Gold Cards and Tube discounts

If you buy an annual season ticket in the south of England or an annual travelcard on the London Underground, it often comes with a Gold Card. This is essentially a better version of the Network Railcard: it covers almost all the Network Railcard area plus East Anglia and the West Midlands; is valid after 9.30am MondayFriday with no minimum fare; and gives one-third off for up to four adults plus 60% off for up to four children aged 5-15. It also lets you buy another one-year railcard (16-25, Family & Friends, Senior, Two Together, Disabled Persons or Network Railcard) for just £10, either for you or another person, subject to eligibility.

Most railcards allow you to get a one-third discount on off-peak day travelcards for the Underground, but the Gold Card and some railcards (16-25, 26-30, Disabled and Veterans) also give you onethird off pay as you go (PAYG) off-peak fares on the Underground and London railway stations when using an Oyster smartcard. The discount applies both to individual trips and the daily off-peak cap, including any additional PAYG fares that an Underground travelcard holder pays when travelling outside their travelcard zone.

To get the lower PAYG rate, you need to set a discount on your Oyster, which can be done by staff at Underground stations. Annoyingly, this needs to be redone each time you renew your ticket – but few users ever set it in the first place. In 2019, there were 140,000 annual travelcards on Oyster, of which 123,000 did not have the discount set.