Network card or gold card?

[Lukespenceruk1]

Can anyone help please?

I have a Network Card which is due to expire next month. Last month I bought a Oyster card season ticket for the year which comes with a Gold Card. I know you can get discounts with both? My question is, is it worth renewing the network card? Do I gain more from that or is using the Gold Card just fine?

What do I get the most from?

 

[43096]

Can anyone help please?

I have a Network Card which is due to expire next month. Last month I bought a Oyster card season ticket for the year which comes with a Gold Card. I know you can get discounts with both? My question is, is it worth renewing the network card? Do I gain more from that or is using the Gold Card just fine?

What do I get the most from?

You only need the Gold Card - benefits are at least as good and it is valid over a much larger area.
Gold card: http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/Gold Card Dgm Key.pdf
Network card: https://www.network-railcard.co.uk/clientfiles/files/Map.pdf

 

[trevmonk]

The Gold Card gives you all the Network card does and more, such as - discount with no minimum fare, discount on off peak tube fares, discount on another railcard (although not a Gold Card) which you can buy for someone else. If you're buying a season anyway and getting the Gold Card then that should cover you

 

[Joe Paxton]

As others have said, the Annual Gold Card offers everything the Networl Railcard does and more.

Two benefits to point out in particular are that it has no minimum fare on weekdays (in contrast to the Network Railcard's £13 minimum fare), and it can be used to get discounted tickets from 9.30am (in contrast to 10am for the Network Railcard).

 

[Hadders]

The Gold Card cannot be used on Virgin Trains between Euston and Milton Keynes or between Kings Cross and Stevenage, but a Network Card can.

If you're likely to make significant travel using Virgin on these routes then renew the Network Railcard (which will cost £10 as a Gold Card benefit).

This is the only time where a Network Railcard is better than a Gold Card.

 

[Roy Badami]

You only need the Gold Card - benefits are at least as good and it is valid over a much larger area

Is that true again now? Although the Gold Card has always had better benefits, and in recent years has convered a larger area, than the Network Card, in recent years there were some TOCs that accepted the Network Card but not the Gold Card. London Midland used to be a case in point, but I don't know what the current situation is with the new franchise

EDIT: Looks like London Northwestern accepts the Gold Card now. I don't recall what the other differences in TOC validity were (if any). Will compare the lists when I'm not on a phone (unless someone else beats me to it)

 

[infobleep]

Is that true again now? Although the Gold Card has always had better benefits, and in recent years has convered a larger area, than the Network Card, in recent years there were some TOCs that accepted the Network Card but not the Gold Card. London Midland used to be a case in point, but I don't know what the current situation is with the new franchise

London Midland accepted gold cards as do the new operator, London North Western.

As Hadders pointed out, its not accepted Virgin Trains between Euston and Milton Keynes or Virgin East Coast between King's Cross and Stevenage.

I don't know if its accepted on Virgin Trains anywhere else?

 

[Hadders]

Both Virgin TOCs pulled out of the Gold Card scheme when the area was enlarged in 2015, Milton Keynes a d Stevenage being the only places served by Virgin that were in the old area.

I can understand VTWC not wanting to offer discounted tickets to the West Midlands but it's pretty annoying to lose the benefit between Euston and Milton Keynes.

The situation on VTEC is farcical. Peterborough is outside the extended Gold Card area, so no issues arise there. I really don't understand why VTEC withdrew from the scheme as London - Stevenage was the only route inside the area before expansion and is still the only route that is inside the enlarged area.

Perhaps a couple of helpful forum members could assist.....

 

[Roy Badami]

Ah it was Virgin, not London Midland thank you!

I remember that following the change I could no longer use my Gold Card from London to Milton Keynes but yes, thinking back, I normally used Virgin, not London Midland .

 

[Hadders]

I travel from Euston to Milton Keynes reasonably frequently (and also from Stevenage to London very frequently). I've got a 'Lapworth' Gold Card as well as a Network Railcard (which only cost me £10).

 

[Roy Badami]

Anyway, I guess the advice to the OP is:

Unless you want to travel on Virgin Trains (to Milton Keynes) or on Virgin Trains East Coast (to Stevenage) stick with the Gold Card.

If you do regularly want to make these journeys (at times/days were a Network Railcard would benefit you) then don't forget that a Gold Card allows you to buy (one) discounted railcard (for yourself or for someone else) for £10. So you can get the Network Railcard for £10 rather than £30.

EDIT TO ADD: But generally (apart from the VT/VTEC acceptance issue) the big advantage of the Gold Card over the Network Railcard - apart from the Gold Card covering a larger area - is that the Gold Card doesn't have the £13 minimum fare for weekday journeys that the Network Railcard has.

The other point of note is that the Gold Card can be loaded onto your Oyster card to give discounted tube travel. Since your Gold Card results from an annual Travelcard on your Oyster Card, you'd hope that this would have been done for you automatically - and IME things have got better in this regard - but it's worth getting staff at an LUL station to check for you that the Gold Card discount has been loaded onto your Oyster Card. There certainly was a time when this tended not to happen automatically and you had to get the discount loaded onto your card by LUL staff

 

[W-on-Sea]

I thought Cross Country (thus in effect the routes through Bournemouth - Basingstoke - Reading - Oxford - Birmingham etc) don't accept the Gold Card, either? If so, that is slightly annoying if you wish to travel between Oxford and Banbury, or further north...

 

[Lukespenceruk1]

Thanks everyone for your help. So I seem to be better off with a gold card. My sessson ticket is from work via Abellio corporate travel so I take it that the gold card discount should already be loaded?

 

[Hadders]

XC do accept Gold Cards but not north of Banbury.

If you have a paper season ticket it should be printed on Gold Card stock, if it’s a smart card then you should have a paper Gold Card Record to accompany it.

 

[Roy Badami]

Gold Card is valid on Cross Country, but not north of Banbury.

But north of Banbury is outside the Network Railcard area, anyway, so a Network Railcard wouldn't be valid, either

 

[Lukespenceruk1]

XC do accept Gold Cards but not north of Banbury.

If you have a paper season ticket it should be printed on Gold Card stock, if it’s a smart card then you should have a paper Gold Card Record to accompany it.

My season ticket is a Oyster card. I also have the paper Goldcard. Would the discount be already loaded on there. ?

 

[Roy Badami]

My season ticket is a Oyster card. I also have the paper Goldcard. Would the discount be already loaded on there. ?

You'd hope so, but the only way to be sure is to ask the staff at a tube station to check for you

 

[Lukespenceruk1]

You'd hope so, but the only way to be sure is to ask the staff at a tube station to check for you

Thanks. I will check then!

 

[Nick66]

Forgot it! It needs to be added, and when you renew it needs to be added again. Don’t take no for an answer I asked at KGX and two members of staff looked at me as if I had two heads, went to the next ticket hall and it was sorted in seconds

 

[talldave]

As others have said, the Annual Gold Card offers everything the Networl Railcard does and more.

Two benefits to point out in particular are that it has no minimum fare on weekdays (in contrast to the Network Railcard's £13 minimum fare), and it can be used to get discounted tickets from 9.30am (in contrast to 10am for the Network Railcard).

Or 09:31 if you're using a Southeastern S&B TVM . [A Southeastern data error I should point out, not an S&B bug].

 

[Hadders]

Forgot it! It needs to be added, and when you renew it needs to be added again. Don’t take no for an answer I asked at KGX and two members of staff looked at me as if I had two heads, went to the next ticket hall and it was sorted in seconds

I had a member of staff in the tube ticket hall try to tell me it could only be done on line. I persisted and eventually the member of staff managed it.

To be fair to the member of staff it appeared to be a case of poor training rather than bad attitude. I knew enough to be able to tell the member of staff that it was in the Supervisor Functions on the POM.

 

[Gerald Fiennes]

Yes, you need to get LUL staff to set the Gold Card discount, even on an Oystercard issued by TfL. It's not there automatically. And you have to be a little persistent, as not that many LUL staff seem to know how to do this...