Luas Smart Card Rip-Off

P

PMU

Guest
I got my 10 euro Luas Smart Card today and was naive enough to expect that I had bought 10 euro worth of travel. Not a chance. When I swiped it this morning for the first time the card showed a balance of 3 euro. Of the 10 euro, 3 euro goes on the cost of the smartcard, 4 euro goes to a ‘deposit’, leaving you with 3 euro for travel. The deposit is refundable if and when you return your smartcard. My main gripe is the 3 euro charge. This, as far as I can determine, is unique to Ireland. I’ve bought similar tickets elsewhere and not only has there been no charge for the card but you usually get a reduction in the costs. The basic saving of a smartcard is that a single is half a return journey so using the smartcard is cheaper than purchasing a single ticket. For me this is a saving of 10 cents a journey. So to recoup the 3 euro cost of the smartcard takes at least 30 journeys, which for the infrequent users is not exactly a good deal. As for the ‘deposit’, well, this just sits in Luas’s bank account earning them interest.
 
I ordered a couple and the website was quite clear about the Eur3 charge which I was happy to pay for the convenience of using a smart card. Note that of the original Eur10 paid, Eur3 is for the card, Eur4 is the refundable "reserve fund" which will be dipped into if necessary when travelling and Eur3 is normal credit. I presume the Eur4 reserve is required to make sure that sufficient funds for the highest cost journey are always available so that people don't get a free ride? Anyway, it's all explained .
 
As Clubman says, the Luas site is pretty clear on the €3 non-refundable deposit to cover the cost of the card, and the €4 "reserve" fund which covers your last journey home.

Neither of these concepts are unique to Irish transport smart cards.

The UK's Oystercard has a £3 deposit which is refundable in some scenarios.

Hong Hong's [broken link removed], the original of the species, combines the deposit and the reserver:

The HK$50 (€5) refundable deposit covers the card cost of HK$30 (€3) and possible negative value.
Click to expand...

I imagine that frequent users of the Luas will topup their smart card with 10 or 20 Euro at a time, so the reserve will not be much of an issue.
 
PMU, where did you order yours from? Just wondering if/how/why the €3 charge was not obvious to you at the time of purchase?
 
I got one of these cards today (delivered in <24hours). Seems a fair deal to me. There is no rip off involved and it is very clear about how to use it and what the charges are for.

Does anybody know who makes these smart cards or what technology is in them??
 
I was unable to find out who won the tender but [broken link removed] might provide some clues?
 
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