Season Ticket and Moving House

[vrbarreto]

Hi All,

Great forum

Wondering if anyone can help. I have an annual season ticket from Cambridge to London Terminals which is £4,400.

It expires on the 24th of January 2014. I'm moving to Croydon on the 4th of November and was looking for some advice on this 'changeover thing'

Can I go to any train station and ask them to change over my Cambridge <-> London Terminals to East Croydon <-> London Terminals?

I phoned up National Rail Enquiries and they told me to go to the issuing station and get a refund but I suspect the refund value of a ticket with 81 days left will be almost nothing?

Can I just have the ticket changed? Do I need to go to Cambridge to change the ticket or East Croydon?

Many thanks for any help in advance

Vince.

 

[bb21]

Yes, you can have your ticket changed over to an East Croydon - London Terminals season for the remainder of the validity.

You can do this at any staffed ticket office, although it might involve shopping around a bit, as I doubt many people know how to do it. It might take a few days even if it is accepted for a changeover.

If you want a refund instead of a changeover, there is no refund value after 10 months and 12 days, so with 80 odd days left, there should be some refund value left.

 

[Greenback]

It might be beneficial to do a changeover rather than get a refund, but one factor you may like to consider is that the fares will almost certainly increase at the start of January.

By applying for a refund on your old ticket, and buying a monthly and a few weekly or daily tickets as appropriate to your working patterns until January (it's usually the 2nd when the prices go up), you may come off better long term than getting your ticket changed and having to buy a new season after the fares have risen.

I always buy mine on the last day that I can before any increases. The higher value the more you can save.

 

[maniacmartin]

NRE's advice of getting a refund is probably bad advice.

The changeover can be done at any station in theory, but it will be easier if you go to one operated by the same company that issued it (Greater Anglia). I have had good service with season ticket changeovers at London Liverpool St.

Due to the complex way in which the price of changeovers is calculated, it is very unlikely that they will be able to do it on the spot. You will have to present the ticket for them to take down the details, then go away and return 2-3 days later to do the changeover after staff had had a chance to do the calculations.

You should also consider getting a changeover to a Travelcard. This is more expensive than a Croydon Stations - London Terminals, but if you plan to travel around other parts of London or use the London Underground, buses, Croydon Tramlink or DLR, it may be cheaper overall.

 

[cmovcc]

if you try doing anything out of the ordinary at Cambridge station you'll need some luck.

no matter which member of staff I seem to get they *always* mess it up.

season ticket duplicate (magstripe failure)... took four attempts (child instead of adult, wrong route, wrong expiry, wrong photocard number)

changeover? took three days, then the next week I received a phone call demanding that I come because they had "put it through the system incorrectly".

 

[vrbarreto]

Thanks for all the advice everyone.

I've got 5 days off to move house so hopefully will be able to sort things out. Would I have to pay more for changing over the ticket does anyone know?

 

[bb21]

If you change over to an East Croydon - London Terminals ticket, you should be due a refund.

 

[soil]

It might be beneficial to do a changeover rather than get a refund, but one factor you may like to consider is that the fares will almost certainly increase at the start of January.

By applying for a refund on your old ticket, and buying a monthly and a few weekly or daily tickets as appropriate to your working patterns until January (it's usually the 2nd when the prices go up), you may come off better long term than getting your ticket changed and having to buy a new season after the fares have risen.

I always buy mine on the last day that I can before any increases. The higher value the more you can save.

In this case the Croydon ticket (~£40/week) is much cheaper than the Cambridge ticket (£110/week). The scheduled fare increase is 4.1%, which based on the 49 weeks the OP has left comes out to two weeks @ £40/week over a year.

However, as bb21 notes, you lose up to 7 weeks by refunding as opposed to doing a switchover; after 8 months, the OP will lose ~5 weeks @ £110/week.

So you've got

Positive:
Save 2 weeks @ £40/week by renewing early
Possibly save another 1-2 weeks @ £40/week by not paying for Christmas holidays

Negative:
Lose 5 weeks @ £110/week

Therefore, because the new ticket is much cheaper than the old, and because the old ticket has 8+ months used, the changeover is much better than the refund.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Thanks for all the advice everyone.

I've got 5 days off to move house so hopefully will be able to sort things out. Would I have to pay more for changing over the ticket does anyone know?

Changeover should earn you around £1,000 (you need to figure out how many days you have used (e.g., 249), and then do £[Price originally paid] - (249/365 * price of annual Cambridge season) - ((365-249)/365 * (price of annual Croydon season)).

 

[vrbarreto]

thank you.. Shall go and ask at the travel centre at Cambridge well in advance

 

[vrbarreto]

Aaaaarrgggghhhhh!!!!

Went to Cambridge station and asked to do a changeover.. Was told nope, you need to go to a station inside the London travelcard area to get a changeover done. Was recommended I go and get it done in East Croydon. They reckoned it would take 5 days. Hmm not the information I was given originally.

Decided to drive to Croydon but thought I'd check with Southern first. Phoned up their helpdesk and was told...nope can't get a changeover done. Must be a refund as I bought my ticket from a different operating company, yada, yada yada.

Went back to Cambridge, spoke to supervisor and he said...yeah no problem we can do a changeover but there'll be no refund value as it's just a swap over.. Hmmm. Leave my ticket with them to sort out.

Get a phone call from the supervisor later saying that he's spoken to the finance department and I am due a refund and quite a substantial one but I need a letter from my company so the refund can be made payable to me. Popped the letter in this evening.

So far three trips to the station... Hopefully they'll get it changed over... Will let you know if I ever get it sorted

 

[maniacmartin]

Getting there eventually!

 

[bb21]

You might find information in this thread useful.

Excuses, excuses, excuses is all I see.

 

[vrbarreto]

You might find information in this thread useful.

Excuses, excuses, excuses is all I see.

Thank you.. very interesting. I shall keep my fingers crossed.

 

[zoneking]

I can recommend my local station (Caterham) who managed to do a changeover in 10 minutes. It was the same station I bought my original ticket from.

 

[vrbarreto]

Thanks Zoneking. I bought the original ticket from Cambridge so hopefully they'll be able to sort it out.. *crosses fingers and toes*

 

[vrbarreto]

Well....

I have the ticket which didn't take that long to sort out. Just waiting the refund cheque now. Thanks for all your help everyone.