Leftover Metrocard Change Infuriates Some

There's an app for that.

nobody buys unlimiteds to go to work??? what the hell....if you use the MTA to get to work this should not even be a topic of discussion for you, unless you work part-time.

This is a embarrassment

It's unbelievable that even after all this extra FREE money to the MTA that they're still strapped for cash...

This proves that you don't need an education to work for the MTA. At any level. Such an embarrassment for New York.

of course, you don't need an education to be the person sitting behind the counter as we so evidently observe daily

but the people who really run the MTA... you can bet they are well educated. how else would they consistently scam new york city and get away with it?

all this crap with uneven metrocard amounts and even when the machine just steals your swipe money without actually letting you through.. it's all intentionally and carefully engineered to illegitimately take more of your money.. to be honest, this would be an OUTRAGE in my country (I am international) but it seems new yorkers never complain about anything and just go along with whatever new scam the authorities pull on them.. just look at bloomberg buying his third term.. this would have caused OUTRAGE in my country, there would have been protests, chaos, WAR on the streets

well.. if you look at the list of people who are board members and managers of the MTA.. you would realize that most of them belong to a special group of "chosen" people; therefore, it is not only allowed, but encouraged for them to abuse their public power and steal from the citizens of NYC according to the holy book. Not to mention the MTA's close ties to bloomberg. Yea, bloomberg bought his third election with $100 mil of his "own money", yea okay.

Here's the issue:

The point of the metro card machines was to make the transaction of receiving a card faster than a station agent, plus you can use a credit card whereas as with a station agent you cannot. With the old system of of a $2.00 fare you pressed a few buttons and shazam! your card was filled and you were on your way.

If you want to redeem the .50¢ or whatever remains, you will have to do a few extra steps: adding your own desired amount whether it be $4.50, $15.65, or $31.30 slows down the process of getting said card. Plus most people can't add numbers in their head, throw decimals into that equation and you have yourself a long-ass, slow moving, metro card machine line with a lot of frustrated straphangers.

I have seen, since the fare increase lines are getting longer and slower. Plus, for a crowded station like Columbus Circle, there are only three machines. That station should have 15 to 20 machines.

Personally it bothers me, but I use the same card over and over—I refill it instead of throwing it out and buying a new one. So in my case, if I lose .25¢ or .50¢, no skin.

For the people who think that collecting cards with loose change on them will grant them a free ride, it doesn't work that way. You can't collect 3 or 4 cards and expect the station agent to make one card, they will not do it.

Yes they do.

As usual the MTA yet again figures out a way to screw the little guy.

There are cases where you will have something like 97 cents left on your Metrocard. You cannot add $1.28 to bring it up to full fare. As stated in the article, you can only add to the Metrocard in increments of five cents. Now, that two cents lost isn't that big of a deal to me, but I can guarantee you that it adds up to a fair amount of revenue for the MTA.

How would you end up with anything like 97 cents left on the card, without having added some strange amount to begin with?

Add whole dollars every time and it won't happen; it will always be divisible by 5 so you'll always be able to put it at a single-fare $2.25 value by making an allowed transaction.

Let's say you have a card with exactly $1.00 left on it. You want to put five rides' worth ($11.25) on it. The bonus will get you a little more, so with that $1 you had before, you should have another ride.

Your card total will now be $13.93. Go ahead, try to spend five minutes calculating how to get exactly $13.50 on it, knowing that the machine adds 15% to the money above $8, and that it only accepts payment in increments of 5¢, and that you started with $1.00.

Or you could just use the card like everyone else, and just have 43¢ left over as a gift to the MTA.

"Let's say you have a card with exactly $1.00 left on it. You want to put five rides' worth ($11.25) on it. "

Yeah, that's what I was saying. If you always add whole dollars you won't have that problem. If you add something like $11.25, sure, the bonus is leave you with something confusing.

Add 1.85, ignore the 3 cent loss when you toss the card, it came from the %15 metrocard bonus.

I've been wondering the same thing, but I have a Metrocard that gets down to 97 cents. I have never added anything but whole dollar amounts to my card, so perhaps it was a "glitch" in the system, and one that I'm willing worked to the advantage of the MTA.

Excuse me. That should read "willing to bet".

I could make a living from the MetroCards I have found.

http://whatyourdonotknowbecauseyouarenotme.blogspot.com/2009/06/on-metocards.html

Given an 8 hour day I would find $100 worth of fares. To bad I can't sell them.

I did not know it was even possible to combine cards before this story. How does that make me stupid. It's not like its advertised anywhere.

I guess the way most people would know it who do is that it was publicized by the MTA in the press at the time of the fare increase and bonus reduction.

Well, it makes you stupid if you don't know you can refill them.

And, it's a heavy-handed approach at making people recycle! Reuse your fucking Metrocard, you dolts!

i don't understand how so many people are ending up with amounts not easily divisible by $0.25... do people still use nickels and dimes??

I guess it happens by putting some odd amount on the card instead of sticking with increments of $10. For eample, if you put, say, $8.00 on a new card it's $9.20 with the bonus. Then when it runs down to .20, if you put on $5 after two rides you have $1.45. Go on like that and you can come up with odd things.

Of course if you do have $1.45 on the card you can just add .80 and wipe it out on your next ride. Sure you lose out on a twelve cent bonus but that's still better than throwing away the $1.45.

ah, makes sense.

Are New Yorkers really so STUPID that they don't know they can refill metrocards or combine them with others? Before you swipe your card, got to the MTA window and tell them to combine the cards, it's that easy. It's hard to believe the Daily News wrote an article about NYers foolishness.

WOW! And here I was thinking that people in 57 particular countries who believe Mohammed ascended into the sky on a horse from a city he had never visited during his natural life were foolish.

Bring back the tokens.

45 bucks is the way to go when you buy a new pay-per-ride card. You get a 15% bonus ($6.75) for a total of $51.75, which gives you 23 rides at $2.25 each. Nothing left over.

http://www.metrocardbonuscalculator.com/

I just refill the same card with the balance on it. Not exactly a hardship. You can also get a new card and have the clerk add your leftover card to it. He wasn't happy about that but giving a shit what transit flunkies think is not very high on my priority list.

I was just discussing this with someone yesterday. It drives me crazy because I have like half a dozen metro cards in my wallet with $.35 or $.15 or $1.90. I definitely think the MTA did it intentionally to skim even more off the top. Greedy bastards.

And you don't refill or combine them because . . . ????

You could refill it but the cards become crappy after using them for a month or so and then don't work, too risky by the time you accumulate enough to get a free ride.

Huh? Too risky? I've had the same card in my wallet this entire year. People just like to complain. This is a non story.

LOL, seriously, I use my Metrocard 2-3 times daily and I've had it for a year. Sure it's a little worn out looking, aesthetically, but it works. I suppose if you carry it in such a way that you bend it, that's a different story...they're useless when bent. But I keep mine in my wallet and it's just fine. I bet it could go another year, but I'll get a replacement.

leftover Metrocard change is one dirty penny.

When I asked a prototypical surly MTA clerk to combine the leftovers of a few cards into one, I was handed an SASE MTA endorsed envelope. I was instructed to mail in my cards and they would mail back one card. They can go fuck themselves...

Now I am kinda missing that little bag of tokens I used to buy at the beginning of the week.

You can take all your Metrocards with left over amounts on them to the MTA booth and ask the clerk to combine them onto one card. This really is not rocket science.

No, but it is time consuming, not to mention have you tried to find a token clerk lately??

I just carry them around—they're not really heavy, after all—and when I do see a token clerk and have a spare 60 seconds—the longest it's ever taken me to complete this transaction—then I do it. It doesn't have to be inconvenient or time-consuming. It sure as hell is a lot smarter than just throwing out all your old cards like the idiots in the article.

Being the Cheapest Person on Earth, and a hater of the MTA, I have done the math and put odd amounts on my metrocard that come out to almost even amounts of fares. Like $19.60. That's a good one. You'll end up with 4 cents left over after the bonus is applied.

Press the key for "Other amount" and key in what you need. If I have an odd amount of change left on a card, I fool around with a calculator to figure out what I need to add to make it come out close to even. It has to be over a quarter, tho', for me to bother.

The point is by making the bonus such strange amounts they're hoping you won't refill. It garners them taking extra money and more often than not it doesn't get used. Free money - Scam. Total BS.

This is incredibly annoying and is almost scamming tourists, and other non-monthly MTA riders.

These residuals are collected revenues that riders pay for. Most people have no idea they can combine cards at a booth, but that is time consuming and will instantly piss off the short tempered delinquent in the booth- adding 5 minutes to your trip.

To say that it's simply riders ignorance is only part of the problem, the MTA understands full well that many residuals go unused.

Maybe deadhimmler is skimming our residuals! ;)

Now now, if you took Math in High School instead of faggot art and creative writing, you'd be able to use the MVM to get the card to $2.25. No wonder all these pakis and chinks are pouring into America when you can't read your credit card balance and count your change.

Yeah, it's time consuming in that it takes about 10 seconds for them to combine them.

The last time I combined metrocards (I had found or was given about 10 of them) it added up to over $25 bucks. The booth agent was quite surprised when I told her I found most of them on the sidewalk.

Many token booth clerks say they are only allowed to combine 5 cards at a time. You got a nice one who did not make up rules just to be a civil servant.

I'll bet you do well with soda cans as well.

However I should add that you can use the remaining balance on a bus and pay with change for the difference

That's the easiest solution IMO.

I don't think so.

"I don't think so."

You can. If you swipe a card with insufficient value on it on a bus, the display will read something like "$1.30 left" or whatever and you can pay the remainder with coins, or even another Metrocard.

I've heard, though, that you may not be able to transfer on that ride but have never tried it myself.

If your card has less than $2.25 on it, you lose the transfer. Just happened to me on the Q10 bus. This is true even if you have another Metrocard (which I did). I had two cards, I knew one of them had $2.00 on it, and unfortunately, that was the one I tried first. My trip into the city cost $4.50 that day.

Just ask for a paper transfer - they can pop those out manually and it doesn't matter what your card had on it.

Really an outrage that they did this intentionally knowing it would make things more difficult for transit riders and generate extra revenue from citizens giving up on the aggravation of cumbersome card refills and irritating change calculations. Absolutely typical that this service-providing agency so often makes choices that result in worse service for the public. The MTA was able to institute this change overnight while the projects to implement cardless or swipeless technology that automatically deducts from your accounts like so many other cities have drag on for years and years.

yes, it really is evil of them to come up with a plan so simple it can be thwarted by simply RECYCLING YOUR METROCARD.

i hope you're being satirical - at least, i thought you were during that first sentence.

I've seen lots of bums rifling through those Metrocard holders to put together $2.25 (because they give all the cards to the station agent and ask to consolidate the cards into one)

I have $8.14 on mine but I always use the card till it expires

www.forgotten-ny.com

REFILL the cards when it's almost done and add to the leftover charges....seriously? Is that so hard?

Ummm....why don't they just refill their card? If you throw out a card with money on it then you deserve to lose it.

Sometimes you can't refill your card because just like the carton of milk in your refrigerator, Metro Cards expire.

You can transfer the contents of an old card onto a new one by asking the token booth clerk. You can also combine two cards into one.

or become cheese.

So like in Superman, how can I collect on those missing cents? Must add up.