"Roland Perry" wrote in message

In message , at 16:24:54 on
Thu, 11 Dec 2008, Paul Scott
remarked:
I think it dates back to at least 2005 when I originally got my card.

I've had my card significantly longer than that.

Isn't the limit based on two years of non-use?

On Dec 11, 10:30 am, Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 14:01:03 on
Thu, 11 Dec 2008, Recliner remarked:

I just bought an oyster on dec 4 08 when does it expire?

Never

Never is a very long time. It will probably "expire" (although "become
useless" is probably a better description) when there are no longer any
gates with backwards compatibility to read them. I'd give it 15 years.

Or they may pass a new law saying that all credit expires a year after
it's added - I think the New York equivalent has that rule.
--
Roland Perry

Actually its 13 months but i had a ride on an expired metro card the
agent transferred it to a new card

On Dec 11, 1:46 pm, "Andrew Heenan" wrote:
wrote ...

I just bought an oyster on dec 4 08 when does it expire?

9th October 2023

I could be a little more accurate if you'd care to tell us if you bought a
weekly, monthly, quarterly, annual or whatever ...

Help us to help you ...
--

Andrew

ibought 2 buses and a 7 day 1-4 travel card its empty i want to know
can i refill it when i get back to london

On Thu, Dec 11, 2008 at 03:40:38PM -0000, Paul Scott wrote:

"The money on your Oyster card never
expires - it stays there until you use it.
However, if your card is not used for
2 years, you will have to reactivate it or
claim back any unused cash by calling
the Oyster helpline..."

What about unregistered cards?

--
David Cantrell | http://www.cantrell.org.uk/david

Immigration: making Britain great since AD43

David Cantrell wrote:
What about unregistered cards?

Presumably you can just give them the number and they can find it in
the database. Unregistered cards still have a record of the balance in
the central database.

(I presume it's actually a get out clause to avoid having to store
decades of data for old cards in the live database, or in case they
want to change the system)

U

On 11 Dec, 15:30, Roland Perry wrote:

Or they may pass a new law saying that all credit expires a year after
it's added - I think the New York equivalent has that rule.

New York Metrocards expire on a date which is printed on them, it
generally seems to be just over a year after they're issued, but they
are made of thin plastic with a mag stripe, so a year's worth of heavy
use would probably wear one out. You don't loose any credit left on a
card when it expires, you just transfer it to a new card. You can
even do this yourself, just insert it into a ticket machine, and it
will offer to transfer the balance to a new card. This can only be
done for a certain time, I think it's two years, after the card
expires.

PATH Quickcards, which are no longer issued at PATH stations, but can
still be bought from NJ Transit machines, and newsagents etc, expire
after just 180 days, and any remaining rides left on them when they
expire are lost. PATH also accept Pay-per-Ride Metrocards, but not
unlimited ride ones, and have in the last couple of years introduced a
'SmartLink' card which functions in a similar way to Oyster, can hold
both a stored number of rides an unlimited ride tickets, and which
does not expire, but it is only valid on PATH. The MTA has a smart
card ticket on trial at a few Subway stations, but this is quite
different to the PATH SmartLink card, and they are not inter-
available. New York, and the part of New Jersey just over the Hudson
from it, really does need more seamless ticketing between their
various systems.

I have an Oyster cand which is used almost every day, and remember the
date it was issued, it was the 24th of May, pay day, and it was the
first May after they became generally available. I've lost track of
the years, is that four and a half years ago now? No problems with it
so far, other than the print is wearing off in places. It's the old
type with the roundel in red, and a matt surface.

In message
, at
09:05:39 on Fri, 12 Dec 2008, remarked:
On 11 Dec, 15:30, Roland Perry wrote:

Or they may pass a new law saying that all credit expires a year after
it's added - I think the New York equivalent has that rule.

New York Metrocards expire on a date which is printed on them, it
generally seems to be just over a year after they're issued, but they
are made of thin plastic with a mag stripe, so a year's worth of heavy
use would probably wear one out. You don't loose any credit left on a
card when it expires, you just transfer it to a new card. You can
even do this yourself, just insert it into a ticket machine, and it
will offer to transfer the balance to a new card. This can only be
done for a certain time, I think it's two years, after the card
expires.

So the money does expire, and quite quickly too!

As a tourist, I have a Metrocard I used for about three days in 2004.
Any balance is now toast. That's what worries me, not a debate on
whether it's precisely 12, 13, 24 or 25 months.

I believe it's also illegal to sell/transfer the cards, so someone else
who happens to be visiting NY can use up the money.

(FWIW, the words I read at the time made me believe the money was lost
after 12 months, but it wouldn't be the first time a transport agency
issued imprecise advice.]

--
Roland Perry

On 12 Dec, 04:01, "
wrote:
On Dec 11, 1:46 pm, "Andrew Heenan" wrote:

wrote ...

I just bought an oyster on dec 4 08 when does it expire?

9th October 2023

I could be a little more accurate if you'd care to tell us if you bought a
weekly, monthly, quarterly, annual or whatever ...

Help us to help you ...
--

Andrew

*ibought 2 buses and a 7 day 1-4 travel card *its empty i want to know
can i refill it when i get back to london

It makes no difference what you've had on the card in the past. The
card itself does not expire; you can load a bus pass or travelcard or
top up the Pay-as you Go on it at any time. You can continue to use
the card until either the Oyster scheme is phased out, or the card
ceases to work for some reason; it does not expire.

On Thu, 11 Dec 2008 05:43:10 -0800 (PST), "
wrote:

I just bought an oyster on dec 4 08 when does it expire?

Never, as has been said b4 Oyster cards do not expire !

On 12 Dec, 17:14, Roland Perry wrote:

So the money does expire, and quite quickly too!

I suppose it depeds on how you define 'quickly'

As a tourist, I have a Metrocard I used for about three days in 2004.
Any balance is now toast.

I believe that is the case, though I'm not certain if there is any way
to recover the outstanding balance on a Metrocard which has expired
too long ago to be able to transfer it to a new card at a Subway
station, e.g. by posting it to the MTA offices, but I don't think so.

The last Pay-per-ride Metrocard I bought, on about the 8th or 9th of
May this year, expires on the 31st of May 2009, so it could be used
for just over a year, and then any outstanding balance could still be
recovered for, I think, two years after that. For a typical New
Yorker this would not be a problem; they would be unlikely to keep a
card which had expired, and was therefore unusable, for over two
years, and then try to transfer the balance left on it. For the likes
of you and I, who make occasional visits to New York it may be more of
a problem, but I would think that most of us would avoid topping up
the card with much more value than we were going to use on that visit,
unless we knew that we would be returning soon. I've never done a
transfer from an expired card, and didn't even know it was possible
until quite recently. I've probably lost the odd Dollar or two on
some of the cards I've bought, but no more than that.

The situation with the PATH Quickcard is rather different; it expires
after just 180 days, less than six months, and any remaining rides
will not be refunded or transferred. I suppose this stops somebody
buying a large number of rides just before fare increase, and using
them for a long time afterwards, therefore getting reduced price
travel, since Quickcards store a number of rides not a value, but
since they are likely to be totally withdrawn soon it probably won't
matter for much longer. Also, fare increases seem to be much less
frequent there than they are here; the Subway and PATH have each seen
just one rise since my first visit in April 2002, though those rises
were large, from $1.50 on both to $2 on the Subway and $1.75 on PATH.

A few months ago I read a debate, by a group of New Yorkers about how
much they should top up on their card so that amount, plus the bonus,
equaled an exact number of rides; it seems that a recent reduction in
the amount of the bonus has made this more difficult than it used to
be. I just couldn't understand this, what difference did it make
whether they had an exact number of rides worth on the card or not? I
asked about this and they seemed to think I was quite stupid to not
see a problem with having an 'unusable' amount, less than one ride,
left on the card. I still can't see what the problem is; when yo next
top up the amount is added to this small remaining amount, you don't
lose it.