Season tickets monthly vs yearly

gner_ex

Yes - anyone who needs a Durham-York season ticket is advised to buy a Chester le Street-Church Fenton instead - they get cheaper journeys to places such as Leeds and Newcastle (standard day return York-Leeds is 13.30 - Church Fenton-Leeds is 6.80 for example). Thanks to AP for quoting 19C.

AdrianHi

I don't get any interest free loans and buy monthly as I cannot face paying for a year up front. I did wonder with holidays if it was worth it anyway, looks like the saving is minimal at best so I'll stick with roughly monthly tickets.

I've trimmed my costs back by buying a monthly ticket to park in a local church car park right next to the station saving £36 a month. I going into London and need the tube, just ordered an Oyster card to make that bit of the journey cheaper. Now I can buy just the train ticket from the guard the day before it expires, never thought about buying 5 or 6 weeks at the pro-rata monthly rate. I will be doing that next time I have a holiday, good tip, cheers. :T

chuckley

i think yearly is pintless when u get 3-4 weeks holiday a year, so minus that and ur paying for 11 months RATHER than 10 (in the saving).

also what happens if u lose your job?! leave? u still have to pay it back right?!

ill stick to my weekly/monthly thanks.

Debt_Free_Chick

chuckley wrote: »

i think yearly is pintless when u get 3-4 weeks holiday a year, so minus that and ur paying for 11 months RATHER than 10 (in the saving).

My annual ticket is 40x the price of a weekly one and 10.4x the price of a monthly one, so you would need to have 12 weeks "holiday" using the weekly comparison and 1.5 months holiday, using the monthly comparison.

The annual ticket is equivalent to 107 x the normal daily rate, but you can use it for 365 days (less Christmas etc when there is no service). So, I only need to go to my office 108 days of the year and an annual ticket is better. In practice, I go at least 130 days.

I can't get my head around the monthly + extension option, though

also what happens if u lose your job?! leave? u still have to pay it back right?!

No - you can return the season ticket and get a refund for the unused part.

ill stick to my weekly/monthly thanks.

Whatever works for you :j

omelette451

Andy_L wrote: »

As pebblespop says it's more the convenience of not having to remember to renew, although I would say you're insulated from any fare rises over the year if you go annual

Fares rise only once a year, in January, so this is irrelevant.

Altarf

Debt_Free_Chick wrote: »

I can't get my head around the monthly + extension option, though

Instead of buying a straight monthly ticket, e.g. 1st June 2009 to 30th June and then a 1st July to 31st July, etc, you buy a 1st June to 3rd July, and then a 6th July to 7th August, etc. So every 5 weeks you don't pay for a weekend.

It works IF, and it's a very big IF, you plan ahead when you are taking your holiday, and fit them in around the gaps in the monthly tickets. If you don't an annual ticket is cheaper.

Debt_Free_Chick wrote: »

No - you can return the season ticket and get a refund for the unused part.

But you don't get a pro-rata refund. If you have used 6 months of an annual ticket you don't get half back, but the cost of the annual ticket, less the cost of 6 monthly tickets, which on my line would only be a 43% refund not a 50%.

And if you have used it for more than 10.4 months, then you won't get any refund at all. Not good if you lose your job towards then end of the year, and even worse if you have a season ticket loan from your employer based on 12 monthly repayments.

Debt_Free_Chick wrote: »

Whatever works for you

Absolutely. For some people who have long pre-set holidays (teachers, students, etc) or people who are happy to fit their life around their season ticket, monthlies can work out very slightly cheaper. For everyone else, annual tickets are better.

p00hsticks

omelette451 wrote: »

Fares rise only once a year, in January, so this is irrelevant.

Not if you can choose when you buy your annual ticket. I renew mine in late December, and so get a full years travel at the old rate. If I bought monthly tickets then all but the first would be more expensive.

gner_ex

omelette451 wrote: »

Fares rise only once a year, in January, so this is irrelevant.

Not quite. January is the _main_ fares rise occurance, but there are two others in the year.

We are currently on National Fares Manual 02 (2nd Jan-16th May 2009). The previous version was NFM01 (7th Sep 2008-1st Jan 2009). NFM03 will be valid May-Sep.

Stuff does rise on the other occasions.

gner_ex

Altarf wrote: »

Instead of buying a straight monthly ticket, e.g. 1st June 2009 to 30th June and then a 1st July to 31st July, etc, you buy a 1st June to 3rd July, and then a 6th July to 7th August, etc. So every 5 weeks you don't pay for a weekend.

Agree that this is the case if you _only_ use your season ticket to travel to work. But I usually use mine seven days a week and I'm sure I'm not the only one. Granted, I live on the North London / Herts border where public transport is integrated (and very good).

surreysaver

pebblespop wrote: »

work gave me a season ticket loan so it comes straight out of my wage and doesn't feel like i am actually paying for it!!

Be warned if you do this though - I presume if your employer gives you a loan for an annual season, you pay it back over 12 months? If you were to stop using the train and surrender your season ticket, you would get a refund of the value of the ticket minus the ticket equivelant for the length of time you used it for, minus an admin fee (£10?). As already explained above, an annual season costs the same as 40 weeklies.

Therefore, if you stopped using your season after 40 weeks, there would be no refund value due, even though you may still have two or three installments due to pay your employer. Likewise, if you surrender it after six months, you do not get half your money back - even though you may still owe your employer half the money. You would get the cost of your season minus the cost of a six-month ticket (the cost of a weekly x 3.84 x 6).

So, say a weekly costs £20, a monthly would cost £76.80 (20 x 3.84), an annual would cost £800 (20 x 40).
If you surrender an annual after six months, you would get £329.20 (800-(76.8x6)-10 admin) back.

It is also worth noting that a monthly ticket is a calender month - the same price whether there are 28 or 31 days in the month - and regardless of how many weekends or bank holidays in the month too.