Getting around in London without preordering Oyster card

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You can buy Oyster cards at lots of places. I usually do so at the Heathrow tube station myself. What you can't buy are the Visitor Oyster cards.

Quoting http://www.tfl.gov.uk/fares-and-payments/buying-tickets you can "get and top up Oyster cards from"

  • London Travel Information Centres
  • Oyster Ticket Stops
  • Stations & tram stops
  • Emirates Air Line terminals (top-up only)
  • The Tramlink Shop (in Croydon)

There only real differences between a Visitor Oyster card vs a regular Oyster card is that they look different, the Visitor Oyster has a £3.00 card fee vs. the £5.00 refundable card fee that the regular Oyster has, and that the Visitor Oyster entitles you to select discounts

Upvote:2

I made some research (transport for London website and their Facebook page) and I'm going to use my contactless American Express credit card, issued in Chile, for my first trip. My friend who lives in London has some spare Oyster cards, so I'll use one of them later.

American Express cards are always accepted. Mastercard and Maestro cards are almost always accepted; and Visa cards aren't accepted sometimes (weird, huh?). If my Amex doesn't work I'll try with one of my Mastercard cards.

Source: https://tfl.gov.uk/fares-and-payments/contactless/what-are-contactless-payment-cards?intcmp=8610

Upvote:3

you can buy a visitor oyster card at stansted airport train station but why the heck should you. well only cause the card cost 3 pound instead of 5?! but then you waste money to get to stansted airport so the cheapest method is to get the national rail to london and then go to the tube ticket machine and buy one there for 5 pound. if you want a visitor oyster online it will cost 5.25 with postage and fee plus the PAYG credit.

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