Your Expired EZ-Link Card Will Deduct $1 Every Month After 2 Years

Last Updated on 2019-10-19 , 9:38 pm

In many ways, your EZ-Link card’s like a perishable can of tuna.

Firstly, they both have an expiry date. And secondly, they degrade over time.

“What talking you?” our resident Ah Beng colleague Ah Fark demanded. “EZ-Link card how to degrade? You think what, movie ah?”

In response, I can only say that I understand where he’s coming from, but the fact remains that it’s a… fact. EZ-Links do degrade over time, though the manner in which they degrade…

Is more man-made than anything else.

Your Expired EZ-Link Card Will Deduct $1 Every Month After 2 Years

Holding on to an EZ-Link card that has expired two years ago?

Well, you might wanna throw that card at your neighbour, now.

According to AsiaOne, travel card issuer EZ-Link has released a statement on Thursday (17 Oct), shocking the entire nation and your old Grandma Franada who’s busy popping a cherry on a vanilla cake.

Commuters holding on to expired EZ-link cards will lose $1 every month from the stored value of the cards, two years after the card has expired.

Apparently, the sum’s to pay for the maintenance cost of these expired cards.

An Inconvenient Truth

EZ-Link’s statement comes after former opposition politician Teo Soh Lung filed a Facebook ‘complaint’ on the social media platform, stating that expired EZ-Link cards with existing value would lose $1 monthly.

Citing her own card as an example, Teo expressed how it expired two years ago, and how it had subsequently lost the $16 it held in stored value.

Furious, Teo advocated for Netizens to boycott public transport services this Sunday (20 October 2019).

Lest you can read, here’s the entire caption transcribed in full:

Beware of EZ Link cards. When they expire and you forget to transfer to new card just before expiry you lose $1 every month.

I have $16 in one card but it expired 2 years ago. So EZ Link deducted my balance and I got 0. Easy money for them. I think this is cheating commuters. What service did it provide to deduct $1 a month. It should refund every single cent.

Boycott public transport this Sunday.

Clarifications

In response, EZ-Link has issued the aforementioned statement and has also clarified that the deduction will not start immediately, but two years after the expiry of a card.

“There is a cost to maintaining a card that has expired after two years in the system,” its spokesman said.

“We encourage cardholders to replace their expired cards within two years from the date of expiry.”

Meanwhile, commuters can check the expiry date of their cards at several places, including the Add Value Machines in MRT stations, the EZ-Link mobile app and the EZ-Link website. Should you wish to claim a refund for expired cards, you can do so by submitting a refund request form to any TransitLink ticket office.

Do note, however, that refunds will not be granted in cash but are instead credited directly into the card owner’s bank account.

Alternatively, you can transfer the remaining sum of money to a new card retailing at a subsidised rate of $3, or another active EZ-Link card in your disposal.

And So… Now What?

Well for starters, you may opt to check on your card’s expiry status to make sure you’re not being leeched off. And for seconds…

You can always join the boycotting party this Sunday and stay home.

Though of course, the latter’s entirely optional. Probably.