- There are two types of Oyster cards you can get
when you come to visit London,
and I'll let you know which one is gonna be best for you.
So, first off, we have the Visitor Oyster card,
which, as you can tell, is only for people
who are visiting London.
And then there's also the 'regular' Oyster card,
which is what Londoners use everyday,
but also visitors can use as well.
What these cards both have in common,
they can both be used to pay for just about
any transportation around London.
So, that's the Underground, the buses, the DLR,
Overground trains, the River Bus, trams,
and the Emirates cable car.
They both work in the same way to use.
They work on a pay-as-you-go system.
So, you add credit to the card
and every time you take a ride,
it takes away credit from your card.
When your credit gets low, you have to 'top it up'
and you can do that on one of the machines
in all of the stations around London.
Both cards have a daily cap,
which means that once you've spent a certain amount
on rides, the rest of your rides will be free.
For example, if you stay within Zones one and two
in one single day, then you'll never pay more
than six pound 50.
This does not include bus and tram fares,
which has a separate cap.
Each ride is one pound 50 and you'll never pay
more than four pound 50 for those rides, in one day.
You'll also experience peak fares on both cards,
so, if you travel between 6:30 and 9:30 a.m.
And four to seven p.m. Monday through Friday,
which is rush hour, then you're going to be charged more.
You should try to avoid those times anyway,
they're crazy.
You can use either Oyster card to get
from London to Gatwick Airport or to Heathrow Airport,
you can even use both cards for the Gatwick Express,
but you cannot use it for the Heathrow Express.
Both the cards and the credit never expires,
so even the only one person can use an Oyster card
at the time if you wanna take your card home with you
and give it to family or friends,
they can use it as well.
Okay, so let's go over the pros and cons of each card.
Starting with the Visitor Oyster card,
the pros of using that over the regular card.
You'll get your Visitor Oyster card sent to you
before you arrive to London,
and I know some of you would not feel comfortable enough
arriving to London, having to worry
about getting your Oyster card once you get here,
so this solves that.
Once you get it in the mail, it's ready to go, ready to use.
You also get some discounts and perks
with the Visitor Oyster card.
I had to look through a list,
it's nothing amazing,
it's discounts for some not-very-good chain restaurants.
However, there were some discounts for certain attractions
and some deals for theater tickets as well.
I'll leave a link to the list of the discounts
down below in the description,
so, you can have a look and see
if anything strikes your fancy.
The cons of using the Visitor Oyster card,
it costs three pounds to get plus shipping and handling.
And you can't really get this card in London,
so if you haven't thought to get Visitor card in advance
to get it shipped to you,
then you won't be able to get it.
Okay, there are some pros to using our regular Oyster card
over a visitor one.
You could pick up a regular Oyster card
at tons of places around the city.
You can get them right as you arrive at the airport,
you can get them at train stations.
There are even tons of shops that sell them
and they have a sign outside that says, 'Oyster card.'
And they don't actually cost you anything,
you have to give a five pound refundable deposit
to get one and if you want to get that deposit back,
ask one of the TfL station members
where the closest place is to get a refund,
or you can apply for one online,
and you can actually get a refund of your credit as well.
I think for five pounds, it's kind of a nice souvenir.
So, maybe just keep it.
Also, if you're staying in London for seven days,
you can put a Travelcard onto your Oyster card.
The Travelcard is essentially a seven-day pass
that gives you unlimited rides on transportation
around London for the zones that you purchase it for.
So, if you're staying in London for seven days,
this could be an option to save you a little bit of money.
But, you cannot put this on a Visitor Oyster card
so, that's why you'll need to have a regular Oyster card
to get a Travelcard.
The downsides of using a regular Oyster card
over a visitor one,
if you don't live in the U.K., you can't get an Oyster card
until you arrive to London.
You also don't get those discounts
that you would get with the Visitor Oyster card.
There's none of that with the regular one.
And that's actually it,
so, if you're still not sure
which Oyster card you should get,
don't stress out.
You're not gonna miss out on anything huge
whichever one you decide to get.
So, look at it this way.
If you would like to have your card
before you arrive to London, then pay that little bit
of extra money and get yourself the Visitor Oyster card
sent to you.
Remember to get enough for everybody in your party,
'cause everybody has to have their own.
Otherwise, don't worry about it,
you can always just pick one up at the airport,
at the train station, right when you arrive here.
I have a couple of other videos
that will help you navigate the transportation
around London, so click up here to watch one of those.
Don't forget to subscribe to my channel
for more London tips every week,
and you can also click up here
to download my free London 101 guide,
so, do that before you leave the video.
(soft, peaceful music)