Railcard

First time user, so I haven't needed to renew yet. Very easy to download the digital railcard, I copied & pasted the code from my email straight into the app with no problems. I have checked it several times after reading some of the reviews, and so far the railcard opens each time without issue. I did this while connected to Wi-Fi, not 4G etc. So far so good! The big test will be when I'm actually on a train...

Generally the app is good through the year and convenient to use on the phone. However, as others have said the renewal process is tedious. Having to add name, address & photo details again when a simple 're-use existing data' would suffice. Also looks as if I have to reinstall app to get next year's card.

Awful app. Similar story to others where you keep going round in circles. The link they send you, when you click on a PC is not a link to the app and when you try it on a smart phone, once again going round in circles. That and internet crashes. Took my wife's photo lots of times and was beginning to bear the brunt of her ire. Sorry guys, I know a digital version is less hassle for you, but I'm going for hard copy and a physical card. Don't think I'm doing anything wrong and consider myself as reasonable tech-savvy but this one has beaten me.

Renewal process via the App is Kafkaesque in its awfulness. App told me it couldn't renew as details matching those I had input already existed on a current card. Well obviously that will be true if I'm trying to renew. If the policy is to frustrate and waste time it's a big success. After several attempts resulting in multiple orders which I had to delete App finally said 'yes'. Thank heavens I don't have to go near this App for another 3 years.

Impossible to add railcard, the code won't download it onto the app and I've almost been fined in the past for this, despite having purchased a railcard. This has also happened to others I know, which shows it's a reoccurring issue that the developers are unwilling to work on. Very frustrating.

Very poor considering all it does is display a digital railcard. I have just renewed my card and the email said open the app and follow the on screen instructions. Only problem is there are no onscreen instructions and you have to route around to find a contra intuitive solution. Could and should be a lot better.

Absolutely horrendous, it has lost my digital railcard and even though I have the email receipt and proof of purchase it isn't accepting that I ordered the damn thing. The customer service opening hours are pointless as well, not open on the weekends at all, which is so unhelpful. Even their contact form says it can take up to ten days to get a response which isn't helpful when I'm on the train and need assistance there and then. Appalling experience.

Can't fault the app. It does exactly as it meant to do. It's very quick she easy to add my rail cars. In fact, too easy and I thought I had missed something it was that easy. A feature that I think it needs is to add a widget on my home screen so I don't need to log into the app to show my card. I'm visually impaired and I use digital tickets so flipping from app to app can be annoying at times especially during busy times.

The app is OK in terms of...it allows you to save the railcards on your phone. However, the renewal process is incredibly stupid. It requires you to provide proof of ID and a photo every time you renew. What is wrong with just pressing "Renew"?! The system already has all the info from the previous railcard. It as if they intentionally made it difficult to renew to catch people out. Not nice and I will send a complaint to ATOC and the Rail Delivery Group.

Renewal process is a complete nightmare. For example, being unable to enter your birth date using the keypad, and instead having to manually scroll back 25 years in the calendar to enter it. It's almost like the UX design team were having a laugh. Can't believe it's not possible to have a single "renewable" button that takes you straight to payment. Also why is there no notification that your railcard has expired?

Fine to use mostly but sometimes takes ages to load. Not ideal that it's only on the app now, as sometimes my phone battery dies. Also, the renewal process is awful! To enter your date of birth, you have to scroll back from the present day through every individual month (no option to select the year or anything). And my details from last year's card weren't saved so I had to enter everything again and then the site froze and I lost all progress. Seriously, sort it out.

I really like this app most of the time, but some of the form fields are just broken - they try to be clever by moving you to the next line when you're typing, but I came across several examples in the driving license form where it would skip before you completed the line, and it made the form impossible to complete. Just use a normal form, it's really not hard to tap the next field!

Badly designed app that makes renewing a Railcard painful. The system is clunky and slow. Your picture is only uploaded if you go back to the previous page and then move forward again for some reason. The worst thing is that it takes you through the whole process before asking you to register or login to an account (which itself seems totally unnecessary) and then if you go through the 'forgot password' procedure you have to start again. Please redesign to make this as easy as it should be.

It's hard to describe how broken and dysfunctional this app is, possibly the most shoddily designed interface I've ever come across. It takes hours to do what it used to take 10 minutes to do at the station (apparently you can only get in-person railcards for 18-25 years, for 26-30 you have too book online if that makes sense to anyone). The entire experience was awful, please fix it!

The application needs a means accessing the rail card when off line, either storing a local copy or allowing a screen shot to be saved. Apparently it is my responsibility to make sure the card is accessible but I have no control over connectivity, so that is not a reasonable expectation. There are plenty of technologies that can make this possible.

This app is useless. I downloaded it on my old Galaxy S3 and although I was able to purchase and create the 26-30 railcard, I was unable to view it as the app kept crashing. On a newer Note 8, it flat out doesn't work, it just constantly says it isn't connected to the internet when it is, and 'oops something went wrong'. I can't add the card at all. Why couldn't I just have a physical card? Unacceptable.

It's not always 100% reliable. Today, whilst on a train, the app wouldn't work and didn't display anything. I tried reopening it, then restarting my phone. Then it opened with a message telling me i hadn't connected the internet for 72 hours. This was not true as i had been using the wi-fi this morning. Fortunately i managed to sort it out through train wi-fi as i needed to be able to show the railcard so i could purchase the correct ticket from the guard.

First of all, the customer service is very poor. I was waiting for someone to answer the call for 1hr but no one answered. I renewed my expired card to a digital one and managed to receive the download code via email but when I put it on the app, it said that it's been added yet it's not even showing up. Please sort out your buggy app. It definitely needs to be fixed so hire a good engineer. If only there are others that offers card for rail, I'll instantly change on using their service.

I was nervous transferring to the Digital Railcard, but it has been robust for a year. The huge advantage of it is so easy to renew. No paper to fill in just a photo and a credit card. I did it on the train. Make sure you download the railcard to two devices. It makes it much easier to recover is one device is lost or crashes.

edit: On the update, the app now recognises that I am connected to the internet and has retrieved my railcard. I can only bump to 3 stars because the developers should not be pushing non-robustly-functional versions for something that can lead to a fine from a ticket inspector. [Original: Doesn't recognise that my recent-generation Samsung is connected to the internet - even though every other app does. As a result I can't download my digital railcard, rendering the app useless.]

I absolutely don't understand the necessity of internet connection for the railcard to work. The plastic cards were not connected to the internet and worked perfectly alright so I don't understand why the digital railcard cannot be available for example as a pdf AT ALL TIMES. Moreover, I have to make sure that my phone never runs out of battery which is not easy when travelling by train with little or no coverage which kills the phone faster. I wish I had the option to purchase a plastic card!

Great concept but abysmal support for the app, doesn't load or keeps crashing unless you log in every single day, multiple times a day for no reason. They say your phone needs to have been connected to the internet at any point during the last 72 hours, which is misleading and deceiving. At no point has my phone been disconnected for 3 days in a row and yet the issue persists. Already caused 2 missed trains and been delayed for work because of it.

Works perfectly, not that I ever get asked to show it. You don't need internet to show your railcard, it just has to have been connected at some point in the last 24 hours, which is fine because it runs in the background. I recently got a new phone so can say it works fine on the S10+ and S7 edge. I had no problems removing the card from my old phone and adding it to my new one.

This app is so incredibly buggy. I have never been able to add a railcard in it. It constantly says something went wrong try again later. Good that I have an iPad: the iOS app works immediately without a problem. Please fix the android app please, this is ridiculous. I've tried to email support too and never received an answer. Had to beg the conductors not to fine me and was showing emails and what not as a proof that I have a railcard for an entire year. Ridiculous

I had an issue with adding my Railcard to the app. I just couldn't add it to the app. When I contacted them with the form on the website they said it might take 15 days for a reply... But then I messaged them on Facebook and they were able to resolve the issue quickly. Apparently there was an error with the Railcard. If you have similar problems, I suggest you contact them on Facebook. Their customer service there is good.

Rubbish app. I have been trying to upload a friend's and family railcard for almost a year to the app. You go through the process of getting a download code, add the code on the app. Get told congratulations your card has been added. Then no card appears. Have deleted and reinstalled the app several times. Still no card. SO FRUSTRATING!!!!! Have missed discounts as a result. Really poor.