Railcard Reviews 

If I could give this zero stars I would. The Railcard app is horrific! It is always glitching and has errors. This makes it particularly stressful when you have to show your rail card to ticket officers and you are constantly getting an error message.

The activation codes never work. Custom service is glacial (probably because the app does not work for anyone). The app is not fit for purpose, if you want to have a digital card, ensure that it actually works. I'm not sure it is worth the stress for the menial discount offered.

Spent the best part of the day trying to access my account. Neither website or app worked, kept saying we are having problems! If you change phones or your railcard disappears off the phone your best course of action is to phone them! Not easy finding the number it's the usual "help" guide which really doesn't help....Use 03453000250. Very unhappy with website

The wording on the Network Railcard website is intentionally misleading, borderline design to scam you and if you get hooked misreading it, you have to deal with nonexistent-refund policies.

They list their rules in basic bullet points, but use misleading words. For example:

They state that "Advance tickets" are NOT ALLOWED. To any normal person, buying a ticket today for tomorrow is buying a ticket in advance. But because "Advance" is a specific, hidden ticket tier name, their wording implies you can't pre-purchase regular tickets for future days at all. It’s incredibly confusing.

Then, there's the Return Journey Trap: They claim journeys after 10:00 AM are allowed. What they deliberately omit is that if your outbound trip is before 10:00 AM, but your return trip is at 4:00 PM, the entire return ticket loses its validity. They don't split the rules by leg; they invalidate the whole purchase and you have to purchase a full price ticket.

Specially on the later, I bet many commuters into London fell for that trap.

People should avoid it in my opinion outside weekend use.

I have given up on renewing my 2 together Railcard, I have changed my email address,cannot be changed online have to mess about phoning customer services. Can't be bothered as I hardly use the trains now, much cheaper using coach travel. Maybe one day the Railcard people will put away there abacus and learn about the digital age, but I doubt it, afraid of losing jobs.

I recently had an issue with incorrect details on a new Veterans Railcard. Once I contacted customer service, the problem was handled extremely well.

The adviser was patient, helpful and took ownership of getting the issue resolved. They arranged a refund for the incorrect card and then made sure that the replacement was set up with the correct details.

Excellent customer service throughout, and a genuinely positive experience. Very much appreciated.

It's a scam. Was lied to about getting a third off fares, but I don't get any money off at all. Money back now please.

Had my wallet stolen, my senior railcard was in my wallet. I reported it to the police and got a chrime number. Went on Railcard website to get a replacement card, which they stated was free of charge if stolen.
Quoted the crime number given to me by the police and railcard would not accept it, so the only way to get my replacement was by paying £10. Surely this breaks some sort of law or tradings standard? Either way they are apretty despicable organisation

Time to renew my disabled person railcard, in order that I have it before the end of August, 2026, a little more than a month away. I have been trying to log on to the website, to renew my card, my disability is DEAFNESS, profound and severs so I cannot telephone them. After trying too many times I decided to try and recover my account, clicked forgotten password, soon received an email for me to change my password, I did, it was accepted, and another window opened for me to log in, immediately after I added my details a window told me that either my email address, or password was incorrect, right now I want to throw my cmputer monitor up the garden, but will not as the fault is not my computer but the card 'renewel' process!, it stinks!. I see there are folk on here praising the rail card, WAIT TILL YOU NEED TO RENEW!.

An extremely klunky app, renewal code NEVER works! This should be as simple as adding the code provided in the email, BUT IT IS NOT! I'm already in the app with my current Railcard where it gives the option to renew, code copy and pasted so no mistake, it then says expired code or wrong code! FFS!

I purchased a Family & Friends Railcard based on my family circumstances, but I later realised that my child is only 3 years old and therefore travels for free, meaning this Railcard was not the most suitable option for me.

Within approximately 30 minutes of purchasing the Railcard, and before using it at all, I contacted Railcard Customer Services to explain my mistake and request that it be changed to a Two Together Railcard instead.
I was disappointed to be informed that this was not possible because Railcards are treated as separate products and are non-transferable. As a result, despite the Railcard being completely unused and my request being made almost immediately after purchase, I was told that no exchange, transfer, or refund could be offered. To add insult to injury, I was then asked whether I wanted to purchase another Railcard.

What makes this particularly frustrating is that Railcard's cooling-off period does not apply once a Railcard has been downloaded. However, downloading the Railcard is effectively necessary to access and verify the product after purchase. I do not believe it is reasonable to expect customers to lose their cancellation rights simply because they downloaded a product they had only just purchased.

The most disappointing aspect of this experience is that Railcard has refused both my request to transfer the Railcard to a more suitable product and my request for a refund, despite me contacting them within 30 minutes of purchase and before the Railcard had been used in any way. There has been no attempt to find a reasonable solution or demonstrate any goodwill towards a customer who made an honest mistake and acted immediately to correct it.

I find this approach to be extremely poor customer service. A simple exchange or refund of an unused Railcard would have resolved the issue and maintained customer trust. Instead, I have been left feeling penalised for an honest mistake.

Based on this experience, I am reluctant to travel by rail or purchase Railcards in the future, and I would not recommend the service to friends and family.

Tried Renewing my senior railcard for 12 months and after having some issues agreeing my licence number match to my surname it renewed. When I checked its only valid for 5 months not 12.
Apparently its non refundable..( day light robbery)

Only in Britain can you be offered a totally Pointless loyalty card the " RAIL CARD " encourage travel by ( the already over prices train service in the UK compared to Europe ) train. That actually gives you........... SOD ALL.
I live between two boundaries The South and the West. So as i travel from time to time, to the West My rail card gives me!!!! Nothing off. I can't get a West card because I live in the East side. You couldn't make this up... But if I bring my wife along just for the fun of it we get a discount! and can travel in the East and the West?! but you have to buy two tickets which is kind of pointless. The Whole Train Service in the UK is an absolute diabolical service. Australian Trains that travel far further than any UK trains. Are clean, double decked, comfortable seats and easy HALF the cost of UK travel. I basically gave up buying a rail card. Going by car now.

So, in their wisdom AFTER they talk you money they tell you it can only be used in the app. Which means you need a working phone signal. To that end, they have made sure you can't add it to, e.g. your Apple Wallet (WTF??), and even made it so you can't take a screenshot to save in Photos to show the ticket guy. I live alone a rural line with very patchy signal, so it's basically useless. Is this really where we're at with this in 2026 - get a grip.

Have had a family and friends railcard for 3 years. Countless attempts to reactivate my account, no email link received. Emailed customer service, still waiting for an answer.
Made a first phone call where I was told my account did not exist so I could not renew?!?
Supposedly I had bought the card through a different company?!? their answer did not make any sense and the lady I was dealing with suddenly hang up on me...
So today, Started from scratch, reopened an account, attempted to buy a new card and payment is not going through.
Called again and now I am being told that I have to go to my bank to cancel the payment as it has been lost in transit between my bank and their account...
This is a complete shamble...
You could not make it up ... really.
Deserves 0 star.
So I shall go to my local train station and buy in from a "Human"....

No reply!

Require a new download code, but forgotten password. Simple to sort, right? WRONG. No password reset email received after multiple attempts, and no response on submitting requests for help. Absolutely useless.

Emailed these people to ask advise as there doesn’t seem to be a railcard for me . Aged 56 and would be travelling from the South to Leeds. All they sent back was a link to the website to where I had already looked. Wanted someone to actually tell me, yes or no!

I'd give them zero stars if I could...

UPDATE.
Now tried contacting 2 more times. NO REPLY
Tried contacting their parent organisation. NO REPLY

Total JOKE!

Contacted (via web page) THREE times. No answer. Nothing. And yes, they are getting the enquiries as they keep sending me links to a survey where I can tell them "how they managed me enquiry". Well, you managed it by not bothering to reply!
Once is bad. Twice is terrible but THREE times??? Do you actually do any work?

I sent them a GDPR data deletion request to delete my account. They said they did this but evidently did not, as 3 days later I can still log in and see all my expired railcards, using both email addresses attached to my account, even though I have alread asked them several times to remove my old one.

I bought my railcard okay, but on the "completion" page there's a popup offer for "£20.50 cash back". But the small print reveals it's comes with an £18 per month subscription.

Applying for a disabled persons rail card, you need documents that don't exist or are never usually needed!
A RECENT PIP Award Letter is required.
Since the DWP only issue award letters when you are first successful in obtaining PIP. If your award is older than 12 months - you won't have one. TOUGH
You can send all the evidence of very recent PIP payments and any other supporting documents you like and you can whistle. (I sent 13 documents)

You can send a 'Medical Exemption Certificate' which is something you have to apply for through your doctor to give free medication. If you are disabled and poor you won't ever need it. If you are rich, you don't need a railcard!!

THIS IS TANTAMOUNT TO DISCRIMINATION as these are barriers to most disabled people!!

WHAT A DISGRACE!