Remember back in the early days of Myki when the rumour spread that if you didn’t use your card for 90 days, your credit would vanish?

It wasn’t true. A number of people including me tried to hose it down (not very successfully) but eventually people found via experience that it wasn’t the case.

My Myki card and Mobile Myki – Pic: Channel 9

Fast forward to 2020. PTV’s “bible” the Fares And Ticketing Manual was revised this year, splitting the weighty tome into two separate documents:

Victorian Fares and Ticketing Conditions 2020 – the legalese and fine detail that almost nobody except me wants to read

– the legalese and fine detail that almost nobody except me wants to read Public Transport Ticketing Customer Guide 2020 – a (slightly) more readable document that humans can interpret

I took a skim through these, and was equal parts amused and aghast to find this section of text in the Customer Guide:

myki not used for 90 days If a myki is not used within 90 days, any value loaded on it will be sent to archive. To retrieve funds from archive, the customer must:

• for a myki Smartcard, touch on or top up at a myki machine, retailer or myki enabled railway station.

• for a Mobile myki, touch on. Archived funds will take 24 hours to be reallocated to the myki.

Argh. This is completely wrong.

Whoever re-wrote this section clearly had no idea how the system works, and it appears copy/pasted some of the old text in such a way that it resurrects the old myth.

I mean really.

I flagged it with PTV. They accepted it was in error, and quickly had that section reworded. They also replaced the term “archived” with possibly clearer term “dormancy”.

myki not used for 90 days If a myki is not used within 90 days of topping up online or via the call centre, the top up will be removed from the myki equipment and placed into dormancy. To retrieve the top up from dormancy, the customer must:

• for a myki Smartcard, touch on or top up at a myki machine, retailer or myki enabled railway station.

• for a Mobile myki, touch on. Top ups in dormancy will take 24 hours to be available on the myki equipment again. (Bold/italics added to emphasise the important context.)

I suspect the heading is still problematic.

But in any case, thankfully it’s now corrected, and hopefully nobody actually read the incorrect version and got the wrong idea.

Update: This still seems to be causing confusion, so let me summarise it from a different perspective, and trying to avoid jargon:

If you top-up online or by phone, you need to use the Myki card within 90 days, otherwise that top-up may not be completed.

It doesn’t affect top-ups at machines or railway stations. It doesn’t affect your card or your existing balance.

Media reported over the weekend that there’s up to $80 million in funds on unused Myki cards. Solutions could include enabling travel by paying directly with contactless credit/debit cards (similar to Sydney and London and others), and better ticket and refund options for tourists.

over the weekend that there’s up to $80 million in funds on unused Myki cards. Solutions could include enabling travel by paying directly with contactless credit/debit cards (similar to Sydney and London and others), and better ticket and refund options for tourists. By the way: it’s February. That means for anybody with students in the house, their 2019 Student Passes and Concession Cards are about to expire.

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