Railcard delivery time

[uselesskitten]

I ordered a physical Santander 16-25 Railcard and got an email today that it was dispatched.

How long does it usually take to arrive with standard delivery?

The website says "allow 10 days for delivery", but I don't know of any delivery service that takes this long within the UK, surely that's an overestimate?

 

[Watershed]

In my experience, you are usually looking at 2-4 working days to get a physical Railcard once it's dispatched. They use regular Royal Mail delivery, so once printed and dispatched it is mainly down to how well your local Delivery Office is operating.

 

[uselesskitten]

In my experience, you are usually looking at 2-4 working days to get a physical Railcard once it's dispatched. They use regular Royal Mail delivery, so once printed and dispatched it is mainly down to how well your local Delivery Office is operating.

Thanks! Do you know if it's a 1st or standard class letter by any chance?

 

[Watershed]

Thanks! Do you know if it's a 1st or standard class letter by any chance?

Can't remember if I'm honest. Would suspect 2nd class delivery though.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

In my experience, you are usually looking at 2-4 working days to get a physical Railcard once it's dispatched. They use regular Royal Mail delivery, so once printed and dispatched it is mainly down to how well your local Delivery Office is operating.

Thought that they were dispatched using 'Whistl' (which might well mean that local delivery is still by Royal Mail / Postman Pat).

 

[Haywain]

The website says "allow 10 days for delivery", but I don't know of any delivery service that takes this long within the UK, surely that's an overestimate?

Sounds like they are using Royal Mail.

 

[Starmill]

Mine always showed up the next working day from the dispatch, so at least a decent chance of that happening. As above it really depends on the situation with your mail centre and delivery office.

 

[mickey]

When they used RM directly, it was always next-day delivery without fail if bought before 3pm. Then they decided to save a few pennies by using a third-party mailsorter and since then it’s never arrived in less than a week (my last was 10 days). Last year I renewed a week earlier to be sure of getting it before my old one expired. Obviously RM also has issues, which don’t help, nor does my geekiness in both noticing and remembering this sort of thing.

 

[Hadders]

I ordered a physical railcard online back in March. I can't remember if it was 1st or 2nd class post but it arrived within 3 days iirc. It certainly didn't take 10 days.

 

[Mister Ed]

I ordered a plastic railcard online on Sunday 1 June. The covering letter was dated 2 June and it arrived on Friday 6 June. The envelope was marked "Whistl" (no class indicated) and was delivered by Royal Mail as one of 11 items after nothing here for the previous three delivery days.

The return address was Measham DE12 and the address on the actual letter was Swadlingcote DE11.

My recall is that a few years ago another railcard arrived about 10 days after I ordered it online and only just in time for a planned train journey.

Hope this helps.

 

[Joe Paxton]

When they used RM directly, it was always next-day delivery without fail if bought before 3pm. Then they decided to save a few pennies by using a third-party mailsorter and since then it’s never arrived in less than a week (my last was 10 days). Last year I renewed a week earlier to be sure of getting it before my old one expired. Obviously RM also has issues, which don’t help, nor does my geekiness in both noticing and remembering this sort of thing.

(My bolding.)

I remember this being the situation in the past - it was a very efficient operation.

However, despite having a preference for a plastic Railcard (albeit with a few misgivings about adding to the world's pile of waste plastic), I haven't had recent experience of buying a physical Railcard for postal delivery, rather I've taken advantage of various offers proffered by retailers of Digital Railcards.

 

[talldave]

When you buy a physical Railcard online, when does its validity commence?

I'm about to do a Tesco Clubcard Railcard purchase so am interested in when to actually do the online transaction.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

When you buy a physical Railcard online, when does its validity commence?

Effectively, it's valid from whenever you receive it and, upon receipt, have then signed it. They do tend to add on a few days' extra validity, to allow for the usual time it takes to get delivered.

 

[ricoblade]

I applied for a plastic Senior Railcard as soon as it let me, 2 weeks before my 60th birthday, it arrived 2 days later and has no "from" validity so I assume it's valid from receipt. The expiry is 8 days after my birthday.

 

[gray1404]

There is no valid from date on a Railcard. You can use it as soon as you receive it

My experience has been when they used Royal Mail it would arrive within 1 or 2 days.

More recently mine have arrived within 5 to 7 working days. Mine have been renewals.

I know for new railcards they add some extra days on but if some people who've received/about to receive could report on date of cover letter Vs date of expiry we can ascertain the exact number of additional days they add.

 

[ricoblade]

There is no valid from date on a Railcard. You can use it as soon as you receive it

My experience has been when they used Royal Mail it would arrive within 1 or 2 days.

More recently mine have arrived within 5 to 7 working days. Mine have been renewals.

I know for new railcards they add some extra days on but if some people who've received/about to receive could report on date of cover letter Vs date of expiry we can ascertain the exact number of additional days they add.

The date of my cover letter is the same as the order date - 28th May, I received it on 31st May and the expiry is 17th June.

 

[TheManOnThe172]

This may have been fixed, but TfL had an issue that staff were unable to add railcards to Oyster if the expiry of the railcard was even 1 day more than 3 years ahead. I hit problems a few years back when my by-post railcard arrived with 3 years and 6 days validity and I tried the following day to get it added to an Oyster. Computer said No, and the staff member said that he could face disciplinary action if he entered the railcard expiry as different from that shown on the card.