Oyster Card/Visitor Oyster Card

[meadowlander]

Will be visiting London in spring of 2019, arriving at LHR terminal 5(flying from Denmark). Need to get from LHR to Kings Cross for hotel and then visiting only in London zone1/2 for tourist sites.

 

As a US citizen can I buy an Oyster card or must I get a visitor Oyster card? I thought I read(another website) I had to get a visitor card but I see on CC, I may be able to get an Oyster card. Can I buy Oyster card in terminal 5(from machine?) or do I have to buy from visitor center at terminal 2 or 3?

 

I like that the Oyster card has a daily cap. Have not decided yet if I will use Heathrow Express from LHR changing at Paddington or go direct with underground to Kings Cross knowing that Oyster cannot be used for Express.

 

Thanks in advance.

[markeb]

You should be able to buy a regular Oyster. The visitor gives you some theoretical advantages (refundable, I believe). If you have a phone with Apple Pay or Android pay, you don’t need either. The info is on the TFL web page.

[Cotswold Eagle]

There is no requirement to buy a Visitor Oyster Card as a visitor. You can buy a standard card on arrival at T5 from the ticket machines.

 

For your purposes, the only real difference is the £5 fee for the Visitor card, which is NOT refundable. A standard card has a £5 deposit, which is refundable if you cancel your card (which can be done at a ticket machine after your last journey). In both cases, you can recover unused credit. There is no difference in use or fares, unless you wish to add a Seven Day Travelcard to your Oyster, which can only be done with a standard card.

 

In return for the £5 fee, the Visitor card provides a somewhat random set of “special offers” at a variety of London destinations. These are listed here - http://content.tfl.gov.uk/visitor-new-latest.pdf

[Cotswold Eagle]

The visitor gives you some theoretical advantages (refundable, I believe)..

 

 

Unused credit can be recovered from both type of Oyster cards, but the £5 ‘activation fee’ for a Visitor Oyster is NOT refundable. The £5 deposit on a regular card is.

[GrJ Berkshire]

Equally if you have a contactless debit card you will not need an oyster card as this can serve the same and with the daily cap limit. However if a couple travel with a joint bank a/c you both can't use as the a/c thinks it has been wrongly used.

As out of town Brit travellers we have 1 oyster card and one uses the debit card from our current a/c.

[Globaliser]

Have not decided yet if I will use Heathrow Express from LHR changing at Paddington or go direct with underground to Kings Cross knowing that Oyster cannot be used for Express.

Personally, I'd just get on the Tube and be done with it. You'll get a seat at LHR and (unless you feel obliged to give it up to someone who needs it more than you) you'll have that degree of comfort for the entire journey. HEX to Paddington and changing there to another form of transport just seems like a lot of hassle and extra cost for the sake of saving a few minutes. Another alternative (at least in theory) is that you could take TfL Rail (which is different from HEX and different from the Tube) from Heathrow to Paddington and use your Oyster for the entire journey, but that suffers from the same hassle factor and would I think still be significantly more expensive than just taking the Tube.

[Globaliser]

Equally if you have a contactless debit card you will not need an oyster card as this can serve the same and with the daily cap limit.

This has to be subject to the caveat that many overseas contactless bank cards won't work with the TfL system. But you can only confirm this by trying it out when you get here. Be prepared to buy a standard Oyster if you discover that your contactless card won't work.

[markeb]

Unused credit can be recovered from both type of Oyster cards, but the £5 ‘activation fee’ for a Visitor Oyster is NOT refundable. The £5 deposit on a regular card is.

 

I got that one exactly backwards! We kept ours years ago, and have used them again, so couldn’t remember.

[Mezzaluna]

I stepped up to the machine, popped in my U.S. Visa card and without even noticing there was a visitor version of the Oyster Card, bought a regular one. Oh well... I've visited once since then and have topped it off several times. Easy-peasy.

[meadowlander]

Thank you everyone for your help. Lately I have been reading words that are not there as must have been the case where I read I had to get the visitor card. I like the convenience of taking the tube from LHR directly to Kings Cross but the flight I booked arrives mid afternoon, 2 hours later than the one I wanted to book. I would like to do some sightseeing on the day I arrive and the Heathrow Express will get me to London faster and the price difference for an advanced Express ticket on a Sunday is minimal.

[Globaliser]

I would like to do some sightseeing on the day I arrive and the Heathrow Express will get me to London faster ...

No, it won't - or, at least, not to any significant extent. Given where you're going, you might possibly save something like 10 minutes by using HEX, but you will have a great deal more hassle.

 

As always, do not believe marketing hype.

[Kj9395]

We were just in London, and used American Express contactless cards. You can request the cards from Amex and we had ours in 2 days. They worked great for all bus trips in London, and capped at just under £5 a day. Both my daughter and I had our own cards, so no need to mess with getting an Oyster card. We also found cabs to be pretty reasonable and had some terrific conversations with a few drivers! Very impressed with how knowledgeable they were about London, and gave us some great suggestions as well. We would have missed visiting the new exhibit at Westminster Abbey, which ended up being the favorite thing we saw!