Dos and Don’ts
Touch In and Touch Out
The single most important rule with Oyster pay-as-you-go is to remember to touch in and touch out wherever you go. That doesn’t apply on buses or trams, but is always required on tubes, national rail and DLR. If you forget to do it then you will be charged a maximum fare for that journey and it won’t count towards any price cap for that day.
Register your card and Top-up online
When you get an oyster card it is highly recommended that you register it. This can be done at the same time by filling in a form and handing it to the vendor. Part of the registration process involves setting a password which can then be used to prove your identity when asking for a refund of any pay-as-you-go balance in the event of loss or damage to your card. You’ll also need it to set up an account on the TFL website. Using that account you can order top-up and optionally set up auto top-up. Once you have purchased a top-up online you will then have access to a most important tool – your journey history.
Check your Journey History regularly
The oyster system is incredibly complex, and the addition of national rail has added yet more complexity on top. There are different price caps for buses and trams, peak and off-peak travel as well as different routes for many journeys on national rail. If you regularly check your journey history you can spot if any errors have been made. You’ll also see whether you have been charged any maximum fares and can work out why. If there is a good reason you can ask for an adjustment to be made.
This page updated 19 February 2010.
36 Responses
Just found this site, courtesy of Barry Doe in “Rail” magazine; great site and loads of info – keep up the good work! With regards to “Dos and Don’ts – Touch In and Out” is it worth adding to always check the validator/ reader for a green light. Recently my wife didn’t tap out correctly at Shadwell and this resulted in an uncompleted journey.
Hi Colin,
Thanks for your comments. I agree, touching in and out without the reassurance of an opening gate can be problematic. It’s something I will be expanding on in the future when time allows.
Whilst changing at Clapham Junction to Platform 16 to join northbound Milton Keynes Southern service I needed to tap in at the Reader indicated by an overhead sign on this Platform and found it not installed. Fortunately the Guard held the train at Kensington Olympia whilst I tapped in at the reader at the station entrance (my ‘paper’ ticket was valid to Kensington (O)) but had I not found this co-operative Guard, I should no doubt have been penalised at Watford Junction which acquired a bad reputation for itself when availablity of Oyster was extended to NR – insisting Oystercard Users should have used London Overground to travel from Euston NOT London Midland. A return journey from Watford High St. to London Euston could have been quicker via Watford Jn. but I was uncertain what effect it would have on my balance if I had tapped in at Watford Junction, as its not a ‘straightforward ‘ journey but is charged at a higher fare than ‘direct’ from Watford High St. Any opinions please?
Thanks for a great Site.
Hi Ian,
Quite a few points there. First, at Clapham Junction the reader on platform 16 was there to enable the vast majority of users to join the Oyster system when it was only valid towards Kensington Olympia. Unfortunately they seem to have forgotten that some trains from the South West make their first stop within the Oyster area there and so it would still be useful to have readers sited on the platforms. I think there might still be one on platform 2 for the overground, but I’m not 100% sure.
I can’t comment at all on the reputation or otherwise of Watford Junction, other than to say that it’s annoying that one of the inconsistencies in the peak vs off-peak charging is that London Midland insist on allowing off-peak fares when travelling against the peak flow between Euston and Watford Junction.
Finally, I don’t know specifics, but would changing at Bushey provide an alternative to going via Watford Junction from Watford High Street? You are then not doubling back. If you wanted to go via the Junction then I think you should probably touch out and touch back in again there to make it two separate journeys. An encounter with an RPI on a non-stop train might otherwise lead to a penalty fare.
Hope this helps.
On the subject of touching in and touching out, what about when they open the gates because there’s a crowd? According to this http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/mindthegap/2011/02/osyter_blog.html (read the comments as well) then TFL institute what they call autocomplete by which the sensors possibly detect cards coming through, although this is disputed. PAYG users will get charged a maximum fare, but apparently if they touch in at the same station within 3 days will get an automatic refund. All this has not been made public & depends totally on people returning soon to the station they left from. Notice how Waterloo is staion where most overcharging has taken place.
Hi Alun,
Sorry for the delay approving this, the BBC link seems to have caused it to wind up in the spam queue!
I’ve read that article and I must admit that it does seem quite confusing what is going on. I think that they’re saying that when you touch in within 3 days at the same station then it will auto complete any unfinished journeys which could have ended there. It does seem quite hit and miss and I’d certainly be scrutinising my journey history and statement with a fine tooth comb if that ever applied to me.
If I get any more information I will be adding it to the site.
If you read Comment 25 on the article it does go into more detail on Selective Auto Complete (SAC). Appears that they can put it on more than one adjacent station (in the same zone) to the one where you’ve been told to get out without touching, and that you must return to one of those stations the same day as your uncompleted journey was made in which case it will be automatically completed.
Perhaps here is the place to mention “same station exit” http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tickets/14870.aspx which is what happens if you touch in and then touch out at the same station on PAYG. Basically, if under 2 minutes between touches a maximum Oyster fare which is repaid if you re-enter, 2-30 minutes a minimum Oyster fare, more than 30 minutes two maximum Oyster fares!
TFL comment that this is to combat fare evasion, but I wonder how much cash they make on this?
Hi Alun,
I’ll be writing further about this shortly, but thanks for mentioning it.
i have finally login online to check my oyster usage. i had to call in a refund for yesterday’s delays in clapham junction and the very helpful staff got my profile up-to-date. when i he was explaining how it works he said that if i want to see my oyster history online i need to make a purchase online first, which was fine with me, i top-up my PAYG 3 times a week anyway. I have a registered oyster with young person’s railcard loaded onto it, but now when i was about to buy £5 PAYG credit it also added refundable card charge of £5 to my basket, £10 altogether! Why should I pay £5 extra? I have been using this oyster for 3 years and it’s registered and with another TFL product on it. Any help will be much appreciated. It used to be my student photocard btw, now using it as adult oyster
Hello again!
£5 deposit + £5 PAYG balance looks to me like you are obtaining a new card. The deposit is paid when the card is issued and refunded when it is surrendered. Have you attached your existing card to your online account yet?
yes it’s attached, i can actually select between the two oysters on the account. one of them is -0.40. is that the problem?
OK. If you only had one card before then it looks like you’ve just bought another one which will arrive in the post. A negative balance shouldn’t stop you ordering top-up. I’ve just gone in on my card. When you select “add/renew/topup ticket” it offers you the chance to “buy a new Oyster card” at the end of the first paragraph. I think you must have clicked on that. Further down that page is the selection to either add a travelcard or PAYG credit to the already selected card.
If you don’t want the new card when it arrives then you’ll need to take it back to a tube station. You might be able to send it back, but I’ve not yet had to give up an Oyster card so I’m not sure of the options.
you’re right! it didn’t associate the purchase with my existing oyster card. i tried it again and it just charged me for the top up and that’s all. thanks a lot
My journey from Honor Oak Park to Kensington Olympia is £10.90 on a normal weekly rail ticket so long as I do not go via london.
When using Oyster pre pay the daily journey was £6.50 again when I was not traveling via London.
The advertised fare is from £1.50 on oyster. Yet every time I query this with TFL I never get a reply.
It is a joke that such a discrepancy exists on these fares.
Hi Bob,
I think I know what is happening here. Are you looking at your journey history? When you touch in on PAYG (pre-pay) the system makes a deduction. This is £6.50 in the peak hours and £4.40 off-peak. When you touch out it will credit back the required amount which in your case will be £4.60 peak and £2.90 off-peak so that you end up being charged £1.90 peak or £1.50 off-peak. The journey history screen shows every deduction and credit separately which can often cause confusion.
However, if what you are saying is that you are actually being charged £6.50 then that means that you are not touching in and out correctly. £6.50 is the incomplete journey charge in the peak hours and is deducted when you touch in, or when you touch out without having touched in. I don’t know what the situation is with gates at your two stations. I do know that Kensington Olympia has a little complication in that it has pink route validators on the platforms. These should only be used when interchanging at Kensington Olympia. They will not register touch in or touch out.
I hope this helps.
Mike, I regularly travel Balham LU to Harrow on the Hill NR via Marylebone (off peak). Oyster Card Fare = £2.70 I have a company season M-ticket which carries me from Harrow on the Hill to Aylesbury. Two weeks ago there was no Victoria or Metropolitan line. I traveled Balham to Marylebone LU expecting to join the NR link up to Harrow on the Hill, there was no Chiltern Line. I was advised on the concourse to rejoin the Bakerloo Line travel on to Paddington and take the alternative Chiltern Line train running from Platform 13, change at Beaconsfield, join a replacement bus service to Amersham and rejoin the existing Chiltern Line train to Aylesbury. My statement looks like this: Balham (In) -£4.40 Marylebone (Exit) +£1.90; Marylebone (In) -£4.40 Paddington (Exit) +£2.50; Paddington (In) -£2.50; Amersham (In) -£4.40: A total fare of £11.30 on my Oyster Card for a £2.70 journey. Where do I start ? Thanks !
Hi DuCaneDeco,
It looks horrific, but ultimately explainable. You ended a journey at Marylebone and started a new one there. This was carried on at Paddington, but because you took too long to get to Amersham it recorded two incomplete journeys. You could have saved the last £4.40 being deducted by insisting to be let into Amersham with your M-ticket, which was what you should have been using by that point. Anyway, if you call the helpdesk and explain what you had to do they will arrange a refund of the overcharge. They may well offer a bit extra for the phone call, but if they don’t then ask yourself. I’m not really sure what more you could have done differently, this is just one of those situations where it would be impossible for the Oyster system to work out what you were trying to do.
Just to confirm as it all seems unclear:
With Oyster Travelcards is it OK to not tuochin and out all the time, as long as the station zones you do touch on are within the travelcard zones?
Cheers
Hi Natalie,
The Oyster rules say that you should always touch in and touch out. However, there is no penalty for forgetting to do so as long as you are within your zones. My personal advice would be to always touch in, unless it is impossible, because then you are covered if for some reason you change your plans and go outside your zones. At the end of the journey if there are no gates then it’s less of a problem if you don’t touch out, unless you started the journey outside your zones.
Hope that helps.
Hey, great site with wealth of information. Perhaps you can help with an ‘overground’ route question I have. I live at Gospel Oak and work in Croydon.
Journey starting at 7:45 to 8:43 gospel oak to East Croydon costs £2.90
Journey starting at 17:50 to 19:06 West Croydon to Gospel Oak costs £4.10. This is more odd as it’s all overground.
That’s the same number of zones. I have been told that there is no transfer point at clapham.
How am I meant to confirm my Journey is just zone 2-5? Jump off and hit the transfer on one the pink points between clapham and gospel oak, hopeful getting back on same train.
Can you please explain this difference? London overground staff or southern have not been any help. Although i have sent them an email.
Or let me know what I can do to reduce my travel costs?
Could there be some flaw in how you calculate fares from west
Croydon?
Thanks again
Hi Tim,
That’s an interesting anomaly. I think you’ve hit the nail on the head when you describe the journey home as “all overground”, but not in the way you intended. When deciding the default route TfL take various factors into consideration including journey time and availability of direct trains and/or the fewest number of changes. With East Croydon it routes you via Clapham Junction because of the large number of fast trains from there to East Croydon. With West Croydon it decides that the shorter journey will be by London Overground to Highbury & Islington and then on to Gospel Oak. Thanks to Shoreditch High Street that becomes a zone 1-5 journey.
In the short term the only way to reduce your travel costs is to use East Croydon. Longer term you could try writing to/emailing the Oyster helpdesk asking them to consider adding pink validators at Clapham Junction and an alternative route for that journey.
I was travelling from Greenwich (745pm train) to London Bridge yesterday. I had to catch a train from London Bridge to Sittingbourne on the southeastern services. However, when crossing the platforms and using the footbridge, I did not see any machines for me to tap out ( I have tapped in in Greenwich Station to use the overground).
What would happen when I next use my oyster again and how much would the penalty fare be? is there anyway for me to tap out ‘electronically’ using tfl website and oyster card ref number?
Thanks
Hi Sue,
There are no validators on the footbridge at London Bridge. You would have needed to go down the subway at the London end of the platforms. As it was off-peak you will have been charged £4.40 on touch in. Next time you use your Oyster it will work as usual. There is no way to touch out other than at the station where you end your journey. If you had touched out at London Bridge it would have refunded £2.70 so that the overall charge was £1.70.
Hope that helps.
Hiya Mike, Great job.
Am lovely londoner from Streatham. On a recent night out I was coming home from Stanmore and usually i take the tube to brixton and the bus home from there. But then i thought why not change at london bridge and take the train straight home.
So on my pAYG oyster i tap in at stanmore and get to london brigde without realising i had to tap out at london bridge walk up tp the national rail and then tap in again at london bridge for the train to streatham.
I thik I was charged twice for going thru zone1. What can I do? I sthere a way to avoide thsi in future?
Hi Anna,
You haven’t been charged twice, but you have suffered from the premium charged when you mix National Rail and TfL Rail on a journey that includes zone 1. When you go to Brixton it is all Underground, but as soon as you join NR at London Bridge it adds another £1.10 off-peak. Unfortunately there is no way around this on that journey.
aaargh thanks Mike. Can I call Oyster Helpline to ge a refund if I explain my route perhaps.
If not I guess I’ll just stick to underground and bus next time.
Not worth trying to be honest. You’ve paid the correct fare for the route you actually took that day. Chalk it up to experience.
Just a quick query, If i am travelling from Surbiton to Shepherds Bush via Clapham Junction, Will I need to tap in and out for each train i get?
(National Rail Surbiton to CJ and Overground from CJ to SB)
Hi Andrew,
No, just touch in at Surbiton and out at Shepherd’s Bush.
Thanks Mike!
Not sure if i was just being stupid but i couldn’t seem to find the answer on TFL nor their helpline, they told me i had to check in and out twice because of the OSI but i knew i didn’t have to leave CJ station!
Oh dear. I’m disappointed that the helpline should suggest that there’s an OSI at Clapham Junction. There isn’t.
I am making a journey from Hove to Wembley Central during the day. It works out cheaper for me to get a ticket from Hove to Clapham Junction, then to use the Southern train to wembley central using my oyster card. Is there a oyster card reader on the platform at CJ as i will only be changing platforms and not exiting the station.
Hi Rina,
There used to be a reader on platform 2 (for Overground trains to Willesden J/Stratford) but I’m not sure if it still works. There isn’t one on the platforms used by Southern trains, but as it’s at the other end of the station you aren’t far from the eastern exit gates. I’d suggest changing platforms via the subway towards the London end of the platform as that leads to the exit. The footbridge at the other end of the platforms is internal to the station only.
Hope that helps.
Hi
This is a really great site!
I have a simple question.
I have an annual 1-3 travel card loaded onto a oystercard. I get this every year – runs out in October.
My partner uses public transport not that often, gets a weekly travel card or pay as you go when he does.
I am taking three weeks to go to Europe to stay with family. He is staying at home.
Is he able to use my card when I am away- and what happens if he does.
It’s a full price annual travel card. Neither of us apply for or would get, any discounts.
Thanks!
Shubi!
Hi Shubi,
No, an Oyster card with a travelcard on it is only for use by the one person.
Also, if you have an annual travelcard then you are eligible for the Network Gold Card discount. This will give you 1/3 off all off-peak fares and the off-peak cap when travelling outside your zones. Just take your card and the gold record card that you should have received at the time of purchase to any Underground station and ask them to make sure that the discount has been added. The gold record card also entitles you to similar discounts on any National Rail services in the Network South East area.
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