Did you know a Railcard can be bought and downloaded immediately?

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• Nigel R says:

  15 Feb15 February 09:17

  Although the plastic card is quoted as 5 days in the article, it my experience delivery is usually extremely fast-2 days is typical.

  • ChrisC says:

    16 Feb16 February 17:24

    Last summer when I renewed my network card around lunchtime midweek the new card arrived the next day.

• Sam says:

  15 Feb15 February 09:43

  Key perk I don’t think you mentioned – you can download the railcard onto 2 phones for your partner, or friend I guess…

  But always double check it’s loaded before you travel. The card gets ‘kicked out’ from time to time and not always just when you change phone. Infrequent 25-30% discount codes exist occasionally as do free 1 month cards, often with newspapers.

• Brian P says:

  15 Feb15 February 10:11

  My wife and I have always got individual network railcards.. Its there any reason that we shouldn’t be getting the friends and family card?
  Note it is extremely unlikely we ever be traveling separately on trains at the same time, which is they only downside I could think of.

  • Tony says:

    15 Feb15 February 10:32

    Friends and family is if you’re travelling with kids.

    You and your wife could use the two together, which has the advantage of working right across the country, not just in the South East. The two together card also seems to have a lower minimum fare. Also it seems to be valid from 930 whereas the network card is 10am. Note however you both have to travel at the same time.

  • Janeyferr says:

    15 Feb15 February 10:37

    Do you travel outside the Network South East area?

    The Network card has the benefit of being able to be used for just the holder. The Family card requires at least one child and one adult to be travelling.

    • Cam says:

      15 Feb15 February 12:51

      Network Railcard also works for others, so you can travel with friends as well. But as noted the key advantage is being able to travel independently. The key questions is really how much of your travel is in the Network zone, or alone, vs outside.

• Matthew Goode says:

  15 Feb15 February 18:01

  Don’t forget you can also use £10 of Tesco Clubcard vouchers to cover the £30 cost of the railcard.

• Alan says:

  15 Feb15 February 21:50

  There’s no requirement to have a railcard to book, you just need a valid one when you travel. Handy if your existing card has expired and your next trip isn’t for a while but you want to book a discounted ticket whilst they have seats (my parents did this for their Senior Railcard)

• Vicky says:

  15 Feb15 February 22:14

  If alas you have neither family nor friends, but do have a hearing aid prescription, you can buy a disabled railcard. If you generally travel with a companion, you only need one card. Also if you visit the nice customer support people on the tube (Liverpool Street being my favourite), they can link it to an Oyster card, but not a credit card. I don’t know what the specific benefits are other than that your oyster credit lasts longer.

• Grant says:

  16 Feb16 February 14:19

  Has anyone tried to create an account and buy a Railcard online recently? I can’t even register for a new account. Tried the app and the website (on two different browsers) to no avail.

  • Rob says:

    16 Feb16 February 15:37

    I already had an account when I did this on Friday from when my Mum needed a Senior Railcard!

• david says:

  17 Feb17 February 07:51

  Thank you Rob, I did not know. I dont use trains much but its good to know in those rare occasions.

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