On 26 Nov, 16:00, gw2486 wrote:
I'm shortly going to renew my annual travelcard for the first time and
wondered if anyone could enlighten me in a few areas, some of which
I'm sure should be published information but I'm finding it
increasingly hard to find anything on the TfL website!

1) What percentage of my £1328 ticket goes to the retailer? Will my
local newsagent be incredibly appreciative if I go to him rather than
the local tube station?

I don't think you can buy annual seasons from newsagents (aka 'Ticket
Stops'). In fact I'm not sure if they can sell pro-rata seasons for
periods longer than a month.


2) If I move during the year and I want to extend or restrict the
zonal validity of my ticket, what are the costs involved?

Andy has answered this one in his reply.


3) I know I'm entitled to various Gold Card benefits - is there any
detailed list of these available online? And for the one I'm most
likely to use - Network Railcard discount for an extension ticket
beyond my zones - what exactly do I ask for, Gold Card or Network
Railcard discount? And what evidence might I need to show - is it the
paper record card?

TIA for all your help!

gw


The base level of Gold Card benefits applies no matter who you buy
your ticket from, whether a National Rail TOC, London Underground or a
TfL Travel Information Centre - these benefits are listed on this
webpage (it might look a bit scrappy but the information is all
present and correct):
https://www.trainsfares.co.uk/season...d_benefits.asp

Some TOCs may offer further benefits on top of these, such as South
West Trains 'Gold Service' which gives the holder "six tickets
entitling you to free travel at weekends on any South West Trains
services" - more info on this page:
http://www.southwesttrains.co.uk/SWT...oldService.htm

Though they won't just give those six free tickets to anyone...
"Gold Service membership is available for Annual Season Tickets
holders aged over 16 who buy their tickets at South West Trains
outlets and use our services."
'Gold Service' T&Cs:
http://www.southwesttrains.co.uk/SWT...m#gold_service

When buying your tickets you need to ask for a Gold Card discount as
opposed to a Network Railcard discount, and the discounted ticket(s)
will be marked with the "GOLDC" code as opposed to the "NSE" (for
Network Railcard) code (though different codes are used for
accompanying children's tickets). You'd need to show either your Gold
Card, if it was issued as a paper ticket, or if it was issued on
Oyster then you'd need to show your paper record card.

Some TOCs still use the system where season ticket renewals will be
subject to a 5% or 10% discount if there has been poor performance
over the previous reporting period(s), sorry I forget the details of
how this works.

However if you're buying a Travelcard for less than the 6-zones I'd
think it'd definitely be best to get it on Oyster, then if and when
you travel out of your zones on the Tube, DLR or on the limited number
of National Rail routes that accept Oyster PAYG, you wouldn't need to
buy an (expensive) extension ticket before travel but the excess would
be taken automatically from your PAYG balance.