Any advice? Sizable fine for an out of date Railcard.

[Tompennock]

Hi guys,

Was just wondering if there's anything I can do here. Usual story, bought a ticket unaware the railcard was out of date, fair enough. But £254 seems like a lot of money for Admin fees.

The journey was Christchurch - Waterloo, bought with splitsave, so the first ticket was a Christchurch - Basingstoke Advanced Single, and the second leg, Basingstoke - Waterloo, was an Anytime Day Single.

Does this seem normal or should I question it, or perhaps with it being splitsave, does that help me here?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Tompennock]

So I've just gone to the 'Pay my Notice' URL, and the wording is slightly different. There it says the Penalty Amount is £254, and the admin fee is £64.70. Is this some sort of clerical error?

 

[Bletchleyite]

I suspect that's indeed a clerical error with them entered backwards - admin fees are rarely below £100.

The Anytime Day Single for that journey is £64.70, so that's clearly the fare component.

 

[Tompennock]

Thanks for all your feedback guys, it's great to see and I'm very grateful. Just one thought, I wonder if by having my journey ticketed with SplitSave, and that I was fined at Brockenhurst, I can dispute that I only had an invalid ticket for the Christchurch - Basingstoke leg? But suppose they have records of these things.

 

[furlong]

Thanks for all your feedback guys, it's great to see and I'm very grateful. Just one thought, I wonder if by having my journey ticketed with SplitSave, and that I was fined at Brockenhurst, I can dispute that I only had an invalid ticket for the Christchurch - Basingstoke leg? But suppose they have records of these things.

You said your railcard was out-of-date, implying none of the tickets had validity.

 

[Tompennock]

You said your railcard was out-of-date, implying none of the tickets had validity.

Just a hypothetical, doesn't look like the course of action I'll be taking. However I don't know how I can be fined for the Basingstoke - Waterloo leg if it hadn't started yet, as the train hadn't got to Basingstoke!

Perhaps they are able to see that I didn't buy a replacement ticket for the second leg of the journey?

 

[Hadders]

Moderator Note:
I've split off discussion about excessively high admin fees into a separate thread so we don't pollute this thread which is about assisting @Tompennock

Discussion About Excessively High Admin Fees

Moderator Note: Split from https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/any-advice-sizable-fine-for-an-out-of-date-railcard.255685/ That does seem high for an admin fee (is this perhaps not a first offence? They're usually around £100) but your option is to pay it or go to Court, and the likely...

www.railforums.co.uk

Due to how the discussion has developed it's been quite a tricky thread to split so hopefully it's about right!

 

[JBuchananGB]

Your intended journey was Christchurch to Waterloo and you held non-valid tickets for that journey. So you have been invited to pay for the Anytime single fare for that journey, plus £254 for administrative charges. Now £254 is a bit on the high side as admin charges go, but that's the invitation which has been made. If you did in fact alight at Basingstoke, and either buy a railcard, thus validating your ticket from there to London, or buy a non-discounted ticket to London, then you might just be able to make a case that the fare avoided was only Christchurch to Basingstoke. But as you have committed a criminal offence already, you are in a weak position, because the TOC could just withdraw their offer to settle, and see you in court.

 

[island]

Settlement amounts are rarely negotiable, your choice is pay or get prosecuted.