Railcard renewal -- have I been short-changed?

(I wondered about putting this in Disputes and Prosecutions, but it's not (yet) an actual dispute, and probably not worth making one -- I'm just seeking clarification).

On 17th June I received an e-mail notification that my Network Railcard was due for renewal; the actual expiry date is 15th July. As I'm using it fairly often these days, and not infrequently starting journeys at a station without an open ticket office, I thought I'd better renew it while I remembered, so on 20th June I clicked on the 'Renew' link in the e-mail and ordered a new railcard. It arrived in the post a few days ago; today I took it out of the envelope to put it in my railcard wallet, and noticed that the expiry date is 27th June 2027, not 15th July as I had expected?

Does anyone know whether this is a) an error on their part, b) an error on my part (perhaps I missed something when doing the renewal), c) the way it's always been, or d) a change in policy? It's not the first time that I've renewed a railcard online in this way, and if I've lost any days of validity in previous years, I haven't noticed. I know it's less than £2 worth, but if it's a change in policy it seems a bit sneaky, and if it's an error by the railway, they have been known to prosecute people for less than that.

I’ve always had it expire exactly a year after the old one, as you were expecting. I think there’s a maximum (28 days iirc) and you have to specifically click ‘renew’ against last year’s for it to link, but it’s been that way for at least a decade. If they’ve changed it then it’s very annoying - maybe worth contacting them to ask, in case there’s an error somewhere. Though I wouldn’t put it past them having done it deliberately.

mickey said:

I’ve always had it expire exactly a year after the old one, as you were expecting. I think there’s a maximum (28 days iirc) and you have to specifically click ‘renew’ against last year’s for it to link, but it’s been that way for at least a decade. If they’ve changed it then it’s very annoying - maybe worth contacting them to ask, in case there’s an error somewhere. Though I wouldn’t put it past them having done it deliberately.

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I renewed a Disabled Persons railcard in April and it got the extra validity to make it the date of my previous r/c plus 12mo... so it's at least been done as recently as April this year, albeit for a different r/c type.

Are you absolutely sure that you went through the renewal process rather than just buying a new rail card? Having an extra week's validity from when you bought it, rather than being dated based on the previous year's Rail, sounds more like the latter.

I renewed mine last month and the new expiry date is the same day/month as the old one.

This is absolutely ridiculous as this is a problem I and others have had historically. It gets fixed and then it reoccurs. You need to phone the helpline. Suggest as a solution that you cut the new railcard in 2 pieces and email the photograph of it to them straight away. Whilst on the line the advisor should see your email come through if they know what email address you are sending it from and then reissue you with a new railcard on the phone to be posted out with the correct expiry date.

This is indeed the solution they have given to me on the two occasions it has happened. On both occasions they have been happy to wait a couple of minutes whilst I cut the rail card take a photo and email it over. The second time it happened I offered the above as a solution which was basically a repeat of what their first advisor offered as a resolution the first time it happened.

Another thought is that if it’s a proper renewal then the railcard number is (almost and clearly) the same, whereas if it’s a new issue it will be completely different. This may help in diagnosing which scenario applies.

I did this once a long time ago for one of my kids railcards. I had renewed the wrong card by mistake - an earlier one than the current. After a brief discussion on the phone it was all sorted out easily. Not sure it is helpful to keep many years of the same railcard visible on the web site with the renew button active.

mickey said:

Another thought is that if it’s a proper renewal then the railcard number is (almost and clearly) the same, whereas if it’s a new issue it will be completely different. This may help in diagnosing which scenario applies.

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Are you sure about this?

mickey said:

Another thought is that if it’s a proper renewal then the railcard number is (almost and clearly) the same, whereas if it’s a new issue it will be completely different. This may help in diagnosing which scenario applies.

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This only applies for digital railcards, as far as I know.

MrJeeves said:

This only applies for digital railcards, as far as I know.

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Unless you buy from Trainline, when they generate a completely new number each time rather than just incrementing the "issue" number by one.

CyrusWuff said:

Unless you buy from Trainline, when they generate a completely new number each time.

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Of course they deviate from the spec...

I'll keep an eye on dates when I do mine.
I've usually ended up with a gap, as I don't use it that often and several times it has lapsed and I've bought a new one.
.
However, what still rankles is the months I lost off one railcard thanks to covid ...

MrJeeves said:

Of course they deviate from the spec...

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Have a look at LNERs railcard numbers if you want to see some proper deviation

Thankyou for the replies. I'm not certain that I did it all correctly for a renewal, but it seems unlikely that I would have done anything other than click on the 'renew' link in the e-mail. I then had to reset my password*; perhaps that could have broken the link with the previous card, but I probably had to reset the password last year as well and I don't think this problem happened then. And if other people have had the same issue, then presumably it's either a problem with the website, or something about it that makes it easy to make an error.

*I wonder what the point of a password is on a site that many people will only use once a year -- few will remember it from one year to the next, so the security is just your e-mail address.

The old and new railcard numbers are almost identical, which makes it more likely that the error is at their end (although the soon-to-expire railcard has a very different number from the one that expired this time last year despite the renewal date being carried over correctly last time).

Perhaps I should try phoning up about it if I get round to it. (I'd have to time it right, though -- if I needed to use the railcard while the replacement one was still in the post, that would cost me more than the £2 I've effectively lost).

Wallsendmag said:

Are you sure about this?

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Yes. I’ve just checked my account and have had the same number for 5 years, with only one digit changing each time (currently on x5x; it increases by one each time). Old-school plastic railcard, not digital. I don’t know what they do after Year 9 though.