I’d be happy if they integrated EasyCard with Apple Pay. Currently it only supports Samsung. I’d still use a dedicated Taiwan card to avoid paying any credit card surcharges and get extra discounts/rewards.
Btw in Singapore they charge your credit card at the end of each day for all trips combined, so the 0.50 surcharge doesn’t apply per trip, but per day. I typically spend like $5-8 on transit a day there, so it’s like a 10% surcharge. It’s still better to use local transit cards so you can get rewards. In Taiwan they give discounts for taking the transit a lot using the same easycard.
I wonder how much money is left on no-longer used Easycards that visitors didn’t get refunded before they left.
Or mislaid, lost and broken cards, for that matter.
It is until you don’t have enough on your card to get on the train and then have to go off hunting for an ATM to withdraw cash then find the top up machine.
All city travel networks start with their own card system, until they realize that just accepting a credit card makes things much easier.
For a high usage customer, the card merchant fees are in the low 0.x%.
indeed, MTR in HK actually has had a privileged merchant fee with Visa (and I guess with Mastercard and Unionpay too) for years, I guess MRT here has the same too to certain extent.
More choice is never worse than less choice, and tbh turnstiles need to be replaced/maintained routinely, so that’s the best time to do this exercise.
I’m not against ‘more choice’. I question what the actual benefit and return on investment something like this actually brings. Especially as we have far more pressing issues right now in transit.
I think such a move is a particularly low-impact for the money. A bad deal for taxpayers.
Just noticed now, new digital panels on some MRT trains (here on the Bannan line).
Effective utility over the traditional sticker maps? None. Costs? Much highrler with maintenance and replacement costs in the future.
That’s for instance a waste of taxpayer money tbh, it doesn’t give you anything more of useful besides the wow factor. And yet they did it. (I like it too)
Adding a payment method adds value, this is a cosmetic thing.
credit is a bad idea. creating debt and government for a public service is always a poor decision. prepay. debit. all good. pay as you go. society has a lot of folks that dont pay their debts or that dont manage their finances. why pay over priced, under efficient government drones to go after them when it is so easily avoided? god I hope the government doesnt go full on with this style!
u are going way out of the way. The way credit card works is the following: the merchat gets the money basically immediately into their merchant account with the acquirer (in this case the merchant is MRT), then the network, who advanced the moneys, debits the settlement account with the issuer of the card, who then at the end of the statement cycle settle with the cardholder.
So, in the instance a cardholder fails to pay, it’s the issuer (bank/financial institution) to go after the person, not the merchant. They got the money already.
I truly wish it was that simple. as a person running business with credit here and abroad for a while, I really wish it was that simple. truly truly. it is a pain dealing with credits. card or not. and when there are complaints by the customers (loads of mentally ill people out there) your money gets held up. often for months. it puts pointless kinks in the system that build up fast when on scale.
to be fair, I doubt the government of Taiwan is worried about being held back with their business as they are backed by you and everyone here, but it would add literally millions in extra hassles for them to do so. I would rather them just buy a hotel and house homeless each year rather than deal with credit card morons.
pre pay is smart. I dont disagree with a city (public services, even if run privately) going that way at all. the last thing we want the government spending .our hard earned money on is more paperwork!
Wait till they break because they’re running an underpowered Android single board computer not meant for mission critical stuff like this.
I don’t disagree, but I question how much value this brings and if it’s even worth it in the first place, if there is that many people in and coming to Taiwan that would use this and if Visa and Mastercard force the MRT company to keep prices the same as Easycard holders, thus raising our prices or forcing the MRT company to eat the costs. Eventually it will be riders and taxpayers footing this bill if this is the case.
At the same time, having these companies rob travellers brings negative benefit to local people by eating away at travel budgets meant for local businesses.
With credit card companies, they’re going to have to make sure this is quick because most credit card transactions require multiple seconds to handshake. If this becomes a popular tool and it takes up to five seconds to enter a station, then the lineups and congestion will be enormous.
I question the value because this doesn’t seem like this is something locals will do unless the prices are the same as easycard holders and just seems like this would be a massive expense in labour, software updates and retooling for a very select group of people. Taipei is not Hong Kong where good chunks of people might come for a day or two to go to meetings.
I just think there are a million more important things that money could be spent on that could have a far more positive impact to more people, locals and tourists combined.
When you tap in during service hours the system just generates a 0 cost transaction which the backend can very quickly verify (all it needs to check is if the card is valid)
At the end of the day, a batch process is run which then actually bills for the total amount. This allows things like daily caps and journey discounts to be applied.
Running the Easycard system isn’t free, so it’s not like there are no costs for the existing system. Potentially, accepting credit cards could even save money overall, because it would reduce some of the administrative costs, and costs of producing Easycards, support costs for dealing with broken/lost cards and customer enquiries, emptying top-up machines and so on.
(Of course those tasks would still have to continue with a dual system, but there would be an increasing saving on these costs as the proportion of credit card use increases.)
An increasing number other metro networks in the world seem to manage quite nicely with supporting multiple payment systems, including credit cards, Google/Apple Pay, dedicated travel cards, tokens etc without problems. I don’t see there is anything uniquely costly or complicated for Taiwan to do the same.
starting from Thu 13-Apr on all Milan public transport it will be possible to pay via contactless (credit and debit cards). Incredible that Italy is moving forward with this.
Just came back from London, paying everything with a card is just so much more convenient. Never took out my wallet once, only used my phone/smartwatch. All max fare caps and discounts were applied at the end of the day and haven’t been overcharged.
If Europe, with our crippling infrastructure, old buildings and faulty tech can make this, Taipei should too. Heck, Kaohsiung is already doing it.
On the KMRT, I use Apple Pay with my Apple Watch which is tied to my Apple Cash account. It also works when I select my Apple Card or my US debit card.
However, you do get a (very small) discount when you use an iPass Card or EasyCard. Like $3 per ride, I believe.
Yeah, I saw that. They do that to recover the fees for sure, I would still do that though.
London and Milan do not apply any surcharge, using contactless card is considered as using your Oyster or ATM travel card, so the cheapest fare possible is applied
I’m flying to Australia on Thursday. I have an OPAL card for the NSW transportation system. Last time I was there you could not use a credit card. But at least you can register and OPAL card online so if lost can be blocked. I will top mine up when I arrive at the airport.
I don’t want contactless apps on my phone. Anyway it’s an older Sony Xperia android phone. I don’t wear a watch and don’t have IG reddit tictoc FB on my phone either. Line and whatsapp, not even Line Pay lol. I’ve always got some cash on me, credit cards and atms cards and an easy card. Easy card use is much better nowadays as many paid car parks around Taiwan now use it. I guess I’m just a luddite lol
many of those parkings are getting replaced with the new licence plate reading system, that you need to pay at the booth/machine either via cash or credit card, most time it supports easy/Ipass.
What I’m saying is to offer one more payment option on the system, which would greatly improve and stimulate non-resident spending on the system.
