16 + Railcard Rip off

[Teddingtonmum1]

I'm absolutely fuming , my ds turned 16 in april and i bought a 16-25 rail card (£70) to save on train fares as we no longer live in London , and blow me down , they are bringing out a new 16-17 saver which gives a larger discount of 50% off rail fares where the 16-25 card is only 30% . So i'm being forced to pay out yet again for this card which is another £30 per year and it makes the 16-25 card redundant I contacted national rail to see if i could swap the card over but surprise surprise its non transferable so it's not like i can even let someone else use it. total scam to get yet more money out of parents as they could have built the saving into the 16-25 card, i feel totally ripped off ....

I guess you have been unlucky in that you bought the card and they have brought out an even better one.
Is it worth you spending the £30 to get the extra 20% off? if so, then you will still be saving even more money, just not as much as if you hadn't taken up the first card.
(Maybe think of it like the parable of the workers in the vineyard - you were happy with the first offer, you're just upset you have missed out on an even better one.)

I know, it’s annoying op. Similar situation here. You’d think they would have some transfer scheme. Sigh.

Same here. If you bought it in June you get a whopping £5 off, but if you bought it earlier, no discount at all. It's really sneaky. Still, you'll get the money back from the 50% card pretty quickly.

It's annoying but really it's the same as buying something at full price and then seeing it in the sale the next week. We have younger teens and can never settle on a best railcard, we had Friends and Family but that was no good if DH or I travelled without children, I then got a Network Railcard which is fine if we travel together with or without the DCs but no good if DH travels alone, so he ended up getting one as well, but you save so much we don't mind paying for two.

Is the 16-17 card only valid while they are still under 18yo? DD turns 18yo soon. My back of envelope calculation is if DD needs 4 off peak trips to London, that's

£56.70 adult regular offpeak day return
£37.45 with 16-25 railcard
£28.35 with 16-17 railcard

So... DD needs at least 4 trips to London or equivalent to make it worthwhile to buy other card.

Meh... maybe.
I got caught in similar unfair situation back when the age range for young person's rail card kept moving up by one yr (one yr younger than me) back in early '90s.

Right.. .found the rules. Only valid for under 18s.

When you think about it, this is very unfair to people who turned 18 in the last 6 months. Or who turned 18 the year before or the year before that. Why didn't they get to buy this handy card, why only younger people got it?

No matter what it can't be perfectly fair system.

I bought it last week . Isn't valid until 2nd September. Had to pay full fare yesterday. Grrrr.😂😂

DD has saved the cost of her 16-17 railcard in the discount she got for the first half term's season ticket. It will make a massive difference to the travel costs to school.

The really annoying thing is that it runs out 4 months after her 18th birthday so for the last bit of the school year she'll have to pay full price again (and i'll have to buy the first bit after her birthday before she turns 18). Why on earth couldn't they run it until the end of the school year as there must be load of kids commuting by train.

The 16-25 railcard doesn't offer discounts on season tickets or on morning journeys (before 10am) so no good for the journeys to school.

DS had to pay adult price to take train to school for last 3 months of yr11. There was no rail discount for age 16 students in yr11. So we would have saved a lot of money had this card been available 3 yrs ago. It's just how the cookie crumbles.

In our county, 6th formers get 50% discount on rail season tickets. Even those age 18-19. Don't need a special card for that.

it Is also unfair for those reaching 18 while still at college. DiD turns 18 this week and goes back to college next week and can’t benefit from this.

I use my Tesco Clubcard vouchers to buy the DC’s railcards every year.

£10 in vouchers and they both went to uni 200 miles away so we’ve saved a fortune over the years.

aibutohavethisusername 100% agree with this. Is it worth buying one and purhcasing the first term's travel tickets? They can use the railcard to travel up to 4 months after their birthday.

Ooh thanks for letting me know.

It's not a rip off though. Just because someone else is getting a better deal, doesn't make yours a rip off

@aibutohavethisusername you would have to buy a season ticket at least the day before your dd turns 18, and then she can continue using the season ticket for four months after her birthday. The card has two expiry dates on it. The day she turns 18 and four months after for season tickets.
I still think it’s unfair though. They announced this card in January but it didn’t start till 2nd September. Still costs the same even if you only get a couple of months out of it. Other railcards last a year as long as you buy it before your eligible birthday 😡

Just been to buy DS's educational rail pass. As a 14 year old he's paying fractionally more for a whole school year than my DD is paying for her first half term!

just got advised there is a discount pass for his college a unizone pass for sussex students so feeling a tad better as cost now down to £20 per week rant over

A bit of a tangent but note you can get 18-25 railcard on tesco vouchers boost. Cost me £10 in vouchers for a £30 card. All done on-line as long as you have a photo and card can be downloaded onto phone.

16-17 card not available but I expect it's because it is new.

Sorry slight error - its a 16-25 railcard

FamilyOfAliens already posted about tesco clubcard.
Half asleep this morning after teaching for just 1 week !!!!