What is a London pass or Oyster card?

[pink845]

We will be buying Oyster cards immediately upon arrival at Heathow putting money (cash that we have bought in Canada) onto them to cover us for three full days of travel.  The reason as Canadians that we will not use our credit cards is because each time a charge is put on that card a foreign currency exchange fee will be added.  I fully understand Uk residents love to tap and go with their credit cards or their phones and that is fine and dandy for you all as no extra foreign transaction fees are added to your fare each time you use those cards to tap and go. We are in a different boat as foreigners. in Canada depending upon the city I visit   we do use our credit cards to tap and go so yes we are very familiar with the activity.

[d9704011]

1 hour ago, pink845 said:

We will be buying Oyster cards immediately upon arrival at Heathow putting money (cash that we have bought in Canada) onto them to cover us for three full days of travel.  The reason as Canadians that we will not use our credit cards is because each time a charge is put on that card a foreign currency exchange fee will be added.  I fully understand Uk residents love to tap and go with their credit cards or their phones and that is fine and dandy for you all as no extra foreign transaction fees are added to your fare each time you use those cards to tap and go. We are in a different boat as foreigners. in Canada depending upon the city I visit   we do use our credit cards to tap and go so yes we are very familiar with the activity.

We purchased two Oyster Cards for our visit to London in August.  We opted to have them mailed to us and they were delivered in less than one week.  I wasn't too concerned about foreign transaction fees; I just want to hit the ground running in LGW without having to purchase or pick up the cards OR discover that my credit card simply doesn't work with the readers.

[let's go cruising]

15 minutes ago, d9704011 said:

We purchased two Oyster Cards for our visit to London in August.  We opted to have them mailed to us and they were delivered in less than one week.  I wasn't too concerned about foreign transaction fees; I just want to hit the ground running in LGW without having to purchase or pick up the cards OR discover that my credit card simply doesn't work with the readers.

We found out that our credit cards wouldn't have worked with the readers. The Oyster cards worked great for us!

[d9704011]

13 minutes ago, let's go cruising said:

We found out that our credit cards wouldn't have worked with the readers. The Oyster cards worked great for us!

Are your cards chip enabled?  I don't believe there are many main stream Canadian-issued credit cards remaining that do not have a chip in them; I have heard (never seen!) that there are still US cards that don't have chips.  Even with my chipped card, I have had some difficulties outside of Canada with readers (not often) and simply don't want to run the risk of that happening with the first train I try to take.

[Cotswold Eagle]

1 hour ago, pink845 said:

We will be buying Oyster cards immediately upon arrival at Heathow putting money (cash that we have bought in Canada) onto them to cover us for three full days of travel.  The reason as Canadians that we will not use our credit cards is because each time a charge is put on that card a foreign currency exchange fee will be added.

It's your choice, of course, but remember that £7 non-refundable fee per Oyster card, if you are trying to compare the fees. I understand concerns about whether a credit card will work, but it's astounding to me that Canadians can't get a card that will work in the rest of the world! 

[d9704011]

19 minutes ago, Cotswold Eagle said:

It's your choice, of course, but remember that £7 non-refundable fee per Oyster card, if you are trying to compare the fees. I understand concerns about whether a credit card will work, but it's astounding to me that Canadians can't get a card that will work in the rest of the world! 

You've misinterpreted the Canadian credit card 'workings' a bit.  Generally, our cards work pretty much anywhere without a problem.  Unfortunately, there are instances where readers simply won't recognize the chip.  I've had this happen with a Master Card at a hotel in Italy, but my Visa was fine.  The Master Card workex fine at the restaurant next to the hotel.  It's mostly about avoiding the potential aggravation of having a perfectly good credit card in your hand that simply won't shake hands with a reader.

[let's go cruising]

I am American, and our credit cards aren't as advanced as the Canadians or Europeans. We have a chip, but the readers in the UK preferred to tap. The subway readers could ONLY tap. We were able to use our credit card in stores and restaurants, but they would not have worked for the subway.

 

We absolutely could have gotten an Oyster card when we got to Heathrow, but I had too much to think about already. The cost to have them sent was worth the convenience for me. 

 

I wish I had gotten a credit card I could use to tap before we went.

[Globaliser]

 

1 hour ago, d9704011 said:

2 hours ago, let's go cruising said:

We found out that our credit cards wouldn't have worked with the readers.

 

Are your cards chip enabled?  I don't believe there are many main stream Canadian-issued credit cards remaining that do not have a chip in them; I have heard (never seen!) that there are still US cards that don't have chips.  Even with my chipped card, I have had some difficulties outside of Canada with readers (not often) ...

 

7 minutes ago, let's go cruising said:

I am American, and our credit cards aren't as advanced as the Canadians or Europeans. We have a chip, but the readers in the UK preferred to tap. The subway readers could ONLY tap. We were able to use our credit card in stores and restaurants, but they would not have worked for the subway.

 

A chip (which is visible on the front surface of the card) is a different function from contactless (aka NFC). That's why you can have a card that has a chip, but that can't be read by a contactless reader. Before the widespread introduction of contactless payment here, most of us had already long had cards with chips and paid with chip and PIN.

[markeb]

4 hours ago, Globaliser said:

 

 

 

A chip (which is visible on the front surface of the card) is a different function from contactless (aka NFC). That's why you can have a card that has a chip, but that can't be read by a contactless reader. Before the widespread introduction of contactless payment here, most of us had already long had cards with chips and paid with chip and PIN.

 

Way back at the beginning of this thread I think I recommended the visitor Oyster card. We found ours, and will take them in a couple of weeks, but I'm honestly planning to just use my iPhone once I burn off whatever balance is on the card. TFL supports express transit pay, I have multiple cards that have no foreign transaction fees, and I know my phone will be handy versus having to dig out the Oyster. And I travelled all over Singapore this time last year using Apple Pay. I have I think three contactless Visa cards and a contactless AMEX that I'll carry on this trip.

 

The wife will probably use the Oyster, and I'll have to check her balance before boarding the Elizabeth Line. From everything I've read and every YouTube video I've watched, TFL has made this way too simple. And London in 2019 made me fall in love with contactless...

 

Next time this comes up, I'll not recommend a visitor card!

[Cotswold Eagle]

9 hours ago, d9704011 said:

perfectly good credit card in your hand that simply won't shake hands with a reader.

We must have different definitions of “works” and “perfectly good” 🤣

[fruitmachine]

12 hours ago, pink845 said:

We will be buying Oyster cards immediately upon arrival at Heathow putting money (cash that we have bought in Canada) onto them to cover us for three full days of travel.  The reason as Canadians that we will not use our credit cards is because each time a charge is put on that card a foreign currency exchange fee will be added. 

Unless there is a significant change in the exchange rate between buying cash and visiting, I'd be very surprised if your total cost was more with a card even if it is fee-paying.

 

The card is not charged for every tap, but only once per day (I think weekly if you're using it daily).  If it really doesn't work with contactless on first use at the gate-line, you still have the option of returning to a ticket machine and buying an Oyster with that or another card, but not using contactless.

[Island2Dweller]

12 hours ago, pink845 said:

extra foreign transaction fees

Don't get hung up on the apparent extra fee.  In general, you get a much better FX rate on the credit card statement than you do for withdrawing or converting cash.  So the overall difference in cost is much less than you may think.

[d9704011]

4 hours ago, Cotswold Eagle said:

We must have different definitions of “works” and “perfectly good” 🤣

Yes... a poor time to throw in that unnecessary superlative.