Family & Friends Railcard Reviews

Yesterday was the end of a era, my daughter and I have had 10 wonderful years and have been on so many adventures all around the country using the friends and family railcard.
Our first trip was 10 years ago to Cornwall and our last finished off at Tunbridge Wells, all from our hometown of Orpington (staff always lovely and helpful). With many mainly costal visits and stays in between (even let the husband come on a few as well).
I have kept all of the tickets and will document all of the lovely places we have been…our adventures will continue with a new railcard but we will always fondly remember all of our trips and savings too.
Thank you…

Even though it was renewed on the Monday, my railcard had still not turned up in the post by Saturday when I was travelling. The person I spoke to told me that without the physical card I could not travel with the discount even though the start date on the card was five days earlier. Even though this is clearly something that has happened to people many times before, the company had no policy in place to deal with it said they had nothing they could send by email that I could use on the train as confirmation that I was entitled to the discount and was waiting for them to send the physical card. Having not been able to use my railcard for much of the past 18 months due to the pandemic, and having not been offered any kind of goodwill extension, this really was the last straw. Please avoid this company - they just try to rip people off and their customer complaints department doesn't seem to exist - how convenient!

Wow, I have a family of 4 and this saves so much money. However, what we pay to make a 25 minute journey from Macclesfield into Manchester with a railcard is what you should be paying without one. But this railcard is great value!

If you're a single parent, thinking this is a great idea for saving money when dropping off your child, think again. I bought this because I regularly drop my son home on the train. It costs £15 for me and my son to get a return ticket from Bristol to Cheltenham so I can drop him off. With the railcard it's £8.95 for a return for us both. This is also the same price for the single for both of us, so why wouldn't you get the return? It's a great deal right? Wrong. Once you drop off your child, that railcard becomes useless and you need to have a standalone single ticket to return or you face a fine. Standalone ticket, single, £8.95 so rail card plus standard single ticket means you're paying £17.90 on the railcard. Whereas if you buy the tickets without the railcard, it's £15.
I paid £30 for this railcard and it's absolutely useless.
What is the actual point of such a stupid railcard.

Absolute joke . I have a family and friends railcard that runs out on the 26th of july. Now i haven't been to use this while this pandemic has been happening. Now when i asked about getting the months we couldn't travel back . They just said there is nothing they can do. Disgusting our national rail service .

After spending nearly an hour completing an online railcard application it was not possible to finalise the transaction as the online app was faulty.
Attempting to contact customer service was appalling. Telephone waiting time is currently 31 minutes and still waiting.
Only gave a 1 star review because zero was not an option

We love our friends and family railcard, but again on renewal this year my card has not arrived. Ordered for dispatch on 4th November, suddenly realised last night (Monday) when getting things ready for the following weekend,it is not here for travel on Saturday, to be told by a most unsympathetic adviser to guarantee it arriving I need to pay £6.95 extra for special delivery. What choice do i have to ensure my family can travel with pre-purchased tickets on Saturday. Customer services did not care in fact the adviser implied this was my fault, how i paid you to deliver the card with over 3 weeks notice! Appalling customer service.

We purchased a Friends and Family Railcard over the Xmas break for a trip two days later. On COMPLETION of the purchase it then states you have to wait for the card to be delivered (you cannot print a copy of your receipt etc) to be able to purchase tickets. This did not happen in time and we were forced to purchase another from the Train Station. My phone calls and emails with the Railcard operators only offered patronising, unhelpful 'it clearly states in our T & Cs' and borderline rude discussions.
They really should state, before you start completing your details, (as a pop up or similar) that you will not be able to use this card for approx 2 weeks.
However, the speed each phone operator relayed me to the T & Cs would suggest I am not the only person to be caught out by their poor website.
Their response times were never as stated and when I queried why this was the case I was told 'well its Christmas, that Depts shut!'...of course....wouldnt expect to be informed of this pre-purchase!
Overall I lost money as they deducted an admin charge from my duplicated card.....left a VERY bad taste in my mouth.
In this era proof of purchase should suffice....not relying on a 3rd party to deliver their products.

I regularly go to Taunton from Reigate on the train, this card has saved me thousands of pound. I have just brought my daughter 16+ card for when she travels out and about with friends.