Here are four different ways to check your Oyster balance and see how much credit you have remaining: 1) By registering your card at the TFL website; 2) By using TFL’s mobile app; 3) By touching your card against a self-service ticket machine; 4) By using a bus or train station Oyster reader.
Check your balance when you tap your card down on an Oyster reader
The next time you tap your card down on a yellow Oyster reader on a bus or train station gate look at the small LCD screen above it. You will see your remaining balance displayed on the screen.
Check your balance at one of the train station ticket machines
You can also touch your card against a yellow Oyster reader on a self-service ticket machine inside a train station. Your current balance will then be displayed on the touchscreen, and it will give you the option of topping it up with some extra credit.
Check your balance online at the TFL website
If you have a blue Oyster card then you can register it on TFL’s website (it’s not possible to register Visitor Oyster cards – only the regular blue ones).
To check the balance all you have to do is log in to your account and the remaining credit will be displayed at the top.
Check your balance with TFL’s mobile app
The most convenient way of checking your balance is probably by downloading TFL’s Oyster app onto your mobile phone from Apple’s App Store and the Google Play Store.
Once you’ve created an account and entered your Oyster number you’ll be able to see your remaining credit just by logging in.
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Got any questions? (8)
Ask a question about your Oyster card balance
Churchacre I haven’t used my Oyster card for a year or so, and I’m coming up to London next week. Can you top it up online? Thanks. (reply)
↳Staff Hi Churchacre. You can do, but you need to register the card with TFL first (maybe you did that already when you bought it) – transport/how-to-top-up-oyster-card.php (reply)
Roby I bought an oyster card for me and one for my daughter a long time ago, are they still valid? Can I recharge them? Thank you. (reply)
↳Staff Hi Roby. If it was a pay-as-you-go Oyster card then any credit left on it will still be on there, but if you had a travelcard put onto it then that would have expired. Either way you should still be able to top it up with more credit – unless you had the remaining credit refunded, because then the card would have been voided at the same time. (reply)
Natalie Is there any way to check my Oyster card balance without creating an account? Only used it once & I live in the US. Thanks. (reply)
↳Staff Hi Natalie. You could try creating an account on the TFL website now, and linking your card to it, but only if it’s a blue one. You can’t do it with visitor oyster cards. To use all the other ways described above, you’d have to actually be in London. (reply)
AngelInWa I purchased a regular blue Oyster card last October and saved it when I went home. I’m back in the UK again now & traveling to London in 2 days. I had a registered Oyster account so I logged in to check the balance on my card, but it told me I had no known cards registered. No problem; I then used the available feature to try to add my existing card – except I was then told that it couldn’t be added, & I’d have to use the card once before it could be registered on my account. (This happened on both the TFL app and the website.) It turns out that if you’ve not used the card in the past 8 weeks, you need to use it first in order to register it to your account. (If you HAVE used it within 8 weeks you can add it, BUT you’ll have to answer a security question that includes information on the last trip you took using the card!) 😧 😳 Unfortunately the whole point was to see if I had any credit left, so now I feel stuck in not knowing if I have enough to take a bus journey when I get to my destination in the city. Rather annoying. Odd that the LEAP cards & app in Ireland is so much more functional & user-friendly; one would think that London could do at least as well. 🙁 (reply)
↳Staff Hi Angelinwa. There are a couple of things you can do. Oyster has something called ‘One More Journey’ when travelling on the bus (but not the train). If you don’t have enough credit to pay a whole fare then it will still let you travel, but you’ll end up with a negative balance. You won’t be able to travel again until you top it up. But you do need some money on the card. It can’t be completely empty. It’s described here: tfl.gov.uk/fares/find-fares/bus-and-tram-fares#on-this-page-7 – The other thing you can do is tap it against a yellow reader on a ticket machine at a train station when you arrive in London. The touchscreen will then give you the option of viewing your balance. Or you can ask them to tell you the balance at one of the Visitor Centres – but only if you’re arriving into Euston, King’s Cross, Liverpool Street, Paddington, Piccadilly Circus, Victoria or Heathrow airport. They don’t have them anywhere else. (reply)
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