My Octopus Card was Invalid
I recently visited Hong Kong and checked my Octopus card, which was issued many years ago when I visited there, and found that the card was inactive because I had not used it for a long time.
Should it be reactivated – Fee
Reactivation Cost
After arriving in Hong Kong, I wondered if it would be beneficial to reactivate my card.
According to this website, assuming my understanding of the English is correct, the fee for activation is $15 if the card has been unused for up to 3 years, with an additional $15 fee for every year thereafter. It’s probably been about 5 or 6 years since I stopped using it, so there’s likely to be a $45 or $60 fee. If I pay $60 for activation, I will only get $55 back if I have a remaining balance of only $5 plus the $50 deposit. I don’t recall how much the balance is, but probably I don’t have much left.
If so, would it be better to issue a new one than to reactivate the current card? A minimum of $150 is required to have a new card issued. $50 of $150 is a deposit and $100 is an available balance. I plan to use credit cards as much as possible during my stay in Hong Kong, and since I don’t get on the MTR very often, I wonder if I will spend $100 during my stay. As for whether or not I will come back to Hong Kong after this stay, I have no plans at the moment, and I don’t think I will come back for the time being.
Refund Fee
I wondered what would happen to the refund if I returned the card. I looked into it as well and it is posted on the OCTOPUS website.
A Handling Fee of HK$11 or 1% of any remaining value, whichever is higher, for any such Octopus returned if it meets any one or more of the following criteria:
– if its remaining value exceeds HK$1,000; and/or
– if it is returned within 90 days from the date of issue; and/or
– if such Octopus has only been used for five (5) payment transactions or less from the date of issue (excluding any bill payment transaction or donation transaction)
If the newly issued card is refunded before leaving Hong Kong, it will fall under the second point above. The remaining balance will be only a few tens of dollars at most, so the refund fee is likely to be $11. If I get a new one this time and return it before returning to Japan, $11 will surely be the cost.
On the other hand, if I return the card I have now, none of the three bullet points above apply, so it seems that no refund fee will be charged.
It’s getting complicated, but assuming that the card will be returned, it would be better to activate the card I have now, even if I pay the reactivation fee.
Alternatively, if I only get on MTR a few times, the fare per ride is slightly higher, but I may give up having an Octopus Card and buy a ticket with cash.
Reactivated my OCTOPUS
I needed to take the MTR, so when I went to one of the MTR stations, I went to the Customer Service Center where the station staff or service representatives were seated, taking into consideration reactivation. The sign “客務中心 Customer Service Centre” was displayed.
This is a picture of the customer service center at the Airport Express station at the airport. I stopped by for a refund of my Octopus Card before leaving Hong Kong. It’s different from the customer service center at the MTR station in the city center of Hong Kong where I went to reactivate my card, but just for reference.
While handing my Octopus card to the man sitting there, I asked him if I could reactivate it. He held up the card, checked some information on the screen, and said there would be a $40 fee. I thought that it would be $45 or $60 and that $40 would be good since I would get my $50 deposit back. I decided to request reactivation. I asked if I could pay with a credit card, and he said cash only. I paid $50 cash.
He did the work quickly. My card seemed to have been successfully reactivated, and I received it back with a receipt. Here is the receipt.
Oh, the reactivation fee was $45. I thought I had heard Forty instead of Forty Five, but I must have misheard. Well, the amount was exactly as it was posted on the website and as originally assumed. (As it’s been 5 years since I stopped using the card, $15 for the first 3 years + $15 for the remaining 2 years x $15 = $45 total)
The New Remaining Value, which is the available balance after reactivation, was $1.9. As noted on the receipt, the Remaining Value was -3.1, a negative balance, and it meant $3.1 was deducted from the deposit for the amount last spent on a previous trip to Hong Kong. I understood that this time I paid $50, of which $45 was the fee for reactivation and the remaining $5 was used to settle the negative balance, resulting in a new balance of 5 – 3.1 = 1.9.
After making my card valid, I reloaded $50 cash onto the activated card at an Add Value Machine and was able to ride the MTR without any problems.
