[Cyykratahk]

What exactly is the problem with the prices? Because the issue here seems to be only for a very small set of users who have purchased a new card (starting with zero balance) and do not intend on topping up later on (do they just throw the card away?). What's the difference between a leftover of $0.01 and $2.49? You're still not going to make that train. And after topping up even once, the remainder will be some other random amount less than a whole fare.

The public transport where I live in QLD, Australia, (TransLink) has pricing based on distance (zones) travelled, so you'll almost never have a perfect leftover amount. Even so, the auto top-up system removes the need to even think about how much money is left.

[yebyen]

The article which this was a follow-up to showed that by spending $19.05 you can get one more full ride than if you spend $19.00. The charge for a new card is a dollar, so if you show up with $20.00 and get a new card, you wind up with $2.45 left on your card when you've used as many rides as you can use without refilling the card.

I think it was also said that the cards are really flimsy and won't be likely to make it through more than one or two "top-ups" unless you handle like eggs.

Every trip is $2.50, so getting stuck with $2.45 in credit when you followed the default purchasing options is at least a little slap in the face when they are already purporting to give you a "bonus". They are in reality probably going out of their way to sell you an uneven number of fares.

If you are seriously asking what's the difference between $2 and $0.05, I suggest you contact the MTA and see if they are willing to adjust the bonus percentage to give away $0.05 to card payers (where making change is not an issue), as extra on top of the existing 5% bonus on $20 purchase, so it comes out to a round number. (Hint: they won't.)

If you refill with $20 and use all of the fares, you wind up with a balance of 0.95, then next time it's $1.95, then $0.45, then $1.45, and finally $2.45 again, rinse and repeat. If I've done the math correctly, it's not a case of "almost never" having a perfect leftover amount. You will never get all of the value out of your card unless you do some math and make it happen for yourself every time.

Granted I'm sure this is not the first time in history people who won't sit down and do some math are getting screwed, or for that matter the largest amount ever.

[rgejman]

I really don't think this is a big deal. I've had the same MTA card in my wallet for over a year (and a previous one like it for a year before that). I just top it off with $50-60 a month and there's no issue.

I appreciate that this might be bothersome to some tourists, but my experience is that most tourists who buy MTA cards don't calculate exactly how many rides they're going to take in a several day visit to NYC.

[yebyen]

I don't think it's a big deal either, but it's harder to argue that it's not a dark pattern at all. I promise you there is a non-zero number of people who are filling up with cash and throwing their cards away when they reach the error "insufficient funds". At least there is some transparency about the fact that those people are really throwing away $1 because the cards themselves unambiguously cost $1.