As an infrequent user of tubes and buses I don't need to buy season tickets in order to get reduced fares for my travel, but just recently the rules have changed on Transport for London's Oyster card. For those of you who also don't travel on public transport very frequently I believe that this could be a real timesaver. I expect you've all had those days. I will wake on a Saturday and decide to take a tube into Town for a spot of retail therapy. I have to leave the car at home because there is nowhere to park near any station in my vicinity. So I take 10 minutes to walk into Greenford to the newsagent to buy a travel-card. This allows me to travel on buses and tubes for £5.20. However, by the time I have made that journey and waited for a bus and got to the tube I've wasted practically half an hour of my precious shopping time. Enter the new Oyster card. It is not that new, having been out for quite some time, but until recently it was only good for single journeys. Now they have introduced price capping, which means that if you take multiple journeys in a day, as in a day-trip to Town, you will only be charged the maximum of the Travel-card rate. It doesn't necessarily save you money, but it doesn't cost you more. This means that I can now nip out of the house to the nearest bus stop and go to the Tube in far less time. The Oyster can be used either for Pre-pay only, or for a number of season tickets, and can hold up to three separate types of ticket at the same time. How to get it:There are only a few stations in our local area where you can get an Oyster card: these are Ealing Broadway, Harrow and Wealdstone, Kenton and Wimbledon - not a sparkling array I must admit. However, they can also be purchase by telephone, 0870 849 9999, or online at www.tfl.gov.uk.There you can read all about them, and top them up when necessary. If you wish to top-up on=line you must register on the site. However, this is very easy. Registration is useful if your card is lost or stolen with an amount of credit unused on it. Un-registered cards are not refunded or replaced. When you sign up you pay a £3 fee, which is refundable, if you decide not to keep the card after using your first amount of charge up. You can charge it with any amount you choose, and just top it up when necessary. If it is a pre-pay only you can lend it to other adult members of the family if they need to travel without you. Oyster cards can be used on Tube, DLR, bus and Tramlink services in the London area. Just remember to swipe the card at every reader at the start and end of each journey, so that the price capping can be activated. It really saves the hassle of finding change for bus ticket machines, and queuing for train tickets. I'm hooked, so who's coming shopping with me? Susan Gould41http://www.susangould.co.uk