# NationalRail Smartcard Manager — user reviews > 27 indexed App Store user reviews of NationalRail Smartcard Manager by National Rail, rated 1.00/5 from 1 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/nationalrail-smartcard-manager/id1561115366/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/nationalrail-smartcard-manager/id1561115366.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 0 · 4★ 0 · 3★ 0 · 2★ 0 · 1★ 1 ## Newest reviews (10 of 27) ### 1/5 — Useless *2023-06-27, version 1.0.10* Downloaded the app to be able to load my flexi tickets. Never works just get errors!! ### 1/5 — Hopeless! *2023-06-19* Often takes 30 mins to read my Smartcard…constant inability to read the card and idiotic meaningless error messages. Long overdue for an upgrade to fix the problems with this awful app. ### 1/5 — Bug ridden *2023-05-30* Have nothing but trouble trying to activate a 8 trips in 8 day smart card. Sometimes it works and other just reports errors. Quite a problem because a colleague got fined by Transpennine Express because this app wouldn’t activate a trip (we travel from an open station so no barriers to cancel the card on entry to the platforms). The apps needs to be lot reliable than it is! ### 1/5 — Rubbish *2023-04-20, version 1.0.10* Does not work and when you do get it work it will be after extreme perseverance. This app writer/developer should find a new job well away from anything to do with IT. ### 1/5 — Absolute embarrassment of an app *2023-02-22* This is an absolute embarrassment of an app. It needs to do two things; 1. Read what ticket you already have loaded, 2. Add on new tickets. It can rarely do either. I’m not sure who actually developed this, but I’d recommend that they look to employ someone else, maybe a professional instead? This is one of the worst apps I have ever had the misfortune to try and use. ### 1/5 — Unable to read card error *2022-10-11, version 1.0.10* This app is atrocious. I can’t activate my ticket because it unable to write back to the card. These is nothing wrong with my card so sort it out for goodness sake !! ### 1/5 — Terrible system *2022-04-29* App on iPhone 12 Pro always struggles to read the smart card and after several attempts to “Load ticket” (NOT the “Activate ticket” option) it activates it anyway without asking. With a flexi season ticket, the only way to check how many passes you have left is to load the smartcard on this app. Why don’t they show this information online where you purchase the ticket? The cynical in me thinks this is a known bug that they have no incentive to fix it. You cannot unactivate it. ### 1/5 — Does not work with iPhone 6s *2022-04-20* NFC tag reader does not work with iPhone 6s. Why such a complex set-up to buy a flexible season train ticket? Why not just allow to buy on the railways app and directly on your account (and therefore avoiding a smartcard and avoiding an additional app to enable the smartcard)? ### 1/5 — No way to contact app support *2021-11-20* App started ok. Now it never works when you try to activate the ticket as there is a SSL error - this has been the case for two weeks. There is no way to report this to developers, hence the 1 star, as they clearly don’t monitor the service ### 1/5 — Need NFC *2021-07-05* Would be helpful if you didn’t have to have a NFC compatible device in order to use. ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Full of bugs *2026-06-22* Such a simple app yet actually a useful one for checking on and activating flexi passes on my smart card. Yet despite this it hasn’t been updating in years and is full of bugs. Activating a ticket shows an error has occurred every single time. Odd it’s like it’s been built and completely forgotten about in at least 3 years! ### 1/5 — Don’t rely on it *2026-04-14* It’s bad. Just really, really bad. I’ve complained to GWR, and they don’t care. And it hasn’t been updated in years, which tells you how much National Rail care. For one, it throws a ton of errors that you’re just supposed to ignore. Keep trying, and you’ll usually get there. But then sometimes, it just doesn’t work. You can have a smartcard full of tickets ready to go, but the app just won’t activate one. And you know the train company will fine you if you board without a ticket. So you don’t have any choice but to buy another ticket — a paper one, that actually works. I’ve wasted so much time and money on this app, it’s ridiculous. With all the duplicate tickets I have to buy, there’s no point in renewing my flexi-season anymore. It’s cheaper just to buy paper tickets every day. EDIT: I loaded £60 of flexi tickets onto my card, and the app refuses to activate them, and GWR say it’s none of their business. What an absolute scam of a system. I quit. The bus takes longer, but at least it’s honest. ### 1/5 — Don’t rely on it *2026-01-07, version 1.0.10* It’s bad. Just really, really bad. I’ve complained to GWR, and they don’t care. And it hasn’t been updated in years, which tells you how much National Rail care. For one, it throws a ton of errors that you’re just supposed to ignore. Keep trying, and you’ll usually get there. But then sometimes, it just doesn’t work. You can have a smartcard full of tickets ready to go, but the app just won’t activate one. And you know the train company will fine you if you board without a ticket. So you don’t have any choice but to buy another ticket — a paper one, that actually works. I’ve wasted so much time and money on this app, it’s ridiculous. With all the duplicate tickets I have to buy, there’s no point in renewing my flexi-season anymore. It’s cheaper just to buy paper tickets every day. ### 1/5 — Terrible app *2025-11-02* My children use this to travel to school but they get stopped all the time by ticket staff accusing them of not having tickets because the app doesn’t work. It constantly says, ‘sorry we couldn’t find your tickets’. We are constantly on edge and anxious. How is this an experience? Terrible. ### 1/5 — Doesn’t work at all *2025-05-08* Used to be fine but now it doesn’t work at all. I have contacted National Rail and the company I bought my ticket from and no-one knows how to fix it. Useless. ### 1/5 — Just not reliable *2024-10-31* A necessary app for all Smartcard users as there is nothing else but just isn’t working. Everytime I attempt to view/activate ticket it successfully reads the Smartcard and then crashes/app closes. Normally after 12+ attempts the app stays open and finally displays info on the tickets held on card. Note this is happening iPhone 11 Pro, and app deleted and reinstalled multiple times. Finally there is no means in the app to feedback bug and the app support link here on the store simply opens up the generic national rail contact page. ### 1/5 — Worst App Ever? *2024-10-16* Possibly. Absolutely horrendous user interface. Constantly bugs out, no idea if I’ve activated my ticket or not for that day. Now way to see how many days I have remaining that month once ticket is purchased. Constantly crashes. The list goes on. The RDG/National Rail need to earmark some money to sort this out. ### 1/5 — Doesn’t work!! *2024-01-27, version 1.0.10* Horrible app. Reads card just fine however takes ages to get it to activate, if at all! ### 1/5 — Doesn’t work *2023-08-21* I’ll just carry on keeping track myself of how many out of 8 days I’ve got left on my flexi-season tickets. GWR say this app is the only way to track that countdown but it can’t actually do it. The app knows I’ve got a GWR smart card but can’t read what’s on it ### 1/5 — Awful *2023-08-08, version 1.0.10* App can read the card fine but totally refuses to activate it. This app shouldn’t have been released if it’s performance is this bad..! ## Most praised reviews (7 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Bugs ironed out *2023-03-31* Had no problem with this app. I guess the poor reviews were right at the time, but now it works fine. ### 3/5 — Works but still has a glitch *2024-06-19* Validating the smart card is straight forward enough, and it seems to work better than it did when first brought out. However, even when validation has been successful, it still shows an error message “sorry, we’re unable to read your Smartcard” - I know now to ignore this message because when I go through the process again, it says it has already been validated! In summary, it works but can be confusing from the messages which pop up. ### 2/5 — Unable to activate pass *2025-09-11* App reads card alright but comes up with an error trying to active a pass ### 2/5 — Fails too often *2024-04-02* Fails to give any information more times than not. Would be useful if it worked reliably ### 2/5 — Needs an update *2023-01-26* Works in principle but seems to have had issues since November ‘22 in terms of loading and activating the card ### 2/5 — Unspecified Error Messages *2021-11-30* This app often gives “unspecified” error messages. These messages need updating with specific text so you know what the issue is. The app also needs to be able to tell you when the whole Smartcard network is down for maintenance or upgrade as it has been on a number of occasions. ### 2/5 — Ticket History *2021-11-03* No way to see your preloaded smart card ticket. You always have to scan your card to see details. --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-15.*