Oyster Card or Travel Card

[Old Timer]

I am travelling daily at the moment between Birmingham and Central London and buy a combined season, however, passing through the various barriers, together with the flimsyness of the card ticket means that over time, the print rubs out.....weekly in my case !

I am thinking of just getting a mainline season ticket and then buying a separate travel card to stop having to change the season on a frequent basis.

Oyster boasts of being cheaper but there is no guidance when it comes to comparing it to a travelcard unless I have missed something.

So the question, which is not addressed at all on the TfL site is this....Is it cheaper to buy a Zone 1 travelcard (monthly, say) or an Oyster Card ?

All journeys are peak journeys in general.

Thoughts and advice greatly appreciated.

 

[Surreytraveller]

Same thing. You can put a monthly travelcard on an oyster. It costs the same as a cardboard ticket. It is only single tickets that are cheaper on oyster, and they're capped daily at 50p below the relevant day travelcard rate. There is no monthly cap.

 

[Old Timer]

Thank you very much.

 

[Daimler]

Excepting the £3.00 initial deposit for an Oyster card, of course.

 

[John @ home]

Is it cheaper to buy a Zone 1 travelcard (monthly, say) or an Oyster Card ?

Surreytraveller has answered the question on Oystercard v paper Travelcard, but I should point out that Zone 1 travelcards are no longer sold. The minimum which includes Zone 1 is Zones 1 & 2, and that costs £25.80 weekly or £99.10 monthly.
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tickets/faresandtickets/2009/13599.aspx

 

[yorkie]

Don't forget, an Oyster card is just a medium. It can contain PAYG credit, and/or it can contain a Travelcard. I believe you aren't chinged if you fail to touch out if you have a Travelcard loaded onto it. Yet you are if you are on PAYG and have reached the cap.

 

[Old Timer]

If you fail to swipe out you are not refunded the difference between £6.50 and the actual fare chargeable. When you next swipe in you are charged a further £6.50 for an unstarted journey.

As you say it does not apply to a travelcard, but then a travel card gives you unrestricted travel whereas as I understand it, an Oyster Card utilising PAYG is for ad hoc journeys.

 

[yorkie]

That's right. The strange thing is that it still charges you for not touching out when you have reached the cap. Given that you cannot buy a one day travelcard on Oyster (why not?), a capped PAYG is effectively the same thing as a Travelcard (well, except not many NR lines but, from January it will be identical), so why do they still punish for not touching out, yet they don't with a period Travelcard. There's no logic to that.

 

[Old Timer]

Maybe the logic is that someone (say) joined a Bakerloo at the Elephant and travelled to Watford Jct. thus going outside the limits ??

I imagine its either a reveue protection thing or simply that the software programme is relatively simple.

 

[yorkie]

Maybe the logic is that someone (say) joined a Bakerloo at the Elephant and travelled to Watford Jct. thus going outside the limits ??

I imagine its either a reveue protection thing or simply that the software programme is relatively simple.

But why is that an issue for someone who has reached the daily cap (ie has effectively a Day travelcard) but not an issue for someone with a Weekly travelcard? That's where the logic breaks down.

 

[Old Timer]

As I undertsand it from reading quickly, the penalty for not swiping out applies in every situation where someone does not do this, so presumabley it defaults to the maximum fare on the basis that you have exited the system by an unauthorised means ??

I can understand the software element.

But that said they DO make it obvious so the choice is yours I guess. You pay your money and take your pick.

 

[yorkie]

But it doesn't if you have a Travelcard.

My issue is that a daily Travelcard is not really any different to a weekly, so why the different policy?

 

[Surreytraveller]

Excepting the £3.00 initial deposit for an Oyster card, of course.

Do you have to pay that if its a monthly? I though it was only if its PAYG?

 

[Daniel]

Do you have to pay that if its a monthly? I though it was only if its PAYG?

It was origianlly - it was changed, (IIRC the sstart of this year), to a deposit being paid for all Oyster cards issued.