You can use your debit card as an Oyster on tube in 2014 – spelling the end of Oyster?

By early 2014 Transport for London will make debit and credit cards function as Oyster cards on the tube.

You’ll simply tap your credit or debit card on the Oyster reader, and payment for the journey will be taken via contactless payment.

If the new payment method takes off, the eventual phasing out of Oyster could be on the, ahem, cards (sorry).

The scheme will be trialled by 5,000 passengers over the coming weeks, and TfL says it will roll out the scheme in full “in early 2014”.

You can already use your debit or credit card like an Oyster card on London buses, but only three passengers per bus per day actually do so, according to the Evening Standard.

The Standard reports that it cost £4.4m to install the contactless payment readers across London’s 8,500 buses.

This video from TfL explains more about how contactless payment card travel works: