oyster card have become up to 3 times cheaper. Think that's a good thing? Well, maybe not, but read on.

Back in 2004, you could get on the bus for about 80 pence. Every year since, the cash fare has increased and has now reached no less than 2 pounds. On the tube, it went from just 1.20 pound cash fare to over 3 pounds now. On the other hand, using your Oyster card has gone from little price difference to huge price difference, with bus fares being 1 pound and Zone 1 tube travel 1.60 pounds, and also still rising. The biggest benefit of the Oyster card however is that it gives you a daily cap, so you cannot spend more than 3.30 pounds a day on buses and depending on zones, no more than a certain amount on tubes as well. Any further travel deducts 0.

In effect, what has happened is that anyone without an Oyster (usually tourists, but also people who forget to load up their Oyster card) is getting shafted. With the price difference so large now, even a tourist in London for a mere day would be better off with an Oyster than paying cash, so the Oyster card as a Londoner's card has in effect back-fired. All it does now is reduce queues at the ticket machines by quite a bit and of course save some paper, though at the cost of increasing use of plastic. Worth it? Well, that's up to everyone to decide on their own.

Most would probably agree that overall, things might have gotten simpler because you essentially are forced to use your Oyster card, but its also sad that you no longer have a choice between Oyster and Cash.

In terms of reliability, the Oyster card is relatively sturdy and unless you intentionally break it, its likely to last for a few years. In the last 6 years, I only had to replace mine once, due to a crack that made it not read. Replacement was of course free, which is always a benefit.
The card is also accepted on just about every bus, tube, overground, dlr and some national rail, which makes it very flexible and saves time in that you don't have to carry a wallet full of various different tickets.

The Oyster card itself is not free per se. You have to pay a deposit to buy one, but that deposit is added as credit onto your card, so essentially it doesn't really cost you. Funds stored also last a lifetime (even past the card's lifetime as you can retrieve it at a ticket office or online!) but you cannot withdraw any. Losing your Oyster card thus is not quite that bad.

Previously, you could only recharge it at a tube station which made it a big hassle, but increasingly, small corner shops have started to allow you to charge up your Oyster for free (cash) or at a small fee, usually 50p if you top up by card.

Summary: Even if you only want to take the bus twice in London, you should get an Oyster.