16-17 oyster card - London

A place to talk about full time schools and post 16 training.

Moderator: busybusybusy

Post Reply
woody
BRIT Award
Posts: 91
Joined: Mon Aug 30, 2010 8:54 pm

16-17 oyster card - London

Post by woody »

Can anyone advise please, as we are having a nightmare applying for this. DD is 16 and is starting her course soon, living in London, so qualifies for the half-price Oyster card and free bus travel. However, on the TFL website parents have to apply if they are under 18 and since we don't live in London it is proving to be a total nightmare scenario to try and get the application done.

There doesn't seem to be any facility anywhere for the student to have one address (in London), and the parent/guardian's address to be elsewhere. I have already spoken to someone on the TFL helpline, which was a waste of over an hour of my life I won't get back (!) - can't face ringing them again!.

We can't be the only ones going through this - does anybody have any advice on the best way to do it please?
afab
GRAMMY Award
Posts: 135
Joined: Wed Apr 04, 2012 12:10 pm

Re: 16-17 oyster card - London

Post by afab »

How odd! We are in the same situation and when I rang them, they were very helpful and changed manually our address to our DD's address in London. I don't know what to suggest except maybe trying again... Good luck!
User avatar
Pearl
GRAMMY Award
Posts: 325
Joined: Sat Mar 07, 2009 11:42 pm

Re: 16-17 oyster card - London

Post by Pearl »

We didn't have any problems either, we are in Buckinghamshire and the address wasn't an issue! Maybe because we still have the tube out here.

Once you do get it sorted it was very quick, we got dd's within a week.
Bring it on!!!
woody
BRIT Award
Posts: 91
Joined: Mon Aug 30, 2010 8:54 pm

Re: 16-17 oyster card - London

Post by woody »

I put our address as the same as DD's London one, and the online process was fine until it came to the payment when it asked whether the card we were paying with was registered to that address. Well no, since I don't live there, and DD hasn't moved in yet, so her bank card is at our address as well. At that point it said we had to take a form into a London post office with proof of address, utility bill, driving licence, council tax bill etc, and of course she doesn't have a driving licence yet, and since she is in student digs, she won't have utility bills or council tax anyway.

Total Catch-22 situation. Driving me mad!
User avatar
Pearl
GRAMMY Award
Posts: 325
Joined: Sat Mar 07, 2009 11:42 pm

Re: 16-17 oyster card - London

Post by Pearl »

Woody, why dont you try again using your home address and see if that works :-s
Bring it on!!!
TalyaB
BAFTA Award
Posts: 997
Joined: Sun Dec 04, 2011 1:22 am

Re: 16-17 oyster card - London

Post by TalyaB »

If you register it to an out-of-London address, they post it to you - my dd's arrived really quickly. Worst comes to the worst, you can tap in and out with a debit card until she gets her card sorted - this charges the adult Oyster card fare though, so you wouldn't want to do it for more than a few days.
woody
BRIT Award
Posts: 91
Joined: Mon Aug 30, 2010 8:54 pm

Re: 16-17 oyster card - London

Post by woody »

Finally managed it after about 7 hours of hair-tearing, half of which was on the phone.
Post Reply