Further investigation after settlement

[Fawkes Cat]

Thats what I thought as if theyd have given me till end of December I couldve paid it all at once unfortunately I can't this month. I also thought if I push for what the tickets im paying the difference for and fighting them I may end up just paying more in investigation fee than is worth

My feeling is that an instalment arrangement may be available - although be realistic in that the railway will probably want payment as quickly as possible, so you should be thinking weeks or a few months rather than years.

On the other hand, you declined the opportunity to discuss how many times you fare dodged. So I can imagine that they may be reluctant to negotiate over the amount of the fares owed.

So the bottom line: by all means see if you can get time to pay and even a reduced settlement
But remember that they're the people who can prosecute you: don't negotiate so hard that you put the £430 offer at risk.

 

[zowen]

My feeling is that an instalment arrangement may be available - although be realistic in that the railway will probably want payment as quickly as possible, so you should be thinking weeks or a few months rather than years.

On the other hand, you declined the opportunity to discuss how many times you fare dodged. So I can imagine that they may be reluctant to negotiate over the amount of the fares owed.

So the bottom line: by all means see if you can get time to pay and even a reduced settlement
But remember that they're the people who can prosecute you: don't negotiate so hard that you put the £430 offer at risk.

Got it thank you for the advice I'll see if theyre willing to let me pay over 2-4 months rather than all in one.

Happy to be a test dummy for this kind of things for future as this seems to be a new way theyre tackling fares good to know in future for other people.
I'll call up tomorrow and see what I can do and report back with final outcome (if I was able to reduce or what type of installments I'm able to get if any)

 

[Brissle Girl]

I did a quick adding up on the lenient side (full ticket price and ones im unsure if i did or not) and its 100% below £100 Im just unsure how they got the figure £180

Did you use two single fares, rather than the price of a return. That could more or less double the cost at a stroke, as often the return is only a few pence more than the single, and the policy is usually to treat each single journey separately when calculating the amount due.

 

[furlong]

Do you think it would be worth asking which journeys and the prices of them as this seems massively over the top.

Yes - if you genuinely think it's higher than it should be AND you are thinking of agreeing to pay them, then without making any admissions, ask if they can send you a breakdown of the sum they are requesting.

They should have done that anyway, because it would mean if they later found any more examples they'd have a chance to come back to ask for more!