Buying rail tickets for small charity

TheManOnThe172 · 19 Oct 2017

Can anyone advise on ticketing options for a small charity that spends perhaps £100 a month on rail travel?

Some staff are happy to pay on their own credit cards, which then presents no problem for ticket collection. But some resist. The charity's corporate credit card is no use - whilst easy enough to book, the card would have to be carried offsite (potentially for days) if the staff member were to collect tickets with it when they travel.

The least-worst option so far seems to be setting up a Paypal account and booking via VirginTrains for any-card collection.

Or are there "business" travel outfits whose pricing is viable for small organisations?

RailUK Forums

AlterEgo · 19 Oct 2017

TheManOnThe172 said:
Can anyone advise on ticketing options for a small charity that spends perhaps £100 a month on rail travel?

Some staff are happy to pay on their own credit cards, which then presents no problem for ticket collection. But some resist. The charity's corporate credit card is no use - whilst easy enough to book, the card would have to be carried offsite (potentially for days) if the staff member were to collect tickets with it when they travel.

The least-worst option so far seems to be setting up a Paypal account and booking via VirginTrains for any-card collection.

Or are there "business" travel outfits whose pricing is viable for small organisations?

Paypal option is a good one. Most big travel agents (Redfern etc) have any card collection, but I don't know what the fees are like - probably prohibitive?

Mojo · 19 Oct 2017

Trainsplit.com offer a business travel service. Might I suggest that you send a private message to @SickyNicky on the forum who might be able to offer you some assistance as a charity.

MichaelAMW · 19 Oct 2017

Why not use the charity credit card and opt for the tickets to be delivered, either to your office or to the passenger's home?

Bletchleyite · 19 Oct 2017

Or is there a station near the office where they could be collected in bulk and handed to staff?

Hadders · 19 Oct 2017

Purchase an evoucher using the charity's credit card on a Webtis site, e.g Chiltern, TPE, GWR, SWR.

Use the evoucher to purchase tickets which can then be collected from station TVMs using any card. The evoucher needn't be for the exact amount as the evoucher lasts until its value has been used.

Joe Paxton · 19 Oct 2017

Hadders said:
Purchase an evoucher using the charity's credit card on a Webtis site, e.g Chiltern, TPE, GWR, SWR.

Use the evoucher to purchase tickets which can then be collected from station TVMs using any card. The evoucher needn't be for the exact amount as the evoucher lasts until its value has been used.

A good shout.

It's worth bearing in mind that things can change - i.e. VTEC moved from the Atos WebTIS system over to their 'own' booking engine, and the e-vouchers were stuck in a bit of a limbo for at least some people as VTEC shifted them over by a manual process. It's not impossible the same could happen that other TOCs switch over to different booking systems, and possibly ones that don't have an e-voucher system at all (to be clear, if such a thing happened I'm sure everyone would get their money back, but perhaps not immediately).

Of course those sites that accept Paypal might discontinue from doing so in the future too.

But that's a hazard of life - as soon as you've got a system up and working nicely, something will come along to spoil it!

Hadders · 19 Oct 2017

Joe Paxton said:
A good shout.

It's worth bearing in mind that things can change - i.e. VTEC moved from the Atos WebTIS system over to their 'own' booking engine, and the e-vouchers were stuck in a bit of a limbo for at least some people as VTEC shifted them over by a manual process. It's not impossible the same could happen that other TOCs switch over to different booking systems, and possibly ones that don't have an e-voucher system at all (to be clear, if such a thing happened I'm sure everyone would get their money back, but perhaps not immediately).

Of course those sites that accept Paypal might discontinue from doing so in the future too.

But that's a hazard of life - as soon as you've got a system up and working nicely, something will come along to spoil it!

It could be an issue but it’s highly unlikely. Depending on the volume of tickets purchased i’d buy evouchers £100 at a time. If there was an issue it’d likely be only a small amount.

There’s nothing stopping the charity buying an wvoicher for the exact amount of each fare.

Merseysider · 19 Oct 2017

I'd buy e-vouchers to the value of the ticket plus 1p, which effectively halves the amount of times they need to be purchased and the codes input, as even 1p worth of an evoucher used towards a ticket renders the whole booking any-card collection.

FQTV · 20 Oct 2017

Merseysider said:
I'd buy e-vouchers to the value of the ticket plus 1p, which effectively halves the amount of times they need to be purchased and the codes input, as even 1p worth of an evoucher used towards a ticket renders the whole booking any-card collection.

Interesting; I didn't know that. Thanks.

Separately, all tickets bought on the Virgin Trains West Coast website are set to any card collect - it says so during the booking process.

It doesn't just apply to PayPal funded tickets.

jeremyjh · 20 Oct 2017

Loco2.com also does any-card collection, no voucher trick required. https://help.loco2.com/article/330-collecting-uk-train-tickets

They're fee-free as it stands, but worth noting that since they're not a TOC, this is not guaranteed to remain the case forever.

Bletchleyite · 20 Oct 2017

FQTV said:
Interesting; I didn't know that. Thanks.

Separately, all tickets bought on the Virgin Trains West Coast website are set to any card collect - it says so during the booking process.

It doesn't just apply to PayPal funded tickets.

Sorry, confused, are you saying only PayPal are any card or all tickets bought via VTWC?

(PayPal can't be anything else as the whole point is that the merchant doesn't get the card number)

dave87016 · 20 Oct 2017

My experience booking any tickets normally via VTWC is it is always any card collection

Y Ddraig Coch · 20 Oct 2017

It may be your experience, but it isn't what the website states so I would be wary of doing it incase some machines don't allow "any card" even if most do.

https://www.virgintrains.co.uk/help-and-contact

How to use the FastTicket machine

1. Press "Collect".
2. Insert the credit / debit card used to make the booking.
3. Key in your unique Collection Reference Number. Your ticket(s) will then be dispensed.
4. Your ticket(s) will then be dispensed. Do not remove tickets from the machine until all tickets have been issued and the main screen informs you that the transaction is complete.

Please note:

The Collection Reference Number is 8 digits long and contains a mixture of letters and numbers (e.g. XZ47I89P). For all bookings you will be given a 9 digit number as your Booking Reference (e.g. 123456789). Only the Collection Reference Number is required when picking up your tickets.

You no longer need to go to the station selected when making a booking. You can collect your ticket from any station with a FastTicket machine. To find out where your nearest Fast Ticket machine is click here.

If you have made a booking on behalf of other travellers the booking confirmation email will be sent to the email address displayed on the delivery details page.

Has this answered your question? If not, you might want to chat with one of our team or find other contact details here.

Joe Paxton · 20 Oct 2017

dave87016 said:
My experience booking any tickets normally via VTWC is it is always any card collection

It may be that your specific account with VTWC is set up for 'any card collection' for all transactions, but it doesn't follow that that applies to everyone else. Best to be careful about generalisations in these matters!

dave87016 · 20 Oct 2017

Joe Paxton said:
It may be that your specific account with VTWC is set up for 'any card collection' for all transactions, but it doesn't follow that that applies to everyone else. Best to be careful about generalisations in these matters!

Does it give you the choice now to choose any card collection or the card used to purchase the ticket only available to be used to collect ? It never has when I booked with them but if it does now then I apologise

Mike395 · 20 Oct 2017

dave87016 said:
Does it give you the choice now to choose any card collection or the card used to purchase the ticket only available to be used to collect ? It never has when I booked with them but if it does now then I apologise

My experience is that for new accounts, Virgin West Coast will quite often prompt for the card - once you've purchased with them a few times it'll generally let you collect using any card. Incidentally, I got caught out recently as GWR (my preferred booking engine) started enforcing same card collection, having not done so with me for a fair while!

dave87016 · 20 Oct 2017

Mike395 said:
My experience is that for new accounts, Virgin West Coast will quite often prompt for the card - once you've purchased with them a few times it'll generally let you collect using any card. Incidentally, I got caught out recently as GWR (my preferred booking engine) started enforcing same card collection, having not done so with me for a fair while!

Ah right thanks for clarifying Mike I appreciate it

Merseysider · 20 Oct 2017

Hadders said:
Purchase an evoucher using the charity's credit card on a Webtis site, e.g Chiltern, TPE, GWR, SWR.

As an aside, would vouchers purchased on one of these TOC's websites be redeemable on another, providing they both used Webtis?

island · 20 Oct 2017

No. Only where it was bought.

Merseysider · 20 Oct 2017

Cheers

TheManOnThe172 · 22 Oct 2017

Merseysider said:
... as even 1p worth of an evoucher used towards a ticket renders the whole booking any-card collection.

Can one choose to part-pay with less than the full remaining value of a e-voucher? If that is possible, then a one-time purchase of £5 e-voucher could seemingly be used 1p at a time to make 500 journeys any-card collectable.

Merseysider · 22 Oct 2017

Not as far as I know.

paddington · 22 Oct 2017

I've had to phone VTWC on several occasions to request that my purchased tickets are changed to any card collection, since I sometimes use different cards for buying online and paying in person, and failed to plan properly.

I usually use EMT to book as it used to be any card until early 2017, but recently I was caught out when a booking required the same card to collect, and nowadays it seems to be random as to whether it will be same card or any card.

Also, even though most bookings seem to be collectable within a few minutes after booking, it usually says to wait 2 hours. Once with EMT it actually wouldn't work until 2 hours. I missed a train because of this.

BurtonM · 23 Oct 2017

Is it possible to use the charity credit card and collect from a TVM?
TVMs usually accept any card as authentication, as it's the booking reference they're really after.

Hadders · 23 Oct 2017

BurtonM said:
Is it possible to use the charity credit card and collect from a TVM?
TVMs usually accept any card as authentication, as it's the booking reference they're really after.

No. Most TVMs require the same credit card when collecting tickets, hence the reason for this thread.

BurtonM · 23 Oct 2017

Not the case with TPE.
Can't the tickets be collected with the credit card ahead of time, then it gets returned?

SaveECRewards · 23 Oct 2017

A warning: when I booked using VTEC's dreadful new site I part paid with my remaining eVoucher (one that transferred over, I never did get the ones that didn't sorted) but it would only release the ticket with the card I'd used to pay the remainder.

As their site is under constant development this may have changed.

I've been told Southern marks bookings as any card collection.

Merseysider · 23 Oct 2017

That's very odd.

TPE's website marks e-voucher tickets (full- or part-payment) as any card collection.

FQTV · 23 Oct 2017

Joe Paxton said:
It may be that your specific account with VTWC is set up for 'any card collection' for all transactions, but it doesn't follow that that applies to everyone else. Best to be careful about generalisations in these matters!

As it was me who first made the generalisation, I had better hold my hand up! Since West Coast has never made any special note of the fact that, when logged in, it specifically says 'any valid credit or debit card', it had never occurred to me that this isn't general policy.

However, a dummy booking when not logged-in does indeed require the collector to present the card used for payment.

SaveECRewards said:
A warning: when I booked using VTEC's dreadful new site I part paid with my remaining eVoucher (one that transferred over, I never did get the ones that didn't sorted) but it would only release the ticket with the card I'd used to pay the remainder.

As their site is under constant development this may have changed.

I've been told Southern marks bookings as any card collection.

Drat. I may therefore have just today been caught by another generalisation! I have booked a ticket for someone else, and part-paid with a voucher on awesomer.con - expecting it to therefore be any card collect. Double drat.

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