On Jul 10, 11:04*am, Mizter T wrote:

On Jul 10, 10:20*am, "Ian F." wrote:

If I have to go to Brighton from Balham (which I do, next week), does anyone
know of a site that will tell me how far my Oyster PAYG will take me?

The TfL website - specifically the following page which tells you
"Where you can use Oyster":
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tickets/14869.aspx

[snip]

Presumably I would then buy a return ticket from wherever that is and use my
Oyster for the rest. Advice much appreciated.

When using Oyster, you *have to* touch-in your card at the start of
your journey and touch-out at the end of your journey in order to use
it properly [...]
Coming from Brighton, [...]
[snip]

It would have helped if I'd read your question properly and realised
that you were starting from Balham, not Brighton - d'oh!

Everything I wrote stands, but it's the wrong way round if you're
starting a journey from Balham. If I was going from Balham to Brighton
I'd probably simply just buy a normal rail ticket from Balham to
Brighton!

*If* you've got a season Travelcard (weekly, monthly or longer) loaded
on your Oyster card then you could buy a ticket from the edge of the
outermost zone that it covers, which is called a "Boundary Zone"
ticket - e.g. say you've got a z1-3 monthly Travelcard, you could buy
a ticket from "Boundary Zone 3" (that's the outer boundary of the
zone) to Brighton, which would be a bit cheaper than a ticket from
Balham.

As I see you've already noted, instead of buying a straightforward
return rail ticket, an alternative cheaper option is Southern's
Advance fares which are available for Balham to Brighton journeys,
although one does then need to stick to the specified trains.

Another option is Southern's DaySave ticket (£10 per person, £20 for a
group ticket), though that needs to be purchased a full 7 days in
advance and cannot be used before 10am on weekdays (other evening peak
restrictions for journeys from London also apply) - full info he
http://www.southernrailwaytickets.co...hp?page_id=189