Money Talk
SUE’S GUIDE TO Beating Those Train Fare Hikes
Train fares are set to go up in January but there are ways to save on tickets all year round. Here are my top tips: ◆ Use a railcard For off peak trips, get a railcard which costs £30 a year, saving a third on tickets. You can even swap Tesco Clubcard vouchers for one. It can be worth buying just for one trip if the saving tops £30. Railcard options include family and senior cards. WWW.RAILCARD.CO.UK ◆ Buy season tickets with credit cards Buy your ticket with a credit card offering a 0% deal on new purchases. This way you’ll get at least a year to pay it off interest free. Or if you’ve got the money to cover the full cost of the ticket pay with a cashback card as some offer up to 5% on spends.
◆ Split tickets
You can bag cheaper fares simply by splitting your trip and buying tickets covering different sections of the same trip, even if you stay on the same train. It sounds crazy, but that’s one of the quirks of the ticket system. You can find more detail about how it works plus a handy ticket calculator at WWW. SPLITTICKETING.COM
◆ Savvy station planning
If you’ve got a choice of two stations nearby compare fares as ser vices may be run by different operators.
If you find that the fares are cheaper, check parking too. One local station I use has free parking in nearby roads, but the other means paying for parking, which adds £4 a day to travel costs.
SUE’S TIPS:
◆ If trains are late or cancelled, claim some cash. Most operators shell out on delays of 15 minutes or more.
◆ Go to the train operator’s website for details on how to claim.
◆ Keep tickets as you need to show them or send a snapshot online as evidence.
◆ For flexible trips, check WWW.THETRAINLINE. COM where you can play around with dates and times to find the cheapest fares.