I've crossposted becuase I think certian parts of my query are relevant to
both groups.

I don't think I've missed any obvious tricks but it's worth checking.

I'm thinking of buying another annual Colchester-London All Zones (£4600.00)
to start in a couple of week time. I'm trying to work out a combination of
tickets that will either a) save money or b) let me have an Oyster card as
well [does this mean I can buy 2 partner Network cards!]

I'm sick to death of having to constantly replace it because the print has
faded (though it'll work the gates), or because the magnetic stripe encoding
has stopped working, or not being able to use gates because its an oyster
only gate, etc.

I've tried the one (to me) fairly obvious tactic of trying to see if a
Colchester to Stratford and then a Z1-2 Oyster travelcard (there doesn't
seem to be a Z1 only travelcard) would make it cheaper.

I've not really worked out the actual feasibility of this for me but its
possible that COL-KPA (Kensington Olympia) is an alternative to an All Zones
travelcard

Any suggestions at all please?

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[.n]