As someone who traveled to NY for work just-often-enough for my MetroCards to be constantly expiring, this felt like an intentional grift to fleece visitors.
Really? In my memory the cards last for 2 years. I've got one I got last year that will work until 2023. That seems like a fairly reasonable amount of time for a paper card to last for. I don't live there, but I regularly get 2-3 uses out of my $1 metro card before it expires.
If you're in from out of town, why are you leaving a ton of money on your card and/or not buying the $33 unlimited pass for 7 days that essentially pays for itself if you take a single trip each day? There's no minimum value you have to put on it either, so you can just put $5 on before every round trip or such and worst case you're out $2.50 if it expires before you use the return trip if you're trying to be that cautious.
I've got my issues with the MTA, but it seems far from an intentional grift.
If you're in from out of town, why are you leaving a ton of money on your card and/or not buying the $33 unlimited pass for 7 days that essentially pays for itself if you take a single trip each day? There's no minimum value you have to put on it either, so you can just put $5 on before every round trip or such and worst case you're out $2.50 if it expires before you use the return trip if you're trying to be that cautious.
I've got my issues with the MTA, but it seems far from an intentional grift.