So I decided to just register a new easycard with a UBike account since I officially have been living here for a year. I thought all I needed was a Taiwanese phone number (like on my old easy card which was set up years ago when I used to just visit) but when I entered my info at the kiosk it also asked for my “ID Number”.
I entered my ARC number, passport number,health card number, nothing worked.
So I went to went to the information center and they told me it’s because Foreigners are no longer allowed to register UBike accounts. I told them I have been working and living here for a year, I have work permit, ARC, health card etc, - they said I cannot be allowed with my ARC. They said I am only allowed to rent by using CREDIT CARD each time, single-use rides. Ugh…
I registered my EasyCard a while ago so maybe it is a newer change. Recently I’ve heard a couple other people mention they couldn’t use their ARC# to register either.
I think this is not right. But I register my EasyCard for Youbike years ago. So maybe rule changes?
You could try register from the docking station machine. I just help a hapless Vietnamese lady to register in the machine about a month ago.
An active EasyCard (scan to machine) and an active cellphone to get the code all that need. No need ID card, names or address as demanded in the net version.
This is likely related to the insurance they launched a while ago. They keep sending me messages to register for it but it requires an ID number and our numbers don’t work of course (Won’t let you type a alpahbetical character for second digit).
I am guessing they are now possibly capturing the information on registration to automatically enroll people.
Worst of all, even if the government goes through with their scheme to change our ID numbers it still won’t work because they want to use values other than ‘1’ and ‘2’ for the second digit.
Looking at the UBike site code, they enforce a ‘1’ or ‘2’ for the second digit :- ( /^[A-Z](1|2)\d{8}$/i