Re: [melb] yearly met cards

[conufsed@conufsed.homeip.net (Alan Harper)]

In article <3AD3AB04.1010403@austux.net>, Jeremy Lunn wrote:
>I am just wondering if anyone knows what has happened to using smart 
>cards for monthly, half yearly and yearly tickets?
>
>I got a student yearly ticket and it already doesn't work.  I've treated 
>it with care and kept it safe in my wallet.  There are no obvious 
>creases in it.  But it didn't even last one month.  Even with the thin 
>layer of plastic in the middle (so I don't see how normal monthly 
>tickets can last a week).
>
>Not even Telecom used paper phone cards.  They always used those plastic 
>ones.  Well I don't remember paper ones anyway and I am pretty sure that 
>they were newly introduced in the early 90s.
>
>So a plastic card would surely last much longer than a metcard.  But 
>it's insane that they are using magnetic strips at all for anything more 
>than weekly.
>
>How hard can it be to get smart card readers to work?
>

I can't wait until Metcard Xpress is about, but I buy monthlies, and
don't have any problems with them at all. I found the trick is not to store
them in my wallet. I have a small pocket in my bag which works fine during
the week, and I only put it in my wallet if I'm doing out 'light' on the
weekends. My ticket is noticeably faded by the end of the month however.