Child rate pre-pay on Oyster

[Surreytraveller]

If a child has a Zip Oyster Card, can you actually load pre-pay on it and obtain child rate fares at National Rail Stations? I want to use it on the Emirates, and it says you can obtain a child rate oyster pre-pay fare, but nowhere on TfL's website does it say about loading pre-pay on Zip Cards, and where you can obtain child-rate pre-pay fares?

 

[transmanche]

PAYG credit is loaded to Zip cards in just the same way as standard Oyster Cards.

Child rates (cash and PAYG) for LU/LO/DLR journeys are shown here.
Child rates (cash and PAYG) for National Rail journeys and through journeys between NR & LU/LO/DLR are shown here. (There are certain sections of NR where LU/LO/DLR fares apply.)

Just click on the 11-15 tab for the detail.

 

[Surreytraveller]

PAYG credit is loaded to Zip cards in just the same way as standard Oyster Cards.

Child rates (cash and PAYG) for LU/LO/DLR journeys are shown here.
Child rates (cash and PAYG) for National Rail journeys and through journeys between NR & LU/LO/DLR are shown here. (There are certain sections of NR where LU/LO/DLR fares apply.)

Just click on the 11-15 tab for the detail.

Thanks for your response, but forgive me for being thick - if a child gets free travel with a Zip Card, why would there be child-rate pay as you go fares? Or are those fares on TfL's website just for NR, and the Zip Card automatically charges child rate?

 

[MikeWh]

Children with 5-10 Zip cards get free travel on TfL services and the Oyster system will allow for it. Zip 11-15 cards only give free travel on buses and trams.

 

[Surreytraveller]

Children with 5-10 Zip cards get free travel on TfL services and the Oyster system will allow for it. Zip 11-15 cards only give free travel on buses and trams.

Thanks. It's becoming clearer now! So, the Oyster system knows its a 5-10 Zip, so will allow free access. But will it charge the child fares linked to in post #2 above if travelling on NR? I only want to put pre-pay on it to use the Cable Car, but maybe it will be better just to pay the cash fare on that rather than risk a maximum charge at some point in the future when confused by it all and leave the Zip with a nil balance.

 

[MikeWh]

Thanks. It's becoming clearer now! So, the Oyster system knows its a 5-10 Zip, so will allow free access. But will it charge the child fares linked to in post #2 above if travelling on NR? I only want to put pre-pay on it to use the Cable Car, but maybe it will be better just to pay the cash fare on that rather than risk a maximum charge at some point in the future when confused by it all and leave the Zip with a nil balance.

With a 5-10 Zip card the system will charge child fares if the journey includes any of the late adopter NR TOCs (eg Southern, Southeastern, SWT) but nothing if the whole journey is on Tube, DLR, London Overground and other early adopter TOCs (eg FGW, Chiltern, C2C).

Cash fares on the Emirates cable car are all more expensive than Oyster fares so I would definitely put money on the card for that. The fares charged on NR services are not affected by whether credit has been applied or not.