Train season tickets - refunds

paulfoel

How does it work? Is there an admin fee for requesting a refund?

For instance, say I buy a 3 month ticket and use it for, say 6 weeks, how does the refund work?

Do they just work out how much a 6 week ticket would have cost (you can ask for anything from month upwards) and then knock this off the refund?

What if you get a month ticket and send it back after 3 weeks (Im guessing they just knock off the cost of 3 weekly tickets)?

If Im right and there is no admin fee then you're better off getting the longest ticket you can afford (because longer are cheaper per day) and then cancelling it when you no longer need it.

GRM

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/ticket_types/46571.aspx

• Any refund is calculated from the date the Season Ticket was handed in. It will be the difference between the price you paid and the cost of a ticket or tickets for the period for which you have actually used the ticket, plus an administration charge. Because of the discounts on longer term Season Tickets, refunds are not made pro rata to the periods before/after surrender and Annual Season Tickets have no refund value after about 10 1/2 months. For this reason we recommend that employers' Annual Season Ticket loan schemes are set up so that reimbursements are made in 10 equal monthly payments with two 'free' months at the end of the year, rather than in 12 equal monthly payments.
• There must be at least seven days remaining on a Monthly Season Ticket or at least three days remaining on a 7 Day Season Ticket to obtain a refund (although on some 7 Day Season Tickets there may be no refund value after three days of use, dependent upon the relevant Standard Day Return price.

yorkie2

paulfoel wrote: »

How does it work? Is there an admin fee for requesting a refund?

For instance, say I buy a 3 month ticket and use it for, say 6 weeks, how does the refund work?

Do they just work out how much a 6 week ticket would have cost (you can ask for anything from month upwards) and then knock this off the refund?

What if you get a month ticket and send it back after 3 weeks (Im guessing they just knock off the cost of 3 weekly tickets)?

If Im right and there is no admin fee then you're better off getting the longest ticket you can afford (because longer are cheaper per day) and then cancelling it when you no longer need it.

You're right except there is a £10 admin fee.

However no admin fee is charged for a changeover.

There are full details, including calculation examples in the RailUK Fares & Ticketing Guide - Section 5: Multi Journey tickets.

In some cases, it can be more advantageous to obtain a changeover than to obtain a refund, even if you don't wish to actually use the replacement ticket. This is especially so when you have an annual ticket and are reaching the end of the validity

paulfoel

yorkie2 wrote: »

You're right except there is a £10 admin fee.

However no admin fee is charged for a changeover.

There are full details, including calculation examples in the RailUK Fares & Ticketing Guide - Section 5: Multi Journey tickets.

In some cases, it can be more advantageous to obtain a changeover than to obtain a refund, even if you don't wish to actually use the replacement ticket. This is especially so when you have an annual ticket and are reaching the end of the validity

So OK I have a month one (£270) which i only want to use for two weeks now. I've used one week.

Could I go in swap my existing month for a one week (£73) then get a pro-rata refund?

I just assumed it'd be easier to wait the two weeks and then get a refund off the month?

WOuld refund be calculated £270 - (2x week £73) - £10admin?

dzug1

I'm pretty sure that swapping a ticket (no fee) has to be for a different journey - so in your case there would be a fee

paulfoel

But do they work it out like that?

i.e. I bought a month but only used two weeks but refund is month cost - 2x two week tickets minus £10 admin.

Or do they knock off the price of 10 oneday tickets? this would be harsh.

dzug1

The link yorkie sent is fairly clear that you would be charged for two weekly seasons at the weekly rate plus any extra days over the two weeks at a daily rate