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Oyster Card vs Contactless: How to Pay for Public Transport in London

Last updated: March 13, 2024 . Written by Laurence Norah - 64 Comments

I recently wrote a post about the best ways to get around London . That’s all well and good, but it’s missing a key component – the most cost-effective way to actually pay for transport in London.

You’d think this would be a fairly obvious answer, but unfortunately, it’s a little bit more complicated than you might imagine. Fear not though, this post will guide you through the options and help you decide which payment option is best for using London’s public transport system!

First, there are three ways that you can pay for the majority of public transport in London. These are cash, the London Oyster Card, and a contactless enabled credit / debit card. Let’s look quickly at these three options, and then figure out which is right for you.

Payment Options for Travel in London: Cash, Contactless and Oyster

Cash – Cash is by far the worst way to pay for transport in London, and should be avoided in pretty much all cases, with the exception of taxis (although these accept contactless and credit cards too).

Usually, cash fares are much higher than the other payment options, plus some services, like the bus, don’t even accept cash any more. Basically, don’t use cash to pay directly for your ticket in London if you can avoid it!

If you do want to use cash, the best option is to buy an Oyster Card. These can be purchased and topped up with cash at most stations. Just be sure to use a machine that accepts cash, or go to a ticket counter.

Oyster Card – The Oyster card is a London-wide rechargeable card, designed to be re-used, and accepted on pretty much every form of London transport. There are a number of versions of this card, however for the purposes of this post we’re going to focus on the standard blue Oyster card that you can purchase in London from most train and tube stations.

For more on the different kinds of Oyster card, including the benefits of buying a visitor Oyster card in advance, and detailed information on how to actually use an Oyster card for travel in London, read this detailed post on using the London Oyster card .

Contactless – The most recent payment option for travel in London is a bank issued credit or debit card which has been enabled for contactless transactions. This means that the card has a chip in it which can be read wirelessly when held near a contactless enabled reader.

As well as being able to use these cards for normal transactions, you can also use contactless cards to pay for travel in London. These can be used instead of buying tickets with cash or using an Oyster card. If you have an Apple Pay or Google pay enabled smartphone, you can also use this as a contactless payment option.

So those are the three options. In this post we’re going to focus on the Oyster Card and Contactless Cards, to see which one is best for you when paying for travel in London.

Given the high cost of buying tickets with cash, and the fact that cash isn’t even accepted on a few transport options, we’re going to ignore cash as a payment option in this post, and advise you to do so also.

Contactless vs Oyster Cards for London Travel

Contactless – which public transport supports it in london.

Currently contactless can be used to pay for travel on the following public transport options in London: bus, tube, tram, DLR, London Overground, IFS Cloud Cable Car, River Bus, and the majority of National Rail services inside London.

You can also use contactless for some airport services, including Gatwick Express and Heathrow Express. See our guide to getting to London from the airport for more information.

You can also pay for all black taxis using contactless, assuming the fare is less than the contactless threshold of £100. Note that black taxis are separate to other forms of public transport in London and are billed separately – they don’t fall inside travel cards, caps, or other payment schemes.

Basically, anywhere you can already use an Oyster card, you can use a contactless card – just look for the yellow Oyster card reader and don’t forget to touch in (and out, if necessary) to pay for your journey – see more here for details of how to use the different public transport options in London.

Advantages of Contactless

It’s already on a card you own: if you already have a supported contactless credit card or smartphone, using this for your travel is more convenient than getting a separate Oyster card, which you have to pay a deposit on and keep topped up.

Doesn’t need to be charged up: One of the main problems with Oyster is that it’s a preload system, so you need to have credit on the card in order to use it. You can set it up to automatically reload itself, but if you’re a visitor to London this extra hassle might not be worth it.

Instead, you’ll find yourself queuing at reload stations at tube stops, and if you’re at a bus stop with no credit you’re going to be out of luck as most of them don’t have reload points. Contactless cards are linked to your bank account, so as long as you have credit, you’ll always be good to go.

You can use a mobile payment system such as Google Pay or Apple Pay : If your smartphone supports a contactless payment system, then you don’t even need to carry a contactless card – you can just link your contactless card to your smartphone payment system, and pay with that. One less thing to carry!

Can be cheaper in certain situations: sometimes Contactless can be slightly cheaper for daily fares, especially if you are travelling from further out in London, due to a difference in the way daily capping works across zones. This isn’t usually a big difference, but can make contactless a little bit cheaper in some situations for daily journeys too.

Disadvantages of Contactless

Doesn’t support all foreign issued cards: You shouldn’t have a problem using UK issued contactless enabled cards on Visa, Mastercard, Maestro and American Express to pay for your travel on London transport.

Unfortunately, this isn’t true for foreign issued contactless cards, as standards appear to differ. Currently, all American Express contactless cards should work fine. Then, some foreign issued Mastercard, Maestro and Visa cards will work, and some won’t. There’s no definitive list – it’s a case of try it and see!

Foreign transaction fees: If you are using a foreign issued card, even if it is supported by the Oyster contactless system, you need to check to see if it incurs foreign transaction fees.

Contactless payments are in GBP, so if your card issuer charges you transaction fees for foreign currency transactions, then these costs could outweigh the savings of contactless. Check with your card provider before you travel to see if this is the case.

Concessions can’t be added: A big disadvantage of contactless is that the system currently doesn’t support concessions, such as those for seniors, students, and children of a certain age.

If, for example, you’re a visitor to London travelling with children aged 11-15, you will want to use Oyster cards or travelcards in order to get discounted travel, such as with the Young Visitors Discount which offers 50% off travel when loaded to an Oyster card.

Children under 11 qualify for free travel with a fare paying adult, and this does work with contactless. You will just have to use the wider ticket barriers (marked for accessible / luggage) in tube stations so you can pass through together.

See more about how this works when travelling with children here , and more on available concessions here .

Oyster – Which public transport supports it in London?

Oyster works on all the same public transport options in London as contactless, namely, bus, tube, tram, DLR, London Overground, IFS Cloud Cable Car, River Bus, and the majority of National Rail services inside London.

Note that you cannot use your Oyster card to pay for a black taxi in London.

The Oyster Card is also not supported on private services like Hop on Hop off buses, which you would need to purchase separately. You can see some Hop on Hop off options in London here for an idea of pricing.

Hop on Hop off transport options are also included on a card like the London Pass , which might be a good option if you plan on doing a lot of sightseeing when in the city.

Advantages of Oyster

It works and support is available. As noted not all contactless cards work with the system but the Oyster card should always work. If there are problems, you can get support or get your credit refunded if your card is registered on the TfL website .

Easier to keep track of spending: Because you have to load your Oyster card, it’s easier to keep an eye on how much you are spending on London transport and you can set a limit much easier.

That said, I don’t think this makes a great difference to your average person as you will likely have to travel anyway, but it’s something to keep in mind if you like to restrict your spend on public transport.

Supports travelcards: One of the main advantages of the Oyster card is that it supports travelcards. These are fixed payment pre-paid options, where you pay a certain amount for unlimited travel inside specific London zones for a weekly, monthly or annual price.

With weekly fare capping, this has become less of an advantage, because the price of a seven-day travelcard on Oyster is the same as the weekly cap on contactless. However, a seven-day Oyster travel card is valid for seven days from when you activate it, regardless of which day of the week it is, whereas contactless capping is fixed for Monday – Sunday.

If you are in London for seven days starting anytime outside of that Monday – Sunday period, and will be travelling enough to make the travel card worth it, then it will be better value than a contactless card.

Supports cash : If you want to pay for your transport in London using cash, you can buy and top up an Oyster card with cash. This is normally a lot more cost effective than paying for a cash ticket, with the rare exception of a one-off single journey as you have to consider the cost of the Oyster card.

Supports concessions: As discussed above, if you are travelling with children, or are a London resident who qualifies for one of the discounts and concessions available to adults (see here for full list), you will want to use the Oyster card that matches your concession in order to get the best deal on transport in London. As a visitor to London with children aged 11-15, you can also add a Young Visitor discount to an Oyster card for savings.

Visitor Oyster Card Discounts: If you buy a visitor Oyster card prior to your trip to the UK, such as the one included with the London Pass , it qualifies you for some discounts. I’d not say these are worth buying the card for specifically, but they are good to know about.

Disadvantages of Oyster

You have to pay a deposit: When you first get a regular Oyster card, you have to pay £7. This used to be refundable, but as of 2020 this £7 is added to the card as credit a year after your purchase.

This credit happens when you take a journey using the card between one year and eighteen months after first activating it. If you don’t use the card in that six-month window, the credit is lost. If you are only visiting London for a short time, this might not be credit you can use, meaning there’s a tangible £7 cost associated with using it.

Note the Visitor Oyster Card only costs £5 to buy, but this is a fee and does not become a credit. For most visitors though, the £7 of the regular Oyster card is lost anyway.

It has to be recharged: One of the main downsides of Oyster is that it’s a pay as you go card that needs to have credit on it use it. This is fine if much of your travel is by tube as the majority of tube stations have machines that you can top-up on.

However, if you travel by bus a lot (often the most cost-effective way to get around London), you’ll have to go out of your way to find a charge point, as most bus stops don’t have them. If you register your card online, you can mitigate this issue by setting up auto top up.

Can’t be used on taxis: This isn’t really a big deal, but it’s worth bearing in mind that you can’t use your Oyster card on taxis. To be honest, the higher fares associated with taxi rides mean we’d suggest avoiding using a taxi unless you really want a direct trip from point A to point B, however, we’ve added it for completion!

There will always be leftover funds:  Because Oyster is a pay as you go system, you have to have funds on the card to use it. Because trips vary in fee, it’s almost impossible to get the card to zero. So if you stop using the card, there will be leftover money on it.

You can get this money back by returning the card, but we suspect most people don’t do this. TfL have shared that as of 2019 there’s over £400 million in unused balances and deposits!

Should You Use Oyster or Contactless to Pay for Public Transport in London?

First, if you are visiting London and don’t have a contactless payment card, I wouldn’t worry too much about trying to get one just for the trip to London – the Oyster system will suit you just fine.

If you would like to pick up a visitor Oyster card in advance, you can do so from this link .

Alternatively, if you are coming to London as a visitor, you can buy an Oyster card in a package with the London Pass here and save on attraction entry as well. See our review of the London Pass here .

The situation changes if you already have a contactless card which is compatible with the public transport system in London.

In the majority of cases, if you have a contactless enabled credit or debit card supported by the London transport network, then you should use it to pay for travel in London. It’s the easiest and most convenient way to pay, is supported on every form of transport, and in most cases is either cheaper or the same price as using an Oyster card.

The main times you should NOT use your contactless card are:

• If your card is not UK issued and your card issuer charges you fees for overseas transactions that make it more costly than Oyster
• If you are eligible for a concession , such as when you are travelling with children aged 11-15, or if you are a senior citizen resident in London
• If you are buying a weekly 7-day travelcard for travel exclusively outside Zone 1 (unlikely as a visitor to London)
• If you are buying a weekly 7-day travelcard, and you will travel enough to hit the daily cap on at least five out of those seven days and your trip is for a week-long period that isn’t from a Monday – Sunday.
• If you are buying a monthly travelcard for travel in London – this is not possible on contactless and there is no monthly capping

There are no doubt some more situations where an Oyster card or travelcard might be cheaper than contactless. Usually, figuring this out will require you to do a bit of math and have a detailed understanding of your exact travel plans, which might take more time than is worth the small saving!

As a visitor, we believe that in the majority of cases if you already have a contactless card you are going to find that it is both cheaper and easier to use contactless for your London travel, outside of the five points listed above. If one of those does apply, you can get an Oyster card here before you visit, or simply buy one on arrival.

Our advice therefore, is to use your contactless card for London travel if the five points above don’t apply to you. It’s easy and convenient, you don’t need to worry about recharging it, and you benefit from daily and weekly caps for travel, meaning it will likely be cheaper than the other options in nearly every case faced by most visitors to London.

Does Oyster Support Weekly Capping?

Until the end of September 2021, only contactless supported weekly capping on fares across the whole network. Both Oyster and Contactless have long supported daily capping (meaning you won’t ever pay more for your travel than if you had purchased a one day travel card), however until September 2021 only contactless supported the Monday – Sunday weekly cap.

As of 28th September 2021, both Oyster and contactless support both daily and weekly caps across the TfL network, which is great news for Oyster card users as it can be a significant saving.

For an example, if all your travel is within zones 1 and 2, the current weekly cap is £42.70 (as of March 2024). This weekly cap is calculated for travel from Monday through to Sunday, meaning it works best if your travel starts on a Monday. For comparison, the daily cap in zones 1 and 2 is £8.50. Over seven days, that works out to £59.50.

Tips for using your payment method

Once you have picked your payment method, be that contactless, Oyster or a smartphone payment system – make sure you stick to it, and only swipe that payment method on the reader! If you hold two payment methods near the terminal, it will randomly pick one of them, meaning you could be double charged if you don’t touch out with the same card.

If you are using a Google or Apple smartphone to pay, make sure you use that consistently. If you have a payment card registered on the device and decide to switch to the physical card instead of using the smartphone, or vice versa, this is technically registered as a different payment card.

This is actually a good workaround if there are two of you travelling together and you only have one contactless payment card. You can add the card to your Apple or Google device, and then one person can use the physical card and the other one can use the smartphone version.

We also highly recommend you register your payment method online with TfL . This has multiple benefits, including being able to keep track of your spending, and in the case of an Oyster card, you can reclaim and funds on it if you lose it!

Further Reading

We have plenty of further reading to help you plan your trip to London, both content we’ve created based on our experiences, and third-party content we think you’ll find useful.

• Looking for things to do in London? See this complete list on GetYourGuide of attractions, tickets and tours for some ideas!
• Our detailed guide to public transport in London
• The official TfL website , which will give you information on tickets, routes and any updates to services in the forms of delays or cancellations
• Jess’s detailed guide to the London pass , which will help you decide if this is a good way for you to save money on your London sight-seeing. The London Pass has a package option to include a Oyster Card and currently also includes Hop-on, Hop-off bus passes, which can be a great transport option.
• My guides for London must do’s in one day, as well as a detailed two day London itinerary . If you have longer in London, we also have a detailed six day London itinerary
• Harry Potter fans will want to check out our guide to the key Harry Potter filming locations in London
• Jess’s guide to a 1-day walking tour of the highlights of London .
• The Eyewitness Travel Guide to London , which has all sorts of information within, including more itineraries and ideas for your trip
• Rick Steve’s London guide, the #1 bestseller on Amazon for UK travel guides, and always an excellent source of relevant information

And that sums up our post on the best way to pay for public transport in London! As always, if you’ve got any comments or thoughts, let us know in the comments below!

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Jessica says

9th April 2024 at 8:11 pm

Thank you for your post because this is far too complicated than it should be. I was directed to get a Friends and Family Railcard. This doesn’t work in conjunction with Contactless but I guess there is a way to link it to Oyster. I’m just wondering what makes the most sense.

We will be travelling from Heathrow Terminal to Zone 1 Travelling on Stansted Express from Liverpool Street Station to Stansted Airport Considering the train to Windsor Castle and/or Stonehenge Would likely do a day pass for Zone 1-2 one day,

With friends and family kids 4 and under are free but with Oyster there is a photo card where kids under 11 are free with adult ticket. Our kids are 2 & 6 yrs.

It’s very hard to determine if Family Railcard vs Oyster makes sense. I assume with the railcard I just have to purchase online. Would you get both the Family Railcard and Oyster and try linking them? Do you think the 5-11 photocard is a necessity? Any input or suggestions is appreciated!

Laurence Norah says

14th April 2024 at 11:06 am

It’s my pleasure and I agree it can be a bit complicated. Honestly, if you have contactless that will probably be the simplest option. It applies a cap to your travel on both a daily and weekly basis, so you never pay more than a certain amount. For your children, the photocard is only important if they are traveling alone. Kids under 11 travel for free when accompanied by an adult, so you don’t need a photo card for them. The photo card is more designed for local residents who take public transport to school for example.

The Friends and Family railcard would save you some money on your transport to Windsor Castle and Stonehenge, but as you have to pay to get it you’d want to check if it would actually end up saving you money. Again, it’s designed more for regular travelers as it’s valid for a year. It saves most families quite a bit over a year if used for a few trips, but might not be worth it in your case for just a couple of journeys. You’d likely save more by just booking your train tickets well in advance, which is how to get the best value fares.

Let me know if you have any more questions and have a great time in the UK!

Nilesh Sahni says

7th January 2024 at 4:27 pm

We are couple visiting London for 8 days and planning to go to Edinburgh by LNER rail. We are comfortable with contactless cards to commute in London, but I saw there are some railcard concessions on booking LNER tickets for Edinburgh.

I’m getting inclined to purchase twotogether railcard to make use of this concession. Please suggest is it worth buying this railcard just for LNER rail concession or is there any other better alternate to book this travel.

9th January 2024 at 1:35 pm

A railcard can definitely save you money on train tickets. However, the best way to save is by booking as far in advance as you can. For example, a standard single from London to Edinburgh is around £193 at the moment. If you book in advance as far as you can, prices are as low as £44.10 currently for one person one way. I believe tickets can be booked up to 90 days in advance of travel.

In terms of a railcard, whether or not it will save you will depend on the ticket. With the previous example:

2 advanced singles without railcard would be £88.20 without the railcard, and £58.20 with the railcard. 2 anytime singles without railcard would be £387.8, and £255.90 with.

I believe the Two Together railcard costs £30. In the first case, the saving would be exactly the same, however I assume you are doing a return journey so yes you would end up saving. In the second case, you would definitely save.

Have a great trip!

Amanda Smith says

6th September 2023 at 4:16 pm

We will be traveling to London for the first time soon. We’re planning on staying in the city for a while then traveling to the Cotswolds for a few days before we head back to the airport. We are trying to decide on the best way to do this. We could rent a car in London but we’re a little intimidated about driving through the city (on the side of the road we are unaccustomed to driving on), or I’m thinking we could take a train to a less populated city (like Oxford, for example) and rent a car there to head to our final destination. My question is this: Can you use the contactless system and Oyster cards for the train? If so, is there some cost advantage to using one or the other? Do I need to book the train in advance? And finally, do any of these sound like a decent plan, or do you have a better option?

6th September 2023 at 4:23 pm

This is a great question. So I would highly recommend not renting your car in London. I’m actually doing something similar right now with a trip around Wales, so rather than rent in London I took the train to Cardiff and will be renting to and from Cardiff instead. London is challenging to drive in, plus there are the issues of the congestion charge zone AND the Ultra Low Emissions Zone to contend with. So best to skip all that if you can!

Oxford, Bath or Bristol would all be good options for getting to the Cotswolds. I’d probably err towards either Bath or Oxford as they are smaller so easier to drive from. I’d definitely suggest picking up and dropping the car at the same location as it avoids the one-way fee.

For trains, the Oyster card doesn’t work beyond London. However it’s easy enough to book train travel in the UK. There are direct trains from London Paddington train station to both Oxford (around an hour) and Bath (around 1.5 hours), and you can book trains online using a site like trainline . You can also just buy tickets on the day if you prefer with contactless payment from a ticket machine, but if you book in advance you normally get a better price and, depending on the train, a reserved seat. However you don’t have to book in advance.

Hopefully this answers your questions, but if not do let me know and I will do my best to help out! Have a great time in the UK. I’d also suggest reading my tips for driving in the UK which might give you some pointers 🙂

Jeremy says

15th October 2022 at 5:44 pm

Thank you for the detailed write up. A question: Instead if using one contactless and one physical card, can I use 2 contactless iPhones (Apple Pay) linked to the same card? As I do not intend to bring the physical card along. Thank you.

16th October 2022 at 3:45 pm

Yep, that would work! Every device creates it’s own “virtual card”, which the Oyster system sees as it’s own card.

Keith Pugsley says

19th September 2022 at 7:06 pm

Thanks for the Blog. With a son just starting study in London I have looked into this ‘minefield’ of confusion. If you have the knowledge (and inclination) I’d value your thoughts on the questions I still have. 18+ Oyster card talks of ‘discounted travel’ but all I can see from the Tfl website is that there is a discount for purchasing Travel cards. No mention of discount on fares. The only discount I can see for fares is if it is linked to a Railcard and then there is a 30% discount on off-peak travel on the tube. However you can link a Railcard to a standard Oyster card and also get this discount so what is the point of a student oyster card? Then it seems you have to pay a £20 ‘admin fee’ to get the student oyster card, whereas it seems you only pay £5 for a regular adult card. The Tfl site says for pay as you go using ‘contactless’ you don’t get cheaper fares! But this is not explained. just another ‘hanging statement’. If you are able to throw any light on this I’d be most grateful. Thanks.

20th September 2022 at 9:20 am

I hear you, the TfL website is a bit of a maze when it comes to finding things out. You are correct, the 18+ Oyster card does not offer discounted travel on pay as you go fares, only on Travelcards, for which there is a 30% discount. I think the theory is that this is aimed at someone who will be travelling multiple times a week, for whom a travel card would make sense, and so then there is the added benefit of a 30% discount.

The question really is to think about how often your son is likely to need to travel using public transport. If it is going to be at least 4 days a week, then a travel card with the discount is likely going to save money. If it’s less than that, then there might not be any savings, in which case just using a normal contactless bank card for payment, or an Oyster card, might be just as cost effective.

You are also correct that there is a railcard option, which might make sense if your son already has a railcard. I think the option exists to link it to a student Oyster card because you can still use a student oyster card as a normal Oyster card without adding the discounted travel card to it, so this would save someone having to carry two cards.

I hope this helps a bit. My main suggestion is to look at where your son will be living and his travel requirements, and then doing a bit of math to see which option is going to work out the most cost effective. I also wish him the best with this stage of his life 🙂

tawny own says

12th September 2022 at 3:58 pm

Thank you! Info which I think was not covered in the article – can you use cash to buy and top up an Oyster card – and which is difficult or impossible to find on the TfL site. Have spent about an hour trying to find out.

12th September 2022 at 3:59 pm

Thanks! I’ve updated the post to make this clearer, that you can definitely use cash to top up an Oyster card, as well as to buy one. The larger machines at tube stations accept cash, as do the ticket counters at stations with ticket counters.

5th September 2022 at 8:25 pm

My wife and I will be traveling from US to London soon. (4 days) We have a good no foreign fees contactless card, but the card is a joint account. Can we use the same card for two riders for underground/bus fare? I’m would like to use contactless for the reasons that you mentioned -(Initial charge for the Oyster card – how much to put on it – and we are sure to have unused money on it)

on another note – Quick question-transportation from Heathrow to city center can be cheaper and faster than a cab- but we will have luggage and need a transfer from station to the hotel (Westminster area). thoughts? Thanks Ken and I will also check out your other trips on visiting London

6th September 2022 at 10:43 am

So you can’t use the same physical card, but what you can do is use a virtual version of the card. So if you have a smartphone that supports contactless payments (Google Wallet or Apple Pay for example), or a smartwatch, then you can add the card to that device and use that as a second card. Because the smartphone assigns it a virtual card number, it works as a separate card for the purposes of the TfL system. This is fully supported and my wife and I do this, so I know it definitely works.

If you don’t have an app or supported phone, then you can also purchase an Oyster Card easily and load it up.

For transport to central London, for sure, the Underground, Elizabeth Line or Heathrow Express will be the lower cost option, although Heathrow Express won’t be much difference. The Underground would be around £10 for the two of you, and Elizabeth Line (to Paddington) will be around £24 for the two of you.

I actually have a whole guide to getting from London airports to central London .

So you have two options really, one is to book a transfer in advance from Heathrow using a service like minicabit . Prices will be in the region of £70 – £80 I expect.

Alternatively, you could take the Elizabeth Line to Paddington and then take a taxi or Uber from there. Honestly, the cost saving probably won’t be that great as you have to get across London. The cheapest option is definitely going to be the Underground but you will have to change lines and it will be less convenient of course.

Have a great trip to London and let me know if you have any more questions!

5th July 2022 at 7:22 am

I am slightly confused about the travelling with children situation. I am visiting in August with my 8 year old and can’t decide if I actually need a visitor oyster card or can just use contactless. A friend of mine travelled with her daughter last year and just used contactless but your article says that’s not possible? Any chance you could clarify this please? Thanks ☺️

5th July 2022 at 10:41 am

Your friend is correct, and I recently was able to get clarification from TfL on this point as well. Children under 11 can travel for free with a fare paying adult on contactless pay as you go, as long as they are with the adult. This works on contactless. I’ve updated the relevant section of this guide to be clearer on this point! When using the tube, just be sure to head to the wider barriers which are marked as accessible / for luggage, so you can pass through together.

Let me know if you have any more questions 🙂

5th July 2022 at 2:04 pm

Thank you so much, that’s really helpful information!

Olivia says

14th June 2022 at 2:40 pm

Thank you so much for the article Laurence, truly helpful!

I have a question… You mentioned about the possibility of sharing one bank card between 2 people by one using device and the other the physical card (contactless). How does that work? How does it show in the bank statement?

You recommended registering our payment method online and I saw on their website that you can actually know your trip history online if you use Apple Pay by adding your credit card number to your online account. But if me and my friend register the same credit card on our accounts (one of us using Apple Pay and the other the physical card), would that affect anything?

Many thanks!!

14th June 2022 at 4:18 pm

Hey Olivia!

My pleasure. Ok, this is a great question. So you can definitely use one card between two people by having one person use a physical card and one using a contactless payment method. This works (as I understand it), because Apple Pay / Google Pay create a virtual card number for transactions, so the TfL system sees it as a different card.

You can still register them “both” on the TfL system. I believe the way you do this is create an account normally, and then add the physical card details to your account. When you travel, it should show the different devices you are using (the card, Apple Pay, Google Pay etc). TfL even says that using different devices, like an Apple Watch or separate smartphones, also count as different payment methods, even on the same card.

However, I *think* you need to manage them from one account which would be registered to the person whose name the card is in.

Hopefully this makes sense, let me know if you have any more questions!

Jennifer Budd says

27th March 2023 at 6:53 pm

Hi Laurence- Quick piggy back question. What if there are three family members traveling together with the same card? We are traveling with our 16 year old son. Thanks! Jen

30th March 2023 at 2:10 pm

Hi Jennifer!

So you can’t use the same physical card for multiple people, but if you have multiple devices (an Apple Watch and an iPhone for example) then you can load the card onto a virtual payment method like Apple Pay or Google Wallet, and each person can then use the card. You just need a different device for each person, so that would be two devices and the physical card in your case.

I hope this makes sense, have a great time in London!

varados sucuri says

19th April 2022 at 9:14 pm

The system strikes me as relentlessly complicated and not at all user friendly. Cash appears to be considered poisonous. Is there any way to obtain an Oyster card with cash? I saw no mention of privacy. Are all these transactions automatically collected by the British government and used to track the movement of its citizens?

20th April 2022 at 11:04 am

Hi Varados,

You can indeed purchase an Oyster card with cash at various locations including at many newsagents and at tube stations across London. You can see a full list of where you can buy your Oyster card here: https://tfl.gov.uk/fares/how-to-pay-and-where-to-buy-tickets-and-oyster/buying-tickets-and-oyster?intcmp=54759

It can also be topped up with cash at ticket machines, just make sure you don’t use the “card only” ticket machines and you will be fine.

6th March 2022 at 11:10 pm

thank you.. it is really helpful

7th March 2022 at 11:56 am

My pleasure 🙂

28th August 2021 at 10:40 pm

Absolutely love that article. Thank you

29th August 2021 at 8:36 am

Thanks very much!

John Pressagh says

11th February 2020 at 7:57 pm

Please subscribe me to mailing list

11th February 2020 at 11:20 pm

I can confirm you are subscribed 🙂

Philip says

11th December 2019 at 1:00 pm

Thanks Laurence, most helpful. For occasional visitors to London, like me, contactless beats Oyster. I had an old style Oyster & applied for the newer type and received that by post. I went online and arranged to transfer my small balance over to the new card. As expected they cancelled the old card and said I would get the transfer on tapping in with my new card between dates in the very near future when I shall not be in London. I tried to arrange ithe transfer by phone but needless to say I have had to write. I set up auto top up on my new Oyster but the minimum transfer and retained credit is £20. Again a date I can’t make but that £20 will be transferred back to me automatically. Your warnings about unused balances now refers to a minimum of £20 if auto top up is set up. Frankly a single registered contactless credit card is much easier provided I use the card itself, Apple Pay on phone or on watch and never mix the card or devices on any given journey.

11th December 2019 at 3:32 pm

Hi Philip – we agree! There are only a few cases where an Oyster card makes more sense, we think that most visitors and travellers in London will benefit from contactless these days.

Thanks for stopping by and sharing your experience, much appreciated 🙂

24th October 2019 at 10:13 pm

Thank you so much for all the infos. Very comprehensive and useful … However it looks like the London public transports system is not only Byzantine but also quite expensive if not a scam. In comparison with Paris, the Navigo Card cost 22.80 € weekly (Monday to Sunday) or 75.20 € monthly, for all zones (plus 5 € for the card). With it you can use any Metro, RER (suburban express) train, buses, Transilien suburban trains, and trams … as much as you want. In a nutshell : It is unlimited for the period the card is valid (weekly or monthly) and can be top up for every new period. This has to be put in light that pollution in a real concern in Paris and the local authorities want to phase out dramatically the use of cars in the French capital to render it inconvenient and expensive : narrowing the streets to make wider pavements and or lanes for bus/taxi/bicycle as well as expensive car parks. On the other hand since the last 2/3 decades or so a lot of money has been invested to expand and modernize the infrastructures by offering an alternative/incentive to motorists/commuters while keeping affordable prices.

25th October 2019 at 4:41 pm

It certainly sounds like the Paris card is more cost effective, although I can’t comment as to why that is! Thanks for your input 🙂

1st August 2019 at 7:54 pm

Thank you very much for the information on the blog! I wanted to specifically ask you something.

I travel from Croydon/zone 5 to London bridge/zone 1 M-F also take busses. I was told to buy the weekly plan on the oyster card for £60. Because the contactless payment will most likely charge me a daily rate of £12. Is it just the same with a contactless payment and the oyster then? I understand from your blog, that no matter what, anyway there is a weekly limit?

2nd August 2019 at 9:10 am

Our pleasure. I will try to help 🙂

So the Oyster card has a daily cap for all journeys, and a weekly cap for bus and tram journeys only. Contactless has both a daily cap and a weekly cap for all journeys including the tube.

However, the weekly cap on contactless always runs from Monday to Sunday. So if someone is visiting London from say a Wednesday to a Tuesday, even though they may travel for a week, they end up falling into two weekly cap periods, so the overall cost might end up higher.

In this case, the 7 day travelcard would make more sense because it starts on the first day you use it and then runs for a week. However, if you are commuting regularly every week, then contactless would be best. After that, the Oyster travelcard would be better than just Oyster, as Oyster by itself has no weekly cap for tube journeys.

Let me know if this doesn’t make sense!

6th August 2019 at 1:44 pm

Hi Lawrence. One more question… if traveling with the oyster will set me up in a plan of a total of £60 per week. How much would be the max weekly cap m/f on the contactless payment. Using busses and trains from zone 5 to zone 1. I’m trying to understand what payment method will actually be cheaper… Many thanks! Juan!

7th August 2019 at 2:32 pm

The weekly cap prices are usually the same. Looking at the TFL site, the weekly contactless cap price for zones 1-5 is £60, with a daily cap of £12.

I hope this helps 😉 You can calculate it yourself here: https://tfl.gov.uk/fares/find-fares/tube-and-rail-fares/caps-and-travelcard-prices?intcmp=54720

Maggie says

27th July 2019 at 11:28 pm

Hello, great information, I was in London last year and used contactless card , it was so easy. I am now planning on returning to London next week, however I will be with my 2 children aged 7 and 9. I can’t seem to find anything clear on what to do with them. We will be taking national rail transport from surbiton into central London on a daily basis and I understand this is free for children their age, as all tube and bus transport in central London, if with an adult with travel card or oyster card. do i just use my contactless and have a guard always let them through the barriers? I presume this would be the case even if I did get a visitors oyster card. or I have read about a child zip oyster card? is this something they would have to get? I’d be grateful for any help you may be able to give, thanks

29th July 2019 at 7:47 pm

I’ve contacted TfL about this issue in the past as it’s quite a common question, and the response I am given every time basically mirrors what you say – the guard will let you through the barrier with your kids. As long as you have a valid card, they can travel with you. You don’t need the zip oyster card, I believe that’s just for kids travelling alone.

I hope this helps – let me know if you have any more questions!

Beckie says

12th June 2019 at 2:17 pm

Thanks for this useful article. I have lost the auto top up on my pay as you go Oyster recently due to not updating my card details in time. I don’t seem to be able to re-add it. I feel forced into using contactless, which I am OK about (and you advise for me, I travel 3 days a week Croydon to London and have no concessions) but I am going to miss being able to view my journey history. Occasionally I have picked up payment faults (like tap out not having worked properly) by looking at it. Am I right in thinking only the actual payment will show on my bank account, not where I tapped in/out of? I think this is a major downside and feel a bit vulnerable to over paying. Beckie

12th June 2019 at 2:29 pm

My pleasure. So certainly, TfL are moving towards contactless and away from Oyster in the mid term – it’s obviously easier for them if they don’t have to manage a whole card system.

The good news is that you can track your contactless journey history – just sign up at https://contactless.tfl.gov.uk/ and you can enter your card details and it will show you your journey history for that card, including all the payments, where the journey was to and from, when you hit a daily cap etc. It’s also accessible in the TfL app 🙂

I hope this helps – I’ll update the post to include this information 🙂

7th May 2019 at 5:23 pm

Hi, I will visit London for 10 days. I still don’t quite understand what a `contactless’ card is? Is it a regular credit card issued from a bank. I checked all my credit card and didn’t see any symbol or icon indicating the card is contactless. If I ask the local bank (in US), do they understand what contactless mean? Also, I have a travel card used for traveling and will not charge for transaction fee ( worked that way when I was in Asia). Do you know if that will work for this travel card at all the station machines and will not post transaction fee? (that may be a stupid question, the machines may only charge for what need to be charged, bank is the one will figure out the transaction fee, right?)

Thank you Joy

7th May 2019 at 5:40 pm

So a contactless card is a relatively new payment technology where the credit card has a wireless chip built into it, so instead of inserting it into a card machine, you just hold it near the card machine, and it takes the payment. As this is the same technology that the Oyster cards have used for a long time, when contactless cards became popular in the UK, the Oyster card readers were updated to support them. The contactless logo is on the card, and looks like four little single parentheses, all getting bigger.

I’m not sure how widespread contactless is in the USA however, it’s down to the individual banks to implement. Your bank should be able to tell you, it is certainly a well known technology by now.

For the bank card and transaction fees, your card should work the same as it did in Asia, so if you don’t get charged fees it should just work as a payment card. It’s important to always choose to pay in GBP rather than USD if given the choice, as your bank will usually give you a better rate than if you let the merchant do the conversion, as they usually give bad rates.

I hope this all helps, and it’s not a stupid question at all! If you still need clarification, I am happy to help!

7th May 2019 at 8:38 pm

Thank you so much for the information.

I checked my bank credit cards again, there is one with the logo you mentioned, I will check with the bank.

Wonder if you can give me suggestion about where should stay. Since I am a member of a brand hotel, and they are much cheaper than the ones in the London center. There is one not far away from Heathrow airport, (and the Hayes district ) I plan to stay there during my London visit and take Heathrow express daily to and back from London city. (I looked up the info, it takes may be 15min)

Should I purchase the oyster card for visitor and can the card be used for the Heathrow express, and while I am in the city?

Or purchase the one for the express for my daily travel, then another oyster card for the use in the city?

Thank you so so much for all your information. It is really reassuring, I am sure for all travelers who never been in a new city, to have a blog like yours. I hope you don’t mind later I have few more questions. ( I will try look up myself first …. that’s how to adventure travel)

Have a great day

8th May 2019 at 9:29 am

So you can use the Oyster Card for Heathrow Express, but I’d advise against it because it will charge you the full fare, which is up to £25 each way. This would quickly negate the cost saving of staying outside the city center! However, if you book online in advance you can get tickets for as low as £5.50. So if that is the option you choose, I would suggest doing that. A couple of posts worth reading are our guide to getting from London’s airports to the city centre:

https://www.findingtheuniverse.com/get-to-london-from-airport/

And one of our itinerary posts, which has a bunch of hotel recommendations 🙂

https://independenttravelcats.com/london-itinerary-6-days-in-london/#Where-to-Stay-for-6-Days-in-London

If you did decide to use the Oyster card, you would only need one, it covers the whole London area,

Happy to help with any more questions 🙂

francis croker says

22nd April 2019 at 9:55 am

am going down to Wembley in may for cup final,been told aneed a contactless card,please help me out,havnt a clue where to start.,

22nd April 2019 at 10:29 am

Hi Francis,

If you have a contactless debit or credit card from your bank (it will have a little symbol on it to indicate this), you can just use this to navigate – just touch the card on the yellow reader at the gates and the system will calculate the correct fare. If you don’t have a contactless card you can contact your bank and they should be able to send you one – most banks issue contactless cards by default these days.

If you don’t have a contactless card, you can just buy an Oyster card instead, most underground stations have Oyster card sales points. These are pay as you go cards, so you need to preload them in advance, which you can do at the station.

I hope this helps – enjoy the game!

Joseph Leiba says

31st March 2019 at 7:18 pm

Isn’t there a disadvantage of relying on a mobile payment option like Android Pay, because it requires cell service? I’m concerned that I would lose cell connection in an underground station and be out of luck.

For the auto top-up option with Oyster, is there still a danger of not having enough credit on the card for some trips with higher fares?

Thank you very much!

31st March 2019 at 7:48 pm

Android Pay doesn’t need cell service, it works offline 🙂 The card details are stored in your phone and passed directly to the reader. So it’s like using a normal credit card, which also works without cell service as you know 🙂

I just spoke with TfL about your second query as no-one has asked that before. They said that you are correct – if you try to take a journey that costs more than the balance on your card, it will likely reject the card. Heathrow Express for example is over £20, and the auto-topup only kicks in at £10. So if you have a balance of between £10 and £20, it won’t autotopup, but you also won’t be able to use it for that journey.

I would probably use contactless or Android Pay generally to avoid this situation,

Let me know if you have any more questions!

31st March 2019 at 9:06 pm

That is very helpful! Thank you so much!

Gavin Spencer says

12th March 2019 at 10:30 pm

Hi Laurence,

Two questions: An Oyster card doesnt merely extract payment. Before it does so, it needs to calculate how far you have travelled, and does this by recording where your journey begins (when you tap in) and later, where it ends (when you tap out). Contactless cards have this “journey calculation” capability? Wow, that’s an awful lot of extra “thinking” for a simple credit/debit card, isnt it? In any other transaction a contactless card merely has to make a predetermined payment. (I realise you didnt design the system, just wondering what you might know.)

Also, regarding the foreign transaction fees using overseas contactless cards: If you use an overseas credit/debit card to charge up an Oyster card, that will also incur foreign transaction fees, so isnt it kind of a wash? Or do you think that the fees will be more if you use the card to travel rather than just to charge up your Oyster card?

Thanks in advance. A very informative article.

13th March 2019 at 9:51 am

So as I understand it the processing doesn’t happen with the card, it happens with the Oyster system. When you tap in with your Oyster or contactless card, that information is registered with the Oyster system, which then tracks your journey. It’s also more clever than just tracking a single journey – it tracks your journeys on all the various Oyster enabled transport options, so if you fall under the daily or weekly caps, you won’t pay more than you have to.

For the foreign transaction fees – yes, you are correct, it would be the same if you used the same card for the top up. That said, some banks charge a minimum amount per foreign transaction. So if you top up an Oyster card once, you will only be charge that fee once. However, if you journey several times on the credit card, there’s a risk of being charged that minimum amount every time, which could add up quickly.

I hope this makes sense!

13th March 2019 at 6:00 pm

I see what you’re saying. But still, having the contactless card talk to the Oyster system is an extra layer of “intelligence”, over and above simply making payments.

On the other thing, gotta balance the possible fees with the inconvenience of obtaining an Oyster card and the £5 deposit, which as I recall can be a hassle to get back. Not every station and do it. Sigh….so many decisions 😉

Antony Macer says

5th March 2019 at 6:11 pm

Your web-page is a delight. As an ex-Londoner who now only occasionally visits the city, the need to find advice like this is essential. Many thanks for making access to it so simple.

5th March 2019 at 7:44 pm

Thanks so much Antony, that’s really kind. Let us know if you have any questions, and have a great time in London when you visit 😀

Susan Ireland says

16th October 2018 at 7:21 am

My husband and I are going to London for 10 days. We want to get Oyster cards. When we top up the card, can we use our US-issued mastercard and visa card? Or do we have to top up with cash? Thank you!

17th October 2018 at 7:33 pm

From what I have read, the majority of US issued credit cards will work in the machines. If they don’t, major travel centres like Heathrow, or the large train stations in London, will have ticket windows with a human where you will be able to use the card.

Hope this helps!

17th October 2018 at 9:43 pm

Thank you, Lawrence. That’s reassuring.

30th June 2018 at 6:06 am

contactless can be cheaper than oyster when you are mixing journeys in the centre of london with journeys further out. it’s because the daily price caps work in a slightly different way. There’s a clip of two people doing the same journeys with contactless and oyster here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1w95ULafeSY contactless was a few pounds cheaper.

30th June 2018 at 9:24 am

Great video, thanks for sharing. I will update the post accordingly 🙂

Diovane Bonotto says

2nd December 2016 at 5:07 pm

Apple Pay from overseas can be use?

Laurence says

2nd December 2016 at 5:21 pm

Hello Diovanne,

You can use Apple Pay from overseas yes, but it’s up to your card issuer as to whether the card is supported, and you have to be sure you won’t be charged transaction fees. You can see more here: https://tfl.gov.uk/fares-and-payments/contactless/other-methods-of-contactless-payment/apple-pay?cid=applepay

Paul and Carole says

19th November 2016 at 11:09 am

Thanks for the information regarding the contactless option, we have always used cash previously and will definitely be using this option. We live in the UK and don’t get to London often so are looking forward to our trip next April. #TheWeeklyPostcard

19th November 2016 at 11:15 am

My pleasure! If you’ve got contactless, it’s definitely the way forward, so much easier (and miles cheaper!) than cash 🙂

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Contactless and mobile pay as you go

Use the same payment method.

Always use the same device or contactless card to touch in and out - this will help you pay the right fare. For example, don't touch in with an iPhone and touch out with an Apple Watch or contactless card.

Contactless cards 

If your bank card shows the contactless payment symbol, you can use it to pay as you go straight away. You'll pay an adult rate fare.

Many contactless cards issued outside the UK can be used to pay as you go for travel (overseas transaction fees may apply):

• American Express (AMEX)
• MasterCard and Maestro (some cards issued in the USA, Canada and the Netherlands aren't accepted)
• Visa and V PAY (some cards issued outside the UK aren't accepted)

If you have a prepaid card, it may be accepted on our transport services. Check with your card issuer if you're not sure if your card is contactless or if it's rejected.

Mobile payments 

Using a mobile payment to pay as you go is the same as using a contactless card.

You can make mobile payments with devices such as phones, watches, key fobs, stickers or wristbands. 

You can use different mobile payments to travel on our transport services:

• Barclaycard Contactless Mobile
• Samsung Pay

If you use a mobile payment associated with a non-UK bank card, your card may not work or you may be charged overseas transaction fees. Check with your card issuer.

Touch in at the start of your journey and touch out at the end on yellow card readers using contactless (card or device). Only touch in on buses and trams. Find out more about touching in and out .

You can pay for someone else's travel with your contactless card or device if they're travelling with you. You need to pay for your own travel with a different card or device.

If you have a joint bank account, you can usually both use your contactless cards to travel as each card will be charged separately.

Find out why your contactless card might not work .

Pay the right fare

• Always use the same device or contactless card to touch in and out to pay the right fare for your journey. If you don't, we won't be able to cap your fares. For example, don't touch in with an iPhone and touch out with an Apple Watch or contactless card.

• Make sure you have enough battery otherwise you'll pay the maximum fare or might get a penalty fare

• Watch out for card clash  by keeping your contactless and Oyster cards away from your device when touching in and out so you pay for your travel with the right card or device

How much does it cost?

You can check your fare on our single fare finder or find out about journeys beyond Zone 9 .

Travel as much as you like in one day or week (Monday to Sunday) and we'll cap your fares so you don't pay more .

You might see your payment on your bank statement as:

• Travel charges
• Travel refunds
• Unpaid fares
• tfl.gov.uk/cp

Create an account

Create a contactless and Oyster account to:

• Check your payment and journey history
• Get email alerts if there's an issue with your contactless card which might stop you from travelling
• Apply for refunds
• Pay unpaid fares

If you're adding contactless cards for a joint bank account to your contactless and Oyster account, you need to either: 

• Sign up for one account if the cards have the same long card number and expiry date 
• Sign up for separate accounts for each card if they have different long card numbers and/or expiry dates

Download the app

Once you've created an account, download our free TfL Oyster and contactless app  to manage your contactless and Oyster cards on the go.

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How to Use a Contactless Card on London Transport

Anyone with a contactless debit or credit card can use it to pay for travel in London. It’s ideal if you don’t have or want an Oyster card. Or if you run out of pay as you go credit on your Oyster card.

Your card is used the same way as an Oyster card – you tap in and out at the tube or train station ticket barriers or tap the yellow card reader when you get on a bus.

The main difference is that you don’t have to top-up your Oyster card with money, the fare is taken from your debit card or credit card the following day.

You need one contactless debit or credit card per person . You can’t pay for two or more people with one card.

Contactless single fares 2024

Underground.

For central London (zone 1) it costs  £2.70 off peak and £2.80 peak per journey with a contactless debit or credit card.

Read more about London’s zones .

What are the contactless peak/off-peak hours?

Off-peak fares apply on Fridays from 8 March until 31 May 2024

Monday–Friday 6.30am–9.30am and from 4pm–7pm.

If you travel into central London (zone 1) from an outer zone, there is no afternoon peak rate . You are charged the off-peak fare.

Off-peak fares are charged at all other times, including Public Holidays.

Contactless Daily Cap 2024

If you want to use your contactless card to pay for travel for the whole day, there’s a ‘daily cap’. This is the maximum you pay for unlimited travel in one day. For central London, it’s  £8.50 .

Contactless daily cap from 3 March 2024

It’s  £1.75 for one bus journey or for unlimited bus journeys within one hour with a contactless card. If you use the buses all day,  £5.25 is the maximum amount deducted from your card.

There are no zones for bus travel in London.

Contactless weekly fares

If you use a contactless card to pay for travel between Monday and Sunday there’s a weekly cap – the maximum amount deducted from your card.

As it runs from Monday to Sunday, the cap does not benefit everyone.

For anyone visiting London for 5-7 days, a weekly Travelcard or bus pass might be cheaper depending on the day you first use public transport.

For central London (zone 1) it’s  £42.70 . Contactless weekly cap prices are the same as weekly Travelcard prices.

• You benefit from the contactless ‘weekly cap’ if you arrive in London on Monday or Tuesday and use it to pay for public transport every day until Sunday
• If you arrive in London on Wednesday to Sunday and use public transport every day for 6-7 days, buy a weekly Travelcard instead

The cost for bus travel between Monday and Sunday is  £24.70.

• You benefit from the contactless weekly bus fare if you arrive in London on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday and use the buses every day until Sunday
• If you arrive in London on Thursday to Sunday and use the buses for the next 5-7 days, buy an ordinary weekly bus pass instead

How do I use a contactless card?

Tap your contactless debit/credit card on the yellow card reader when you get on the bus. You don’t need to tap your card when you get off.

On the underground/overground

Tap your card on the yellow card reader to open the ticket barriers at the start of your journey. Do the same when you arrive at your destination. Even if the barriers are open, tap the reader otherwise you are charged the full fare.

The following working day, your journeys are added up and the money is deducted from your bank account or added to your credit card bill.

Non-UK issued contactless card

Visitors with non-UK issued cards should bear in mind that overseas transaction charges might apply when you use a contactless card. It’s probably best to check the fees with your card provider first.

If you have two or more contactless cards, make sure they’re not near each other when you tap your card on the reader. Decide which one you’re going to use and stick to it.

If you use different cards you will not benefit from the daily or weekly cap and you could be charged the ‘full fare’ (expensive!).

A record of usage is available, but you need register your contactless credit/debit card with TfL.

If you don’t want to do this, get an Oyster card instead. Receipts are available when you buy and/or top-up a card at an underground station ticket machine. You don’t get one automatically, you have to select ‘Receipt’ on the screen. Look out for the prompt – it’s easy to miss.

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What's the Best Way to Bring Spending Money to the UK?

A Look at the Pros and Cons for Convenience, Value and Spending Power

Yagi Studio/Getty Images 

The pound Sterling (£), sometimes just called " Sterling ", is the official currency of the UK . You can change your money into pounds in different ways, but you can't actually spend your own national currency, not even Euros , without exchanging it first.

As soon as you start planning your trip, start thinking about how you'll handle your spending money in the UK. Leave yourself enough time to consider the convenience, security and value of various options and to open new bank or credit card accounts if necessary.

These are the choices:

1. credit and debit cards - the easiest and the cheapest.

These are, hands down, the cheapest and most convenient way to pay for things and to get cash in the UK as long as you use them correctly. Consider the pros and cons.

• Credit card companies apply a wholesale/interbank exchange rate in effect when your payment is processed. The rate will go up and down but it will always be a commercial rate, available to banks and large organizations—much better than the retail currency exchange rates available over the counter to consumers. So you get more for your money.
• Most card companies do not add additional transaction fees on purchases of goods (though they do when you buy cash).
• If you pay your credit card bills before interest is added on, or make sure you have enough money in your debit account to cover your spending, you won't be subject to any extra charges.
• They're widely accepted—You can pay for just about anything with a debit card in the UK, from a carton of milk and the day's newspapers or beer in a pub, to large expensive goods. In the UK, people can even pay their taxes and electricity bills with a debit card.
• Cash machines, or ATMs are everywhere. Most village high streets will have a selection of automated teller machines. They're available at petrol (gas) stations, in cinemas, at banks and in some shops. This makes getting some cash at any hour of day or night very easy.
• Some cards are not recognized or widely accepted in the UK. You may have difficulty using Diners Club and Discover cards. American Express cards are sometimes refused. Stick with the big two—VISA and MasterCharge—and you shouldn't have any problems.
• Some merchants may require a minimum purchase to accept a credit card. This is especially true in small, local Mom and Pop stores.
• Bank charges may apply. Bank, building society and post office cash machines in the UK (which is most of them) do not apply an extra charge or commission getting cash. But your own bank or card company probably will. It's worth shopping around for the lowest currency transaction charge because this varies from card to card and between issuing banks. You might be charged anywhere from $1.50 to $3.00 or more per foreign currency cash transaction.
• A small number of cash machines do charge for withdrawals and are worth avoiding. Cash machines in small convenience stores and at some motorway rest stops may be part of commercial networks that add extra fees—a minimum of about £1.50 but sometimes a percentage of your transaction. Try to avoid using these machines except in an emergency. Instead look for ATMs associated with the UK's big banks, with building societies (like savings banks) or with leading shops (Harrods,  Marks & Spencer ) and supermarkets. 
• You may need to get a new card to comply with European chip-and-pin standards (more on that below)​.
• One word to the wise —Use your credit card to buy things but use a debit or ATM card for getting cash from ATMs. When you use a credit card for shopping, interest is not charged until after the payment deadline (usually 30 days or the end of the month). But, when you use a credit card at a cash machine, interest starts accruing immediately. With a debit card, as long as you have money in the bank to cover your spending, no interest is charged.

The Chip-and-Pin Issue

The UK, along with most of the rest of the world, has been using chip-and-pin cards for more than a decade. The cards have an embedded microchip and customers are issued a unique, 4-digit PIN number they have to enter in ATMs or at point of sale machines to use their cards.

The USA has been the one holdout, relying instead on cards with magnetic stripes that usually require a signature. All that is finally beginning to change. The EMV (Europay Mastercard VISA) group, who developed the global, open chip and pin smart card technology, have been trying to persuade American merchants and card issuers to change to chip and pin for a long time. In October 2015, to force the issue, they changed their rules. Since then, if a card is used fraudulently, merchants or card issuers who do not participate in the chip and pin protocol will be held liable for the cost of the fraud.

Because of this, EMV chip-and-pin smart cards are becoming more widely available in the USA and older style cards are gradually being replaced to meet the global standard.

What This Means for You

If you already have a chip-and-pin smart card, you won't run into any difficulty using it where your brand of card is accepted. The card reading machines used in shops, banks and post offices will still have a magnetic stripe reader so you can swipe your card on the top or side of the device. 

But if your card requires a signature (either mag stripe and signature or chip and signature cards) you will have problems—especially when no human cashier is present to accept your signature. Without a chip, your card will be rejected by ticket machines (at train stations, for example) and by automated petrol (gasoline) pumps. And even with a chip, you will need a PIN number to use your card with these machines.

To avoid hassles:

• All bank cards and credit cards have a 4-digit PIN number, even if your bank or card issuer has not given it to you. Ask for one for each of your cards before traveling. Then you'll be able to use your card in an ATM or swipe it at a point-of-sale terminal and authorise the transaction with your PIN number.
• Get yourself a chip-and-pin card. Most of the bigger American banks are now offering them or replacing their customers' existing chip and signature cards with chip and pin cards. If your bank does not yet have them available, open an account at a bank that can give you one. 

And the Contactless Issue

Most debit and credit cards issued to UK consumers have a contactless payment feature. If the card has it, there is a symbol that looks like sound waves printed on the card, as pictured above. These cards can be used for payments simply by tapping them on terminals similarly equipped. Very conveniently, these cards can be used just like Oyster Cards for access to London Underground, London buses. London Overground and Docklands Light Railway. Some mobile phone apps that display the contactless logo can also be used to pay small amounts. 

If you are visiting the UK from Canada, Australia or a number of European countries, you may already have one of these contactless cards and you can use them in the UK wherever the contactless symbol is displayed on the payment terminal. As of 2018, US banks began to offer contactless credit and debit cards in partnership with international card issuers. Chase, for example, has offered this form of payment to its customers since February 2018. If you can, get your hands on one of these as its the most convenient way to pay small amounts. If you are able to use a contactless card, keep in mind though, that your transaction will still be subject to whatever foreign exchange transaction fees your bank or card issuer charges.

If you have an iPhone, you may be able to use Apple Pay wherever contactless payments are accepted and for more than the £30 contactless limit. The Apple Pay UK site has a list of some of the main businesses that accept this form of payment at point of sale. 

Traveler's checks.

Traveler's checks were once the gold standard when it came to carrying travel money. And perhaps, in some parts of the world they may still be a safe option, but they are currently the most expensive and most inconvenient option for the UK.

• They are very secure—As long as you keep a record of the check numbers (separate from the checks themselves), and as long as you keep track of the emergency number to call in the country you are visiting, you can get lost or stolen checks replaced quickly, at no extra cost.
• They are available in several currencies including dollars, Euros and pounds sterling.
• They are expensive, possibly the most expensive way to take money abroad in fact. First off, you will usually be charged a fee of one percent of the total value of the checks you buy. If you buy them in a foreign currency—in other words you spend dollars to buy travelers checks in pounds sterling—the seller's retail exchange rate will apply and you may also pay a commission for the currency conversion. If you buy them in dollars, planning to exchange them for local currency when you arrive, you will still be stuck with accepting a retail exchange rate (usually much less advantageous than the interbank rate for the day) and probably a foreign currency commission too.
• They are very inconvenient. In the UK, with the exception of tourist magnets like Harrods , and very expensive hotels, almost none of the shops, restaurants and hotels accept them. In fact, very few stores in the UK accept any kind of check at all. So you will have to seek out bureaux de changes, banks and post offices—during weekday working hours, to cash them. Bureau de change outlets, the European name for commercial currency exchanges, are profit making businesses and usually offer the worst exchange rates. And banks will only cash traveler's checks if they have what is known as a correspondent relationship with the bank that issued them.

3. Prepaid Currency Cards

One way around the chip-and-pin issue is to buy yourself a prepaid currency card, such as the Travelex Cash Passport or the Virgin Money Prepaid MasterCard. These are cards you prepay in either your own currency or the currency you want to spend. Some can be charged up with several currencies at once. The cards are associated with one of the major international card organizations—usually VISA or MasterCard, are embedded with chip-and-pin technology and can be used wherever those credit cards are normally accepted.

• An easy way to chip-and-pin
• Easier to control your spending. You charge up the card with exactly what you want to spend and then use it up like cash.
• Security is assured as long as you protect your PIN number.
• Up front purchase price and higher than average ATM cash fees can add to costs
• Some can only be charged up with additional funds in person in a branch of the business that sold it to you, in your own country.
• Hidden charges—if you leave a balance on the card, planning to use it for another trip abroad or other special purchases, you may find that balance nibbled away by monthly "inactivity" charges. Read the fine print.

​ And one last warning about prepaid cards:

Whatever you do, DO NOT USE these cards to guarantee your hotel or rental car bill or to buy petrol from automated pumps. In these situations, an amount - which can be £200 or £300—will be put on hold to guarantee that you will pay your bill. The problem is, even if you don't spend that much money, it can take as long as 30 days for those funds to be released. Meanwhile, you can't use the money you've put on the card for the rest of your trip. Use your credit card for the guarantees, then settle the bills with the prepaid card.

Then, of course, there's always good old cash—or at least there used to be (see below). You'll want to have some local currency in your wallet for tips , cab fares and small purchases. How much you carry depends on your own spending habits and confidence in carrying cash. As a rule of thumb, plan on carrying about as much in pounds sterling as you might carry in your own currency when at home.

There is a catch. In the UK, espcially the big cities, a small but growing number of businesses—notably cafes and bars—are refusing to accept cash and will only accept card payments. This is still pretty rare, but we were shocked in November, 2018, to offer a £10 note to pay for a coffee and croissant only to be shown a sign that said the restaurant did not accept cash. These days, an internationally accepted credit card is still the safest kind of travel money to have.

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How to Pay for Public Transport in London

The transport system in London may be one of the most effective in the world, but it’s still a little confusing for a first-timer visiting the city. If you don’t know the ins and outs of the best ways to pay for public transport in London, then you’ll probably end up spending a lot more than you need to. There are three main ways you can pay for transport in the city: Oyster card, debit or credit card and Apple or Google Pay; in this article, we will break each one down for you. 

It’s also worth noting that everyone needs to have their own payment method, otherwise, you might get charged more than you should.

Contactless Payment

The contactless payment method is for people with a credit or debit card with a contactless form of payment. If you’re unsure if your card has it, check for the “contactless” icon on the front of the card (shown above) or ask your bank or card provider. 

If you do have it, this is certainly the easiest and most convenient way to pay for public transport in London. All you need to do is tap your debit or credit card on the yellow card reader at the ticket barrier or the front of the bus next to the driver, and your fee will automatically be calculated based on the journey you have made. When travelling by tube, you must always tap it right at the start of your journey and again at the end to ensure that you pay the right fare and aren’t overcharged. For buses, you only need to tap in at the start of the journey.

Apple Pay or Google Pay

Next in our guide about how to pay for public transport in London is Apple or Google Pay. This payment method is more or less the same as the contactless payment method, except it is done on your phone. For those who have their credit or debit card set up in their Apple Pay or Google Pay wallet, you can simply tap your phone on the yellow card reader in the same way that you would a physical card.

Oyster Cards

When it comes to working out how to pay for public transport in London, these handy little cards make getting about the city straightforward. You can pick them up at the airport, at certain train stations and at convenience stores dotted around the city. They cost seven pounds to purchase, and you can top up your card as many times as you need to.

You load credit onto your card, and then, in the same way that you have to tap in and out of train journeys with the contactless method of payment, you also have to do so with the Oyster card method of paying (but again, only once when you embark on a bus). 

If you need to check how much credit you have left on your card, the self-service ticket machines can tell you this, and you can top up there with more credit if and when you need to.

You know, it’s not just the Tube and our double decker buses here in London. We have a few other great public transport options. Learn about them all and get a comparison on pricing, timings and more in the video below.

We hope this helps you when it comes to figuring out how to pay for public transport in London. Travelling on the tube with kids? Read this guide on how to pay for kids on London’s public transport .

• Is the London Pass worth it? Tips and Advice for London Tourists
• What to Do if You’re Visiting London During a Transport Strike
• Top Money Saving Hacks for your London Trip

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Jessica Dellow is an East Londoner who loves to travel the world and eat her way around the city. When she's not eating, cooking or hanging out in the local pub, you’ll probably find her walking one of her BorrowMyDoggy dogs in Victoria Park with a coffee in hand.

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The complete guide to flying to London on points and miles

London has always been one of the world's most popular tourist destinations, but with the historic coronation of King Charles III and Queen Consort Camilla set to take place May 6, this year is set to be an extra-special time to visit.

The coronation — which will be held at Westminster Abbey — is the first to take place in the United Kingdom since Queen Elizabeth II was crowned in 1953 and will be a once-in-a-generation moment that will see the city pull out all the stops as the world tunes in to watch.

But it's not just royal pomp and ceremony you can expect from a visit to London. From some of the best restaurants in the world to fascinating historical sites to a booming theater scene, there's something for everyone. Better yet, it's easy for Americans to get to London with nonstop flights from most major and midsize U.S. cities. Some airports — namely, New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) — have nearly hourly flights to London's various airports.

Flights to London can be expensive, though, especially if you're coming from the West Coast or a smaller U.S. city. So, let's look at some of your best options for booking flights to London Town using points and miles.

Looking for a convenient way to see all of your points and miles in one place? Download the free TPG app !

Quick tips for planning a trip to London

With so many airports, airlines and routes serving Western Europe's largest city, it's a different beast than booking other international trips. So before we discuss your booking options, here are a few tips on booking award flights to London.

Search multiple international gateways

Each airline has its own unique hubs where you'll find the most award availability. If you're not finding any award space from your home airport, enter just your transatlantic route between London and the hub airports of the airline you plan to fly with.

For example, let's say you're collecting United MileagePlus miles. If you can't find any award seats from your home airport in Philadelphia, search instead for flights from:

• Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) .
• Chicago's O'Hare International Airport (ORD) .
• Washington, D.C.'s Dulles International Airport (IAD) .
• Boston Logan International Airport (BOS) .

You may have to fly yourself to one of these airports first — but it's still likely to be significantly cheaper than paying for a ticket to London.

Search all London airports (not just Heathrow)

London is served by multiple airports — and other non-London airports are a moderate drive or train ride to the city. Depending on the airline miles you're using, you can check all of the following airports if you can't find available flights.

These are in order of distance from central London:

• London City Airport (LCY) .
• Heathrow Airport (LHR) .
• Gatwick Airport (LGW) .
• Southampton Airport (SOU).
• Bristol Airport (BRS).
• Birmingham Airport (BHX).

You can simultaneously search for many of these airports by entering "LON" as your destination airport on the airline website. However, this search will likely exclude Birmingham, Bristol and others.

Flexible points are key

If you're booking a last-minute trip to London or traveling during peak season, you can often expect to have a much tougher time finding available award seats than had you booked many months in advance. At the time of writing, however, we were able to find reward availability around the coronation dates in May for all the airlines featured below.

If you cannot find available award seats on American or United, there may be some availability on a connecting flight with Air France or KLM.

Therefore, it's helpful to have transferable rewards such as American Express Membership Rewards or Chase Ultimate Rewards points on hand. You can convert these points into many different airline miles, giving you far more flexibility than had you been collecting one airline currency.

Related: How (and why) you should earn transferable points

Booking flights to London with points and miles

Now, let's look at some of the best ways to fly from the U.S. to London's various airports.

American Airlines AAdvantage

Getting to London with American Airlines miles is a piece of cake — but there are some pitfalls you should be aware of.

American Airlines flies nonstop to London from more than 10 U.S. cities. Award seats are usually priced as follows:

• 22,500 miles in economy (Jan. 10 to March 14 and Nov. 1 to Dec. 14 — otherwise, 30,000 miles).
• 57,500 miles in business class.

When searching for awards, American Airlines may try to sell you seats on its partner British Airways . However, we don't recommend booking British Airways flights since you'll be charged hundreds of dollars in fuel surcharges .

Below are search results on aa.com for a one-way flight between Philadelphia and London. As you can see, you'll pay 30,000 miles in economy. You'll pay $5.60 in taxes when flying American Airlines or a whopping $231.20 in taxes when flying British Airways.

You can see which airline operates the flight below the departure and arrival times.

Transfer partners: American Airlines is a transfer partner of:

• Bilt Rewards (1:1 transfer ratio).
• Marriott Bonvoy (3:1 transfer ratio).

If you transfer Marriott points in increments of 60,000, Marriott will deposit an extra 5,000 miles into your AAdvantage account. In short, transferring 60,000 Marriott points will earn you 25,000 American Airlines miles.

Alternatively, you can earn AAdvantage miles with a cobranded credit card. One of our favorites is the Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard® (see rates and fees ), which currently offers 50,000 miles after you spend $2,500 in the first three months of account opening. Plus, you'll enjoy perks like a free checked bag on American flights and a $125 flight discount after you spend $20,000 on the card during your cardmember year.

Award searches and availability: You can book flights directly on aa.com .

ANA Mileage Club

ANA — short for All Nippon Airways — is a Star Alliance member based in Tokyo. Its comprehensive list of airline partners gives you plenty of ways to reach London with ANA Mileage Club miles. You can fly between the U.S. and London for:

• 55,000 miles round-trip in economy.
• 88,000 miles round-trip in business class.

Remember that you can only book round-trip flights with ANA miles (no one-way flights are allowed). Stopovers are allowed at the same award price, so you could visit two European cities for the price of one.

Also, be aware of exorbitant fuel surcharges that will appear when flying with some carriers like Austrian, Swiss and Lufthansa. Set your sights on flights operated by Air Canada, TAP Air Portugal, SAS, LOT Polish Airlines and United, as these carriers don't add high fuel surcharges.

Below is an itinerary between Newark and London in business class for 88,000 miles and $300 on partner United Airlines. That's not bad, considering round-trip business-class tickets between these two airports sell for more than $3,600.

Additionally, ANA won't allow you to book an international flight award within 96 hours of boarding. If you're leaving before then, you may be able to get around this by booking into the future and then calling ANA to change the dates within 96 hours. Your results may vary. As long as your flights, routes, carriers, etc., remain the same, you shouldn't be charged any change fees.

Transfer partners: ANA is transfer partner of:

• Amex Membership Rewards (1:1 transfer ratio).
• Marriott Bonvoy (3:1 transfer ratio, with 5,000 bonus miles for every 60,000-point increment you transfer).

Award searches and availability: To book, go to ana.co.jp . You may have to switch the language from Japanese to English.

ANA sometimes won't show you all the available options. If you're struggling to find availability, you can check out either aircanada.com or united.com for seats and then call ANA to book once you've found what you're after.

Related: The best ways to redeem points and miles for flights to Europe

Flying Blue (Air France-KLM)

Flying Blue is a shared loyalty program between Air France and KLM .

Neither of these airlines flies directly between the U.S. and London, but you can route through airports like Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG) and Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (AMS) to reach London. Or, you can fly on partners like Delta and Virgin Atlantic nonstop to get there. There are also plenty of other SkyTeam partners that you can use to reach London.

While Flying Blue doesn't technically have an award chart, you can usually reach London for around:

• 25,000 miles one-way in economy.
• 55,000 miles one-way in business class.

However, you can sometimes find cheaper flights thanks to Flying Blue Promo Rewards . These award sales discount regular fares by up to 50%.

This is another airline that passes along annoyingly high (though not prohibitive) taxes and fees. Below is a one-way flight from New York to London in economy for 22,500 miles and $83.90 in fees.

Transfer partners: Flying Blue is a transfer partner of all major flexible points currencies:

• Capital One (1:1 transfer ratio).
• Chase Ultimate Rewards (1:1 transfer ratio).
• Citi ThankYou Rewards (1:1 transfer ratio).

Award searches and availability: You can book award flights via airfrance.us . You can view monthly calendar availability without entering your travel dates on the search page. Unfortunately, the calendar can sometimes be a bit misleading — so if you're just not seeing any availability, search day by day.

Related: The ultimate guide to earning and redeeming with Air France-KLM Flying Blue

United Airlines MileagePlus

United Airlines offers plenty of nonstop service from its eight major hubs. You can also use United Airlines miles to fly to London on United's partner airlines, such as Air Canada , Aer Lingus and TAP Air Portugal .

United charges reasonable fares to London — with no excessive fuel surcharges. Here's what you can expect to pay:

• 30,000 miles in economy (sometimes slightly lower).
• 45,000 in premium economy.
• 60,000 miles in business class.

Here's a flight from Boston to London on United Airlines. As you can see, you'll pay 27,300 miles in economy, plus $5.60 in fees.

One of the best features of using United Airlines miles is the number of available seats. United beats much of its competition in this department. Plus, if you have a United Airlines credit card or United elite status , you'll have access to more United Airlines award space than those without. This can make a big difference.

Transfer partners: United Airlines is a transfer partner of:

• Marriott Bonvoy (3:1.1 transfer ratio, with 5,500 bonus miles for every 60,000-point increment you transfer).

Note that you'll get 10% more miles when transferring Marriott points to United versus other airlines.

Award searches and availability: You can make your searches directly on united.com . It's one of the most effective sites to search for Star Alliance awards.

Related: How to unlock additional award availability with United Airlines

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club

Virgin Atlantic is based in the U.K. It serves 12 U.S. hubs, so you'll likely find many award options when booking.

Unfortunately, this airline incurs higher-than-average taxes on its own flights and on its partners like Air France and KLM. Virgin Atlantic makes up for this by offering extremely low award prices.

Below is a nonstop flight between Atlanta and London on Virgin Atlantic. You'll pay just 12,500 miles (15,000 miles from the West Coast) and $150.30 in taxes and fees. That's a good deal.

However, booking Virgin Atlantic business-class flights is unreasonable — you can easily drop 67,500 miles and $875 in fees one-way .

It's worth noting that you can book Delta flights to London for as little as 15,000 points in economy and 47,500 points in Delta One (business class). You will pay similarly exorbitant taxes and fees for these flights (unlike flights to the rest of Europe, which incur extremely small fees).

Also, note that Delta may not release any availability to Virgin Atlantic within 21 days of departure — so if you're trying to visit London soon, this isn't a good strategy to bank on

Transfer partners: You can quickly accrue Virgin points by transferring from the following flexible points currencies:

Award searches and availability: You can book directly on virginatlantic.com . Some partners you must call to book (like ANA and Hawaiian Airlines ), but that shouldn't be a problem when flying to London.

Related: How to save thousands of miles on Delta One awards to Europe

Bonus strategy

Hopping between the U.K. and the rest of Europe is usually extremely cheap. Flights from cities like Madrid, Paris, Dublin, Amsterdam, etc., to London can cost around $40 each way — especially if you use a budget airline such as easyJet or Ryanair . However, remember that when flying with these European low-cost airlines , you will often be required to pay extra for checked baggage, which may not always prove cost-effective.

Searching for award flights to other European cities gives you tons more opportunities to find cheap travel across the Atlantic. You can save a bundle on the expensive seats and then hop over to London with cash for $100 round-trip.

Read our post on the best ways to travel to Europe using points and miles .

Bottom line

Those with a healthy stash of transferable points (such as Amex Membership Rewards points , Capital One miles , Chase Ultimate Rewards points , etc.) should have no trouble getting to London for extremely cheap. By converting those rewards into ANA miles, Flying Blue miles, United Airlines miles and more, you can find the perfect seats for your travel goals.

Just be mindful of hefty airfare taxes and fees that sometimes crop up when visiting London.

Additional reporting by Andrew Kunesh and Jordan Waller.

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Free Taylor Swift tickets: Company will pay 2 friends to travel to London, attend Eras Tour

Lucky swifties will receive premium tickets to wembley stadium and a $5,000 travel stipend.

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Taylor Swift fans are being offered the opportunity of their "wildest dreams."

Flytographer, a Canada-based platform that connects travelers with photographers around the world, is looking to hire two Swiftie BFFs to attend the Eras Tour at Wembley Stadium in London on Aug. 19, 2024.

The company launched three Taylor Swift-inspired photo tours in London, Paris and New York, according to a press release.

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"The Capture Your Era Photo Tours will include stops inspired by iconic moments in history, including Cornelia St. in New York, Pont des Arts in Paris, and the West End in London," the company wrote.

"To debut these new tours, Flytographer is hiring two best friends as the company’s Chief Memory Makers, tasked with taking the trip of their wildest dreams to test out the new Capture Your (London) Era Photo Tour."

Three Swifties walking in London next to an image of Taylor Swift onstage for the opening night of "The Eras Tour" at State Farm Stadium on March 17, 2023, in Glendale, Arizona. (Flytographer; Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management / Getty Images)

The lucky new hires will test out the London-based photo tour experience, capturing pictures and videos for Flytographer’s Instagram account.

TAYLOR SWIFT FANS DRIVE NEW TRAVEL TREND OF ‘GIG TRIPPING': HOW DOES IT WORK?

The job includes a $5,000 travel stipend, premium tickets to the Eras Tour at Wembley Stadium, and a Flytographer photo shoot.

The two hires will also receive a $100 salon credit and $100 shopping credit to buy the "ultimate Eras Tour outfit," the release said.

Flytographer will offer a $5,000 travel stipend and premium tickets to the Eras Tour at Wembley Stadium. (Flytographer / Fox News)

Flytographer founder and CEO Nicole Smith shared her hopes for the future hires in a statement sent to Fox News Digital.

"My hope for this ‘job,’ as a fan of Taylor myself, is that the Chief Memory Makers will be able to make memories that will last a lifetime, at the event of a lifetime, and have photos that help them capture and remember the magic of the entire experience," she said. 

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"We’ve all seen the tremendous impact Taylor Swift has had, with millions of fans coming together to celebrate the Eras Tour with their best friends. From mothers taking daughters to their first concert to lifelong best friends reconnecting to go to a show together, and some even going solo and meeting fellow fans for the first time to celebrate an icon together, it’s been inspiring to see."

The job description says the chief memory makers should "most importantly, [have] fun with your best friend!" (Flytographer / Fox News)

The CEO noted that Flytographer wanted to be a part of Swiftie history "by capturing the special moments for fans traveling abroad and giving two best friends the experience of a lifetime."

GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE

Interested applicants can apply and prove their fan "reputation" at flytographer.com until May 9. 

Applicants must be at least 21 years old, though the BFF they bring along can be younger.

For more Lifestyle articles, visit foxbusiness.com/lifestyle

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Only 40 LNER intercity rail services to run on Saturday as train drivers strike

Almost three in four services between London, Edinburgh and York will be cut in Aslef members’ stoppage

A train drivers’ strike will lead to almost three in four services being cut on Saturday on LNER, which operates intercity trains between London, York and Edinburgh .

Members of the Aslef union will take industrial action for 24 hours on 20 April – and also ban overtime during the weekend – in a dispute over terms and conditions, separate to the wider pay row that has led to strikes at all national rail operators across England.

LNER expects to run about 40 services on the east coast mainline on Saturday, just over a quarter of its normal schedule.

Mick Whelan, the general secretary of Aslef, said: “Train drivers are fed up with the bad faith shown by this company … and we are not prepared to put up with being bullied and pushed about by a company that thinks it can break agreements whenever it feels like it.”

While the drivers’ action is not directly related to the wider rail pay disputes, which led to the biggest series of strikes in a generation, more disruption could come after the RMT union rejected a pay rise from Network Rail . The state-owned company, which runs the track and infrastructure, has offered a 3.5% pay rise to its employees, including signallers and maintenance workers.

The RMT said it had rejected the offer, maintaining that it fell below the standard benchmark for inflation used in rail pay negotiations – the November retail prices index figure – which was 5.3%.

The union’s general secretary, Mick Lynch, said: “Network Rail is once again making an offer that represents a cut in living standards as pay is not keeping up with the rising costs of rent, mortgages, energy, food and other essentials. As a result, RMT is calling for urgent fresh negotiations and a much-improved offer for this year.”

A Network Rail spokesperson said it had put forward a 3.5% unconditional offer with other benefits that was “fair and represents a significant increase given current and forecast rates of inflation … We expect negotiations to continue.”

It is understood that even though Network Rail has more control of its budget than train operating companies – which have not been able to offer drivers more money – the organisation is still under pressure to keep pay rises down in line with the wider public sector.

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The RMT has, however, highlighted the 5.5% award given to MPs last month. The union’s members at Network Rail settled their strike action last year for a two-year deal worth 9%, below inflation.

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More on this story

Aslef’s final strike day disrupts rail services in south and east England

Aslef says more train strikes likely as drivers’ pay row continues

Rail passengers face rolling strikes but London Underground action called off

Train drivers at Northern and LNER to strike in March, Aslef union announces

Weekend rail strikes: travel disrupted across Great Britain

Train drivers will keep striking to ‘raise profile’ of pay dispute, says Aslef boss

Weekend rail strikes and overtime ban disrupt UK travel

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London Marathon 2024 travel guide: Start times, route and celebration spots

Spectators can watch runners race through the capital on 21 april, article bookmarked.

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The London Marathon 2024 will weave through the streets of the capital from Greenwich to Westminster on Sunday 21 April, and thousands of spectators are going to be lining the route for a glimpse of their running friends.

Over 50,000 people are expected to take on the mammoth two-foot tour of London landmarks, including Buckingham Palace, Cutty Sark and Tower Bridge.

Since the inaugural 26.2 mile event in 1981, the fundraising race has raised millions for charities each year, and, with sunshine on the forecast for now, celebrations of the charitable and physical feat will take place across the city.

Here’s everything you need to know to plan the day if you’re running  or  supporting this year’s London Marathon.

London Marathon 2024 start time and date

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The London Marathon 2024 will take place on Sunday 21 April.

Exact timings for this year’s races are yet to be confirmed but staggered start times from around 8.30am are the norm, with the masses setting off in waves at 10am and all start lines closed from 11.30am.

The finish line on The Mall closes at 7.30pm and is then moved to St James’ Park until midnight.

London Marathon route

Largely unchanged since 1981, the start line for the race is in Blackheath at the top of Greenwich Park .

From here, a leg to Woolwich, jog past the Cutty Sark and stretch around Bermondsey takes runners to cross the river over Tower Bridge .

After a ring around the Isle of Dogs, it’s a relatively straight stretch along the Thames through the City of London to the Westminster finish line on The Mall.

Will there be train and tube strikes?

There is a planned overtime ban for Aslef members working for LNER on Friday 19 and Sunday 21 April (marathon day), as well as strikes on Saturday 20 April, so those travelling into London from the northeast will likely face cancellations.

Substantial road closures across the capital to make way for the race mean spectators should travel on foot or by tube – roads will reopen as and when all runners have cleared the area.

Marathon participants will receive free travel home up to 6.30pm on marathon day on the London Underground and Overground, buses and DLR.

TfL said that a modified DLR service will start at 5.30am from Tower Gateway to Lewisham so runners arrive on time to the start line.

Rail services out of London to the midlands and the northwest are also expected to be extremely busy from 6pm due to an FA Cup semi-final taking place at Wembley Stadium.

The best spots to watch the London Marathon in person

If the live BBC coverage won’t cut it and you’re coming to support from the sidelines, spectators can watch along most parts of the route, including The Highway in Wapping, where runners will pass twice.

To be in the heart of the action, the halfway point of Tower Bridge at mile 13, and the finish line at The Mall are bound to be exciting but busy. For a quieter spot to cheer, stay east and line up in Deptford or the Isle of Dogs.

Track friends and family taking part using their marathon number on the TCS London Marathon app to best position yourself to catch them on the go.

Marathon organisers advise that some areas, including those by the Cutty Sark and St James’ Park, are likely to be very busy on the day.

Five accessible viewing areas also dot the course for those with disabilities: in Cutty Sark, Canary Wharf, Rainbow Row, Tower Hill and Victoria Embankment.

Where to celebrate along the route

London has plenty of pubs and bars to quench the post-marathon thirst, whether you’ve been running or cheering.

In Greenwich, The Gipsy Moth has Cutty Sark views, The Angel in Bermondsey sits on the Thames and halfway pub, the Tower Bridge Arms, raises pints of IPA to passers-by.

Wet your palette in Wapping’s local Turner’s Old Star, ride the high at Pergola on the Wharf for city views, or refuel at Hung, Drawn & Quartered in Tower Hill with pies and ales.

At Victoria Embankment, board pub boat Tattershall Castle to cheer runners on for the final mile and savour a cold one at The Westminster Arms just before the finish line.

Once the race has been run, Inn the Park restaurant in St James’ Park is ideal for a light bite or head into Mercato Mayfair for a street food party in a restored church.

How to sign up for the London Marathon 2025

After a  record number of entries  signed up for the 26.2-mile race in 2024 – 578,374 applicants according to event organisers – next year’s London Marathon is bound to be another popular event.

To take on the challenge, entry is available through a ballot, international tour operators, charity spaces and athletics clubs.

The public ballot for the 2025 TCS London Marathon will open on Saturday 20 April and close the following Friday (26 April). Winners will be drawn at random and emailed in July ahead of the 27 April 2025 marathon.

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The life and music of Amy Winehouse, through the journey of adolescence to adulthood and the creation of one of the best-selling albums of our time. The life and music of Amy Winehouse, through the journey of adolescence to adulthood and the creation of one of the best-selling albums of our time. The life and music of Amy Winehouse, through the journey of adolescence to adulthood and the creation of one of the best-selling albums of our time.

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Middle East latest: 'Unknown airstrike' on Iraqi military base; Iranian minister downplays Israeli attack

Injuries and "material losses" have been reported after a large explosion at a military base in Iraq. Meanwhile, Iran's foreign minister dismissed the apparent Israeli attack as ineffective in an interview with Sky News' US partner NBC News.

Saturday 20 April 2024 12:19, UK

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• Airstrike on Iraqi base from 'unknown source'
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Two people have died during a raid in the occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

Israeli forces launched the raid on Friday and say they killed a number of militants and arrested more, with four of its own soldiers wounded.

The raid is in the Nur Shams area, where 1948 war refugees and their descendants are housed near the Palestinian city of Tulkarm.

One of the dead was identified by Palestinian sources as a gunman, while officials say the second was a 16-year-old schoolboy.

Tulkarm Brigades group, which includes militants from numerous Palestinian factions, said its fighters are still exchanging fire with Israeli forces today.

At least three drones were seen hovering above Nur Shams, where Israeli military vehicles were gathered and bursts of gunfire were heard.

There are regular clashes and riots in the West Bank, aggravated by Israeli settlers both threatening and inflicting violence on Palestinians if they do not give up their land - which has been condemned by even the strongest international supporters of Israel, like the US.

A huge US aid package worth $95bn (£76.8bn) is expected to pass today after months of political wrangling in Washington and resistance from Republicans.

The four-bill package would share the support between Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.

While the bulk of the funds are reserved for Ukraine, a total of $26.38bn (£21.2bn) would be provided to support Israel and reimburse US military operations in response to recent attacks.

How that breaks down:

About $5.2bn will go toward replenishing and expanding Israel's missile and rocket defence system, with $3.5bn going towards purchasing advanced weapons systems.

Another $1bn would enhance weapons production and $4.4bn would boost other supplies and services provided to Israel.

The bill would also give $9.1bn for humanitarian needs.

Gaza's need for aid

It would prohibit funds to the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which provides support to Palestinian refugees.

Yesterday, UN chief Antonio Guterres said Israel's commitments to improve aid access in Gaza have had limited and sometimes no impact.

"To avert imminent famine, and further preventable deaths from disease, we need a quantum leap in humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza," he said.

Nine people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a house in southern Gaza, according to hospital authorities, including six children.

According to Gaza's civil defence, the strike hit a residential building late yesterday in a western suburb in the city of Rafah, where Israel has repeatedly said it will target remaining Hamas militants.

Abu Yousef al Najjar Hospital's records show the bodies of the six children, two women and a man were taken there.

Relatives cried and hugged the bodies of the children, wrapped in white shrouds, at the hospital.

Among those killed were Abdel-Fattah Sobhi Radwan, his wife Najlaa Ahmed Aweidah and their three children, his brother-in-law Ahmed Barhoum said.

Mr Barhoum also lost his wife, Rawan Radwan, and their 5-year-old daughter, Alaa.

"This is a world devoid of all human values and morals," Mr Barhoum told The Associated Press on Saturday morning, crying as he held Alaa's body in his arms.

"They bombed a house full of displaced people, women and children. There were no martyrs but women and children."

No casualties have been reported from a second alleged overnight strike in the city.

Rafah, which lies on the border with Egypt, currently hosts more than half of Gaza's total population of about 2.3 million people, the vast majority of whom were displaced by fighting further north.

Despite calls for restraint, including from staunch ally the US, Israel has insisted for months it intends to push on into the city, where it says many Hamas militants are located.

We reported last night London's Met Police apologised twice after an officer was recorded preventing a Jewish man from crossing a road by a pro-Palestinian march because he is "openly Jewish".

Video showed the police officer telling him: "You are quite openly Jewish, this is a pro-Palestinian march, I'm not accusing you of anything but I'm worried about the reaction to your presence."

The officer also warned he could arrest Gideon Falter, who is the chief executive of the Campaign Against Antisemitism and was wearing a kippah skull cap.

The home secretary, James Cleverly, has now written to the Met and Mayor of London regarding the incident last Saturday.

While the contents of the letter remain private, a Home Office spokesperson said: "We welcome the Met Police's apology, and recognise the complexities of policing fast-moving public protests, but simply being Jewish - or of any other race or religion - should never be seen as provocative.

"Anyone of any religion should be free to go about their lives and feel safe doing so."

Hamas has condemned what it described as a strike on Kalsu military base in Iraq.

"We consider it an assault and violation of Iraq's sovereignty and security," the militants said in a statement.

"We also hold the administration of US President Biden responsible for the escalation in the region."

One member of Iraq's Popular Mobilisation Forces was killed in the blast, which the pro-Iran group says was the result of an attack.

Security sources had earlier told Reuters news agency an air strike caused the explosion.

Hamas said the incident is an "embodiment" of Israel's "barbarism".

"We renew our affirmation that the region will not witness stability or peace except by ending the Zionist occupation of our occupied Palestinian and Arab lands," the statement adds.

There is no confirmation of Israeli involvement.

Iraq's Popular Mobilisation Forces has said the explosion at its Kalsu base was the result of an attack.

It's not yet clear who the group may believe was behind the alleged attack, but the US has already denied any role in the incident.

In a statement, the PMF said its chief of staff Abdul Aziz al Mohammedawi had visited the location and "reviewed the details of the investigative committees present in the place that was attacked".

The Iraqi military said a technical committee is looking into the cause of the explosion, which it said happened at 1am on Saturday (10pm on Friday UK time).

The military said there were no warplanes in the sky at the time.

The PMF includes Iran-backed groups which, operating under the banner of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, have attacked US troops in the region and targeted Israel since the eruption of the Gaza war.

Details remain unclear around the explosion at the Iraqi military base, which houses a group sponsored by Iran.

The blast at the Kalsu base, which killed one member of Iraq's Popular Mobilisation Forces, is under investigation.

Speaking from Tel Aviv, Sky's international correspondent Alex Rossi noted it is "interesting" the US has already denied any responsibility.

The blast comes one day on from an attack on Iran - widely believed to be from Israel.

"I think what it really speaks to is the fact that although the direct confrontation that we've seen in this phase between Iran and Israel may be over, there are still significant tensions in the region," Rossi said.

"In terms of that direct confrontation, I think the indications we're getting from both sides is that they don't want this to escalate anymore and that's reflected in the language that they are using."

There are still "significant flashpoints", he added, with daily exchanges of fire between Israel and Hezbollah and the ongoing offensive in Gaza.

But it is unclear if the incident in Iraq is related to a so-called shadow war between Iran and Israel.

Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry reports 34,049 Palestinians have been killed by Israel since 7 October, with 76,901 wounded.

The new figures come as the health ministry claims 37 Palestinians have been killed and 68 injured in the past 24 hours.

The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and fighters in its reports, but says most of those killed are women and children.

The Israel Defence Forces has said it "attacked targets" overnight in the Beit Hanoun area in northern Gaza.

In a post on X, the IDF claims it initiated the attack after a "launch" crossed from Beit Hanoun towards the city of Sderot in southern Israel.

That attack, it says, was intercepted.

Over the past day, the IDF says its air force has attacked "dozens" of targets, including "armed terrorists, military infrastructures and military buildings".

One member of Iraq's Popular Mobilisation Forces has been killed and eight wounded during the overnight explosion at its Kalsu base, according to a military statement.

As we reported earlier (see 7.32am post), the cause of the blast at the facility is still unconfirmed, although sources have claimed it came from an unknown airstrike.

The military says there were no drones or fighter jets detected in the air space around the area before or during the blast.

A committee has been formed to investigate what happened.

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John Deere will pay up to $192K for a 'Chief Tractor Officer' to travel and help launch TikTok channel

• John Deere is looking for a different kind of CTO — a Chief Tractor Officer.
• The winner of the competition will help launch the agriculture equipment company's new TikTok channel.
• Entries are accepted until April 29, with the finalists selected after May 17.

Agriculture equipment company John Deere is on the hunt for a different kid of CTO.

The brand on Tuesday announced a two-week search to find a "Chief Tractor Officer" who would create social media content to reach younger consumers .

One winning applicant will receive up to $192,300 to traverse the country over the next several months showcasing the way John Deere products are used by workers, from Yellowstone National Park to Chicago's Wrigley Field and beyond.

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"No matter what you do — whether it's your coffee, getting dressed in the morning, driving to work, the building you go into — it's all been touched by a construction worker, a farmer, or a lawn care maintenance group," Jen Hartmann, John Deere's global director of strategic public relations, told AdAge .

To kick off the search, John Deere tapped NFL quarterback Brock Purdy (who will presumably be a bit busy this Fall to take the job himself) to star in a clip in which he attempts to set out on a road trip in an industrial tractor.

Suited up in the obligatory vest, work boots, and John Deere hat, Purdy's progress is interrupted by teammate Colton McKivitz hopping into the cab while a string of messages floods in from other athletes and influencers expressing interest in the job.

The clip also represents the first time that the 187-year-old company has used celebrities to promote itself, Hartmann told AdAge.

According to the contest rules , entrants have until April 29 at midnight to submit a single 60-second video making their pitch for why they should be the face and voice of the company.

In addition, entrants must live in the 48 contiguous states or DC — sorry Hawaii and Alaska residents. Interestingly, any AI-generated submissions are prohibited, too.

Videos will be judged against four categories — originally, creativity, quality, and brand knowledge — after which five finalists will be chosen and notified after May 17.

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