Oyster Card for London
– Your Ticket to Ride

Using the Oyster Card, London public transportation becomes incredibly easy and trouble free for everyone.

The Oyster Card is a contactless smart card embedded with an RFID chip.

It is shaped like a standard credit card, but it is a stored value card which you can charge and recharge with cash value.

The Oyster Card was introduced in 2003 as a way of reducing the amount of cash transactions and paper tickets being sold, and as of 2007 over 10 million cards have been sold and more than 80% of all trips in London are paid for with this card.

To encourage the use of Oyster Cards, the fare charged to card holders is substantially less than the regular rate charged to those purchasing tickets on their own.

The price charged for Oyster Card travel is sometimes as much as half off the regular rates, which makes getting an Oyster Card a worthwhile investment.

You can purchase your Oyster Card at Tube stations, Oyster Ticket Stops located across London, or at Oyster Online.

You can store up to £90 of credit on the card, and then “recharge” the card as needed.

There is even a service called “Auto Top-up” that will automatically transfer a set amount money from your designated funding source to your Oyster Card when it has £5 of credit left, ensuring that you never run out.

Oyster Cards can be used to pay as you go for transportation on the London Underground, London Bus System, trams, DLR, London Overground and some National Rail services within London.

You can also use the card to pay for Travelcards and Bus or Tram passes.

To use your Oyster Card, you simply look for the bright yellow card reader and touch your card to it at the beginning and end of your journey, and the funds will be deducted from the card’s balance.

Oyster also issues photocards for students and children who are eligible to travel on London public transportation for free or at a discounted rate once they have registered.

With the Oyster Card, London truly is your oyster.