Railcard Reviews 

Poor value for money
I purchased a 3 year rail card in September 2019 - pandemic restrictions lasting for more than 2 years meant this card was unusable for the majority of its 3 year term - yet there is no good will extension of any kind on a three year card purchased in the 12 months prior to the pandemic - my card was used for a single journey in October 2019 & again once in December 2019 -(saving £12 and cost £70) - it was unusable for 2/3rds of its membership hence not such a great discount card ….my opinion is it is best to avoid 3 year cards - the pandemic situation highlighted there is no guarantee it will remain valid / usable for the entire period it is purchased for…
as a minimum railcard could have offered all 3 year card holders in period 2020-23 a years extension on their card

Same problem as many others describe - Railcard app just stopped working suddenly. Couldn't get through to them on phone, nothing on their website about how people could travel, the National Rail Enquiries Helpline tried talking to them but didn't get anywhere either. They didn't reply to Twitter DMs or Facebook messages.

In followup discussion they explained that people who managed to get through to them on the phone had been emailed a "Permit to Travel". They don't seem to care about all the people that didn't get through to them.

It seems pretty clear that this is an organisation that can't be trusted either to run a critical service, or to make things right after messing it up.

When a train company sells you a digital train ticket, they send you a PDF of the ticket you can use even if their app fails. If they need to later revoke the ticket, they can as it contains a QR code that can be checked on line. Railcard seem to have deliberately chosen a much more risky solution.

Worse than useless. Got a notification that my version of the Railcard app would no longer work and I should update. Linking my railcard to the new app took several attempts over three days. Accessing my railcard account was impossible. I kept getting an error code to say the site was unavailable. I got no reply from the help desk.

The problem with download codes has now been fixed thank goodness. Let's hope it stays fixed.

In the same situation as most people on this thread!
Ordered and paid for on Tuesday, download code won’t work. Travelling tomorrow.
Tried to call the helpline, customer service couldn’t sort!

My digital senior railcard, valid until dec 2026 disappeared without warning from my android phone 2 days ago. Tried clearing cache, reinstalling, -app now tells me 'oops somethings gone wrong'. and will not display anything. Spent 50 mins waiting before getting through to the helpline. They admitted a problem, would send me new download code. Nothing received 24hrs later. The app is currently not fit for purpose. STRONGLY ADVISE everyone NOT to purchase any online railcards until Railcard issues new reassurances.

Tried to order 2 Railcards on the website and got half way through and 'Oops there is an issue' - then went round in the perpetual circle of not getting any further. Son then said lets try on the app (which he uses) - ordered 2 Railcards with absolutely no problem!! Get the website sorted out railcard.co.uk

So it worked fine for a long time and then I got a message that the app needed to be updated - bottom line, currently no card and tickets booked. Hopefully train companies will be sensible but I am disappointed and will renew with card not app in due course. Not helpful that you cannot get through to speak to anyone or that written response time supposed to be 10 days!

Bought a new railcard. Code won't work. Just an "Oops something went wrong" message. Completely unacceptable.

As with so many others it would seem, our two together railcard disappeared from my wife's phone yesterday. After trying many things online with a non-functional website I resorted to phoning them. After a 35 minute wait the lady in India (yes she told me her location) apologized for the delay in answering as the App had developed a fault in the past 30 minutes and this had resulted in a large number of calls to the helpline. Eh what? I said it obviously happened before that as I had been waiting online longer than that. I was told very abruptly NO! it has only just gone down!
Fixing the system would take 24 hours she said. If I wanted to buy a ticket I would have to pay full price, photograph the ticket and send it to Railcard to ask for a refund. Yeah sure. 24hours later the system has slightly unfrozen but is still not allowing the download of rail cards. As for my opinion of the company I would just echo everyone else. The shortsightedness of outsourcing call centres across the world so that respondents are merely reading from a card with no understanding of the situations they are supposed to be helping with is plain to see.

My digital senior railcard has completely disappeared on Android valid until Sept 2024 - app telling me 'oops somethings gone wrong' and will not accept the original download code. I have reinstalled but same problem This is not good, I cannot recover it or use it. This appears to be a widespread IT issue judging by Twitter posts. The helpline phone wait was so long I gave up, so I have reported by email - up to 10 days reply. This issue demonstrates a fatal flaw in the Railcard app as it doesn't save an offline copy for customers to use or recover. Please can the developers provide advice and an update on Google Play.

I want to travel tomorrow but the railcard app is not working so I won't be able to show my card if asked. Will have to pay full price even though I have bought a senior railcard....ridiculous!

Deleted my Railcard and my wife's on the app
despite auto updating the app on May 20. 30mins on phone unable to speak to anyone. Waiting for a response.

Got notification on phone today that railcard app needed updating and I'd have to do it to continue using my railcard. App is up to date! Now my senior railcard has just disappeared. Can't resolve online, can't register my digital railcard because I don't have a card number (it was on the 'phone, why would I need to write it down?). Telephoned customer services, 19 mins wait, cut off. Try again 29 mins, get through, start explaining, cut off again. Need card for upcoming journey (bought tickets already) so utterly frustrated. Plus... had all the hassles others have described getting the damned card in the first place - wouldnt work online, had to phone, wait, send photo, wait etc. nightmare. What is the problem??? 0 stars

Railcard disappeared from Android app. Could not recover it on phone (tried re-installing app). On my PC I logged in, but although my details were there, I could not 'manage devices' or get download code. All I got were error codes. Spent 1 hr on waiting for call to them to be answered...no reply. Worse than useless, as it wastes time. They seem to be outside the consumer rights act, as judging by this review page, nothing is ever done.

Received a message on my mobile this morning
"This version of Railcard App no longer supported".
When I access the app, it appears to have lost my Railcard details. I tried using the download code again but get "oops, something went wrong" message.
I checked my version of the app versus AppStore ... It's 1.6 on both. So, it's the newest version.

Emailed the Help people. No response.

As I'm travelling on Saturday. .... in desperation I downloaded the app onto my tablet (never had it on my tablet before).
Tried to use the download code ... on my tablet it keeps coming up with "not connected to Internet - retry".
I know that I am connected .... I've just downloaded the app. I also use BBC's sport app. It doesn't seem to buffer much. So, it is always downloading stuff. That app is working fine.

Wish I'd gone for a plastic card version of the Railcard. Some companies don't seem to do technology very well ....

Why does renewing your Railcard have to be so complicated? I've had a card for four years now and yet I ended up with a new card rather than just renewing the old one - and losing two weeks into the process.

The 1 star is the minimum unfortunately. The online application fails after letting you input all the information, including Tesco clubcard code, photos etc. Then 500 sorry error code!
Then 20 mins waiting on the phone to speak to someone who says they will help, sets up a new account and takes all details again before saying you have to send photos by email and phone back! Another 20 minutes wait to speak to someone who says no email received, when you have had an automatically issued acknowledgement emailed! People are ok and did finally sort it out. But software just not good enough so that is what my review addresses.

I paid £60 for two railcards on 26th November 2022, one for my wife and one for myself.

I was sent two cards incorrectly both in my name and none for my wife. After a lot of hassle, I managed to obtain a refund for the card which was not sent for my wife. I retained mine, which I now discover has expired already, instead of lasting for one year.
The expiry date is:020MR23
I will never use the railcard online service again, which is chaotic and totally unreliable.
My wife bought her card at the local station, where the service was excellent
I am awaiting a response from railcard about the incorrect expiry date, but I will now have to buy another card locally for travel next week.