Hi,

I have a monthly subscription general abonnement travel card. My card expires at the end of August. When I initially took out the subscription, I was 'tied in' for four months, after which point I had the option of cancelling my subscription at any point.

I am just wondering if this four month rule applies when I renew my card? I've had a look at the SBB website, and it is not 100% clear. It says:

However this is not the whole story, as there is a limit on my card, as there is an expiry date! So when I renew the card, am I in effect taking out a new subscription, or does it 'carry over'?

The reason I'm concerned is that while at the moment my GA card is the best deal for me, financially, I am not sure what I am going to be doing in the next couple of months, and therefore don't know if I will continue to be travelling so much that paying out for a monthly subscription is worthwhile. So it's a bit of an awkward time to be potentially tied in to paying the subscription for four months again.

Please... is the news good, or will I just have to decide whether to take a gamble on how much I'm going to be using the trains between September and December?

Previous thread on the GA subscription:

Can't extend a yearly GA?!!?

Thanks... I did search but I didn't use the abbreviation GA so didn't find that thread.

That thread seems to be a slightly different situation though - someone wanting to extend their yearly GA for a short time, as opposed to renewing a monthly one.

Can't beat the authoritative answer from the local SBB office!

I just renewed an annual one, and never had a monthly subscription one. If in doubt, I'd ask my SBB office.

OK, I (eventually) went into the SBB office at Morges and the person there didn't know...

However yesterday I got my new card in the post - without having done anything! Quite impressed, but still had questions... so I rang up the AG service centre.

And the answer is, that if your AG subscription is continuous from the end of one year to the next, then no, you are not tied in for the first four months of your new card.

And, incidentally, even though they send you a new card around 6 weeks before your old one expires you are not obligated to use it - you can send it back and cancel it.

However, the bad news is that the tariffs went up in December, so when my new card starts I have to pay 305fr per month instead of 285fr... but I was expecting that.