Oyster card

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Oyster card

Location	London, England
Launched	30 June 2003[1]
Technology	Contactless smart card
Operator	Cubic Transportation Systems
Manager	Transport for London
Currency	Pound sterling (£90 maximum load)
Stored-value	Pay-as-you-go
Credit expiry	None
Auto recharge	Auto top-up
Unlimited use	Travelcard
Validity	London Buses London Underground Docklands Light Railway London Overground Elizabeth line (part) London Trams London River Services (limited validity) London Cable Car National Rail Services inside of the grey line on this map[2]
Retailed	Ticket machines Online Newsagents Telephone
Variants	Freedom Pass Bus & Tram Discount Visitor Zip OnePulse
Website	oyster.tfl.gov.uk

The Oyster card is a payment method for public transport in London (and some areas around it), England, United Kingdom. A standard Oyster card is a blue credit-card-sized stored-value contactless smart card. It is promoted by Transport for London (TfL) and can be used on travel modes across London including London Buses, London Underground, the Docklands Light Railway (DLR), London Overground, Tramlink, some river boat services, and most National Rail services within the London fare zones. Since its introduction in June 2003, more than 86 million cards have been used.

Oyster cards can hold period tickets, travel permits and, most commonly, credit for travel ("Pay as you go"), which must be added to the card before travel. Passengers touch it on an electronic reader when entering, and in some cases when leaving, the transport system in order to validate it, and where relevant, deduct funds from the stored credit. Cards may be "topped-up" by continuous payment authority, by online purchase, at credit card terminals or by cash, the last two methods at stations or convenience stores. The card is designed to reduce the number of transactions at ticket offices and the number of paper tickets. Usage is encouraged by offering substantially cheaper fares than with cash.^[3] On London buses, cash is no longer accepted.

The card was first issued to the public on 30 June 2003,^[4] with a limited range of features; further functions were rolled out over time. By June 2012, over 43 million Oyster cards had been issued and more than 80% of all journeys on public transport in London were made using the card.^[5]

From September 2007 to 2010, the Oyster card functionality was tried as an experiment on Barclaycard contactless bank cards.^[6] Since 2014, the use of Oyster cards has been supplemented by contactless credit and debit cards as part of TfL's "Future Ticketing Programme".^[7] TfL was one of the first public transport providers in the world to accept payment by contactless bank cards, after, in Europe, the tramways and bus of Nice on 21 May 2010 either with NFC bank card or smartphone,^[8] and the widespread adoption of contactless in London has been credited to this.^[9] TfL is now one of Europe's largest contactless merchants, with around 1 in 10 contactless transactions in the UK taking place on the TfL network in 2016.^[10]