most cards GBP 30: 3-year deals ~GBP 70
Advanced options
The 1/3 discount means the GBP 30 card breaks even at GBP 90/year of eligible fares: a single London return from most of the country clears it in one trip. The catches: minimum fares apply weekday mornings on some cards (typically before 10am), the 16-25 and 26-30 cards have age gates, Two Together only works travelling together, and Network Railcard is South East only. Season tickets are NOT discounted (see our season ticket page): railcards are for the occasional traveller: which is most travellers.
What The Railcard Calculator Works Out
- Discount earned: your annual spend on eligible rail fares divided by three, since nearly every railcard takes a third off. GBP 250 of fares earns about GBP 83 of discount.
- Verdict: the discount minus the card price, with the break-even spend underneath. A GBP 30 card pays for itself at GBP 90 a year of full-price fares, which a single walk-up London return from most of the North or West clears in one booking.
- Which card: 16-25 (including mature students), 26-30, Senior from 60, Family and Friends, Two Together, Disabled Persons at GBP 20, Network for the South East and Veterans. Most households can thread at least one traveller through that list.
- Discount on adult fares (advanced): defaults to a third but is editable for cards or promotions that differ, or to test what a smaller effective discount does once ineligible fares are mixed in.
- Card term (advanced): the three-year 16-25, 26-30, Senior and Network cards cost about GBP 70, which is GBP 23.33 a year against GBP 30 annually. The card cost per year card shows the spread figure used in the verdict.
- Children's discount (advanced): the Family and Friends Railcard gives 60% off child fares alongside the adult third, so enter the child fares travelling with you. The children must actually be aboard for the adult discount to apply.
- Minimum fare rule (advanced): several cards impose a minimum fare of around GBP 12 on weekday journeys before 10am, blunting the discount on commuter-hour singles. Enter the share of your fares caught by it and that slice earns no discount.
- Saving per trip and trips to pay for the card (advanced): your annual spend divided by return trips gives an average fare; a third of that is the saving per trip, and the card price divided by it is how many trips repay the card.
- Three-year net saving (advanced): three years of discounts minus three years of card costs, which is the horizon on which a GBP 70 three-year card is really judged. Season tickets are not discounted, so five-day-a-week commuters belong on the season ticket page instead.