To not understand how a railcard works

[Ohioatdawn]

Go easy on me because I sometimes have difficulty understanding things properly.
I'm trying to find a cheaper way to travel by train for our family of 4 so I'm looking in to buying a family and friends railcard.
We are 2 adults + 2 DC both school age.
Railcard says it gives a 60% discount to kids fares, and 1/3 off of adult fares.
So I've just gone online to National Rail and done a search for cost of tickets without a railcard compared to the cost with railcard.
The journey I have put in for 2 adults + 2 kids on the date selected is £78 with no railcard.
The same journey/same date is £61 with a family & friends railcard (there is an option for clicking 'add railcard').
£17 cheaper with the family railcard.
£17 discount is alright I suppose, but to my mind that is not 1/3 off of 2 adult tickets plus 60% off of the 2 DC tickets.
Please help if anyone is experienced with this - why is the website saying 1/3 off of adult fares and 60% off of kids fares with a family railcard but then only deducting £17 for all 4 of us?
Non peak time travel, I should add.

There's a discount of train travel anyway if you travel as a group.

Does it say up to a third off ?

Plus you have to pay for the Railcard in the first place, so need to factor that cost in.

The Railcard discount has restrictions, the main one being peak hours. So it could be that it doesn't apply to the entire journey, maybe check a different time.

What is the separate price for adults and children?
(if you were buying them individually)

Hmm that seems odd. I've just put in a return journey from my local station into London for 2 adults and 2 kids which also costs £78 (weirdly!) without a Railcard. When I add friends and family it goes down to £53.

@Ohioatdawn where are you going from and too?
I have been using Railcards for decades so I might be able to have a look and see if you have gone wrong somewhere.

There are "group save" fares if you travel with at least 3 people, which give up to a third off fares without a Railcard.
Also some rail companies have off peak fares for £1 for children sometimes.

Oh that is interesting, as that's a really good saving.
What times did you put in?
I put in to depart our local station after 9am and depart London after 7pm.
I chose a weekend day.

From Lewes to London at a weekend (railcard says discount is applied without any time restrictions at weekends).
Thank you!

Is it because weekend is already cheaper? Try same journey on weekday to see.

Yes I know. It's £28 ATM.

No idea about the railcard but download the train pal app. No idea why or how but it's cheaper to do it through there

It might be the child tickets are on offer so are less than a 1/4 price of the dare to start with

what are two adult tickets full fare?

We have a F&F card and decided to go to London unplanned, so went to a manned counter, it was cheaper as a group travel that day without the railcard.

There is no fixed pattern! Basically

You can use Tesco vouchers to get railcards, it’s double your points, so I always use those, and get one yearly. Usually save the amount in vouchers on one journey so anything after is a bonus.

I think it depends where you are going and what time and which train booking site you use. Also have you double checked to make sure the site has actually taken into account the rail card .
Railcards are usually definitely worth the money if you make more than one journey a year or if you are going on a long expensive journey. I have saved a lot of money on mine.
It might be worth checking in a different site or changing the time.you are goimg

Not all fares are eligible for a railcard discount as far as I could tell from playing around with options - this was also on a route in/out of a London terminus.

You can get a one year Family and Friends Railcard for £8 of Clubcard points 😊

@Ohioatdawn I got it as £44.50 for 2 adults, 2 children day returns on the Southern website.
One of the child tickets was £2 so I assume that's a "kid for a quid" offer.

If you tell us the individual ticket prices we could maybe help.

I think £78 for two adults and two kids breaks down as £26 for and adult ticket and £13 for child.

So with your railcard reductions of a third off adult fares and 60% off kids the new total should be close to £45.

OP I have just searched Lewes to London and on Midland Mainline there are tickets with a family and friends Railcard for £17 for two adults and two children so it's definitely worth looking again

Trainpal have just ripped me off over a Eurostar fare so take care using this app. Their customer service agents are fast to reply but they just repeat chunks of text from their t&cs without understanding the issue.

Your £61 quote works if a discount has only been applied to the adult fares, so are you sure you clicked on the correct railcard, eg you haven't applied a 'two together' one rather than family?

@Ohioatdawn this is what I got on the Southern Rail website.
I put in Saturday 26th Day Returns.
(pictures might take a minute to show up)

@Ohioatdawn so a £27.50 saving.

Sometimes there's a minimum amount the ticket cost is reduced to e.g. a network Railcard ticket is never less than £13 in the week. Not sure what restrictions apply in your case.