The Easter Holidays are on the way, so here's one way to save some cash when heading off with the family.
With Easter on the way, and many families looking at things to do to keep the kids busy, you might find the Friends & Family railcard a worthwhile investment!
For £30, you are given years of access to saving 1/3 on adult rail tickets, and kids between 5 and 15 years old get a whopping 60% discount off a journey of up to 4 adults travelling together with up to 4 kids. Children under 5 get a free ticket to travel. Each adult can have up to two ‘under 5s’ with them. But if there’s only one child in the group and they’re under 5, you’ll need to buy them a child ticket to be eligible for the Family & Friends discount.
Two adults can be named as cardholders on your Family & Friends Railcard. The two adults don't need to travel together, but you need to be travelling with at least one child between the ages of 5 and 15 to be eligible for the discount. Moreover, up to four adults and four children can travel on the same card and receive the savings. You don’t need to be related either, so it’s great for big fun days out.
Railcard discounts are available throughout Britain, but they are not available on tickets for morning peak period services, for journeys wholly within London & South East Network Railcard area on Mondays to Fridays. (The exceptions to this discounted fare rule are when you travel at weekends and on Public Holidays).
The times of morning off-peak services vary by route and are typically related to the availability of Off-Peak Day tickets. It's best to check with ticket office staff before buying your tickets.
The £30 cost for a year is likely to pay for itself in a couple of journeys. I'm sure the Summer holidays will be here in a blink of an eye, and so you might want to make use of the discounts for a trip to the beach, sightseeing in London, or maybe heading off to see family, and with the price of petrol at the moment, it may work out cheaper to use the train. Railcard users get a free three month trial of the Taste Card, so you can also grab discounts at thousands of restaurants, as well as discounted attraction tickets, cheaper movie rentals, retail store discounts, up to 40% off a trip to the cinema and even discounted bowling trips, making the £30 price of the Railcard, even better value!
Frequent rail users can grab an even better deal on a 3-year Railcard, which is £70, so it works out at just over £23 a year!
You can find more information about this scheme, plus many other Railcard schemes, on the official Railcard website HERE.