Warning: Avoid applying for Mature Student (16-25) railcard online - do it at a station instead

thelawnet

It is a terrible process and is much worse than doing it offline, although this may depend to an extent university.

Experience 1: take printed form to admin staff at university, wait five minutes, go to train station with form and passport photo, get handed railcard which can be used immediately

Experience 2: King's College London (who are awful with all such matters and have utter contempt for their mostly foreign students who they are ripping off with their obscene fees, but that's an aside): send form to King's, wait 16 days for them to send it back, upload it to the railcard website where there is a further wait of up to a week while they check the details during which time you will still have no railcard. You will also be encouraged to sign up with the 'completesavings' shysters, so this is another blackmark against using the railcard website.

Note that none of the third party discounts are available for the mature student railcard so it really is much better doing it with the staff at a ticket office where although you will have to provide an actual photo (which you can get for around £3 online), at least you get your railcard in timely fashion.

thelawnet

as you can see they claim 'best option if you are travelling soon' is to get a digital railcard.

unfortunately this is a big lie, and in the case below, when you click 'mature student', it greys out the 3-year option, they fail to add the information

'your application will be delayed for an indeterminate period of time while we check your details'

and further lie that 'digital' is 'the best option if you are travelling soon', whereas in fact the best option if you are travelling soon for mature students is to simply buy the railcard at the railway station, possibly just minutes before journey even having purchased the ticket long in advance (you don't need to specify your railcard number to purchase a discounted ticket). 



There are further lies down the page:



While the information that this is not true for mature students IS present on their website, it should be mentioned there.