Hello,

Looking at the travel cards for when I arrive in Zurich in a few months.. how does it work? similar to the Oyster card where you can get on any public transport (bus/tram/train) and move all over Zurich (providing you get an all zones one?)

Is it worth getting an all zone one? I know it will depend on where I live etc.. not worked that bit out yet.. but..

and can you pay in installements? or do you have to pay in one go if you buy a yearly one?

questions, questions...

You can pay for most types of yearly tickets in installments, but this comes out more expensive so should only be done if your cashflow situation genuinely warrants it.

The ticket that is best for you depends on how often you travel and where to. If one ticket was better than the other in all cases and situations then they wouldn't be offering the other ticket types.

The ticket sytem here is unlike the oyster system because the ticket isn't machine readable. It's just a paper ticket that says what type of ticket it is. But it is like the Oyster system in that you can just get on and travel where you want to without having to show yur ticket to anybody unless challenged by an inspector.

The oyster card is more like a pre-paid phone card, only smarter. You can travel most everywhere, and the fare gets deducted for every trip up to a daily limit. It's nice, I have two for the occasional trip to London.

Our CH "travel cards" are not much like this. It's a card you purchase (pre-pay) for a certain time period (1 day, week, month, year), for a certain "zone" or for travel between two defined points.
This is usually a good deal if you use it to go to work for example, 5 days a week. Any less and you may want to consider buying your tickets from the machines at any station as needed.

Halb-tax (Half-fare) cards are usually nice to have if you travel often between cities. See sbb.ch for all the details in English.
http://mct.sbb.ch/mct/en/reisemarkt/...te/halbtax.htm
After a few trips to St Moritz or Zermatt, the card pays for itself.

I'm sure if you search the EF, you will find a few references on this subject.

CH-iao