About Oyster
Oyster is a cashless payment system accepted thoughout public transport in Greater London with just a few exceptions. An Oyster card can store up to £90 in credit for pay-as-you-go, a travelcard season ticket or a bus/tram pass and a National Rail discount card. It can be used on buses, trams, the tube, DLR and National Rail services. You can buy them at tube stations, London Overground stations, some National Rail stations, Oyster Ticket Stops (shops), at Oyster online and over the phone on 0845 330 9876. A £5 refundable deposit is required.
Each Oyster card contains a computer chip which communicates with Oyster readers (validators) when the card is placed flat on/near to the reader, usually called touching. The card does not actually have to touch the reader though, it can stay in it’s plastic sleeve or even in a handbag or wallet providing there are no other similar smart cards nearby.
On buses you must touch in when boarding, while on trams you must touch in on a reader just before boarding. You must not touch out on either buses or trams. On the tube, DLR and National Rail you must touch in at the start of your journey and touch out at the end so that the correct fare can be charged. Where gates are in operation your card will open the gates if it is valid. If the gates are not in operation you must still touch in or out, either on the gates if they are locked open or on yellow validators which can be used either for entry or exit. A valid card will change the orange light to green along with one beep for an adult card or more than two beeps for a child card. If there is a problem then the light will change to red and you will get two beeps. You should withdraw your card from the reader as soon as you get the green light to avoid it being read twice.
This page updated 02 January 2011.
19 Responses
The other day I went from Bush Hill Park to Norbury { bus-tube-train } and thanks to this excellent site I discovered that I could switch at Balham { so avoiding the escalator nightmare at Victoria } using a OSI { Tottenham Hale via Balham to Norbury } but at Balham the gates were open and everyone apart from me was streaming though not touching anything – I spoke to the counter clerk and he said the scanner was working correctly so you have to wonder why the gates were open.
The station was not busy so I could see no reason why the barriers were fully open so I wonder what would happen to all the rest who did not touch in. Any ideas ?
You have to wonder if the barriers are kept open just to tempt people to walk though them { yes I am aware that if a station is chock a block there may be a good reason for this but this was a normal day }
Now in this case the scanner was working but lets say it was not working – what should a person do ?
Hi Brian,
The gates were probably open because there were insufficient staff to supervise them. Those who were not touching in or out probably have travelcards or season tickets. If they didn’t and they needed to touch an Oyster card at the other end of their journey then they would get a maximum fare deducted. If all the readers at a gateline were not working then TfL would probably make arrangements to refund overcharges.
Hope that helps.
Hi, i need some help. I purchased a new card in a newsagents then topped up with ten pounds however the money didn’t go on. What do I do?
Hi Casey,
I think that the simple answer is that you need to go back to the newsagent. They should be able to interrogate the card and see details of recent journeys and top-ups. If your topup isn’t listed then they’ll have to sort it out. It will help if you still have the receipt. If they don’t want to co-operate then you can take the card to any Underground station and ask at the ticket office for a full printout from the card. You may then be able to persuade the shop to sort it out, or you could call the Oyster helpline and ask what the next step should be.
Hope this helps.
in september i will be getting a student 18+ as im going to university of east london nearest station stratford. however i live 1 rail station out of london theobalds grove. will tfl be able to provide me with a travelcard on my oyster that includes the extra station or will i need to by a season ticket on national rail as well to cover the lot.
by the way love the site, very informative!
Hi Sabrina,
At the moment you won’t be able to get that on Oyster, unfortunately. If the TOC decide to extend Oyster on their lines then you may well be able to in the future. You do have a number of options depending on how you intend to make your journey. You could get a paper season from Theobalds Grove to Stratford which would allow any permitted route including via Liverpool Street. You could also get a paper travelcard season to zones 1-6 or zones 2-6. The second one will be cheaper but you will be restricted to travel via Hackney or Highbury and Islington. There is also a route via Seven Sisters and Tottenham Hale which avoids zone 2 as well, but the trains aren’t very frequent on the Tottenham Hale to Stratford leg.
Hope that helps a bit.
Just wanted to bring to your attention that the phrase
Where gates are in operation your card will open the gates if it is valid.
May not be true in all cases – I travelled from Kings Cross to Welwyn Garden City. Having authorised my card I got on the train and was later threatened with prosecution for fare evasion and actually prosecuted for a Bye Law because I did not have a ticket the stop before WGC was in the zone – WGC being outside the zone.
Still waiting on the visiting court but it looks like the sentence will be a fine and costs totalling several hundreds of pounds.
Hi Nick,
I’m sorry to hear about your problem. Unfortunately the card was valid to operate the gates at Kings Cross. It is up to you to ensure that you do not travel beyond the validity of the Oyster system when using an Oyster card. In actual fact the last station on that line that accepts Oyster is Hadley Wood, which is five stops before Welwyn Garden City.
In regards to your pending court action, I’d like to suggest that you register at http://www.railforums.co.uk and post your story in the Fares, Ticketing and Routeing section. There are several people who may be able to assist with suggestions to mitigate the impact of the proceedings. It all depends how far down the line you have got. It would be good to include what made you think Oyster was suitable for a journey to Welwyn Garden City, lack of information warning you otherwise, what happened when you were stopped, what letters you have received, etc etc. The key thing is to be truthful and not change the story with every post. I can’t promise anything, but if it is a first ‘offence’ in regards to the railways then they may be able to suggest ways to maximise the chances of an out of court settlement. It all depends what has already happened.
Hi,
I purchased an Oyster card from a local grocery shop and recharged it with my forex card at Bank station. However, the recharge point did not reflect any update in the outstanding. Assuming some problem with my forex card, I tried again but no update. Finally, I recharged card by paying cash. However, I see that my forex card indeed reflected two debits. Is there any way that I can check the history of amount loaded on the Oyster card. I tried using the website to get history. But it asks for a security answer which I don’t have/remember. Can you please help?
Hi Ruchira,
The security answer should be the answer to either (a) mother’s maiden name, (b) memorable date (dd/mm/yy), or (c) memorable place. If you still can’t remember it then you’ll need to call the helpdesk and ask them what to do. However, you only get to see journey and top-up history online if you have previously purchased topup online.
If you can return to Bank station I would ask for advice at the ticket office, and/or I would call the financial institution who issued the forex card.
Hope this helps a bit.
Mike, i wondered if you know the answer to this. If i begin a journey by national rail using oyster payg at wimbledon say, and change at vauxhall to the Victoria line where you have tap out and back in to get to the tube, when i get to my final destination (say green park) will my trip count as one journey to zone 1 or as 2 separate journeys?
Providing you do not exceed the time allowed for the interchange at Vauxhall it will count as one journey. However, because Vauxhall is a dual zoned station, special fares can apply at certain times. If the cost of a NR fare to zone 2 plus a TfL zone 1 fare is less than the usual mixed mode fare then it will charge the same rate as two journeys while still maintaining it as one journey. Using your example, Wimbledon to Green Park using NR to start with is a zone 3 to zone 1 journey which usually costs £4.10 in the peak. However, Wimbledon to Vauxhall is a zone 3 to zone 2 journey costing £1.90 in the peak. A zone 1 TfL single costs £1.90 all day. Thus if you change at Vauxhall it will only charge you £3.80 even though the usual mixed mode fare is £4.10.
Note: If you use the District and Picadilly lines instead it is even cheaper because that is TfL only.
If you only enter/exit stations in zone 3 and 6, but travel through zone 1 and 2, do you still need to buy a zone 1-6 travel card?
Does TFL know if people travel through zone 1 or 2 if they dont tap in or out in zone 1 or 2?
If the route programmed for the journey you make takes you through zone 1 then the Oyster system will know. If you have a travelcard season without the correct zones then it will try to deduct the difference from your PAYG balance. If there isn’t enough the the travelcard will cease to be valid until you top-up the balance to at least zero again.
So if I travel from Woolwich Arsenal to Oval I will have to pay for 1-4 instead 2-4? Even if I only change at Bank?
Yes, Marcin, you need to pay for zones 1-4 because you are travelling through all four zones. At least by using the DLR you avoid the mixed NR+TfL charge which applies if you take Southeastern to London Bridge.
That is what I suspected while I was billed 3.40 for today’s trip
Thank you!
Hi. i tried to top up my oyster by debit card yesterday morning for amount of 60£. transfer went trough but nothing was credited towards oyster. i contacted bank and they told me that transaction went ok . i did not take a transaction print out at the station. how can i take my money back..60 £ its a lot for me …spacialy before xmas
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Hi Pawel,
I think you have two courses of action. First, contact the Oyster helpline and ask them for advice. If they cannot help then you’ll have to contact your bank and explain that the transaction didn’t get to your oyster card and ask them to charge it back, or at the very least dispute the transaction with the retailer (TfL).
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