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SEPTA changes course on expiring Key fare cards; transfers can be made by phone on Monday

SEPTA's changing course on its expiring fare cards.

SEPTA has reversed course on a policy that would have required about 40,000 Key card holders to make in-person visits if they wanted to transfer the balance on their expiring cards.
SEPTA has reversed course on a policy that would have required about 40,000 Key card holders to make in-person visits if they wanted to transfer the balance on their expiring cards.Read moreELIZABETH ROBERTSON / Staff Photographer
    by Jason Laughlin
    Updated 
    Published 

An about-face from SEPTA will allow Key card users to avoid a visit to the transit agency’s offices to transfer a balance from cards due to expire in July.

Almost 40,000 fare cards are due to expire July 31, and the majority of those, more than 35,000, are funded through travel wallets, an E-ZPass-like feature that allows the cards to maintain a balance and automatically withdraw money from a user’s bank account. Those cardholders will still have to buy new cards before the July 31 deadline, but they will be able to transfer their balance to a new one by phoning the call center for Conduent, the contractor that manages the SEPTA Key card, at 855-567-3782.

SEPTA says the call center will be prepared to handle balance transfers starting Monday.

No added staff is needed to handle customer calls, said SEPTA spokesperson Andrew Busch.

“We want to make sure there are as many options as possible for customers who have expiring cards,” he said.

>>READ MORE: Is your SEPTA Key card expiring in July? Brace yourself.

The transit agency changed its policy a day after The Inquirer reported that cardholders with travel wallets would have to go to one of eight Philadelphia transit centers if they wanted to transfer their balances. For many riders, it would probably have been easier to simply run out the value on the old card and set up a new account with a new card.

The initial policy was not well received by riders.

There are about 1.2 million Key cards in circulation, SEPTA has reported, and all of them will expire three years after they were purchased, a limit put in place because the Key cards can also function as MasterCard debit cards.

>>READ MORE: New Yorkers can now use credit, debit, smartphones to pay subway, bus fares. Why not in Philly?

SEPTA acknowledged that the ideal solution would be for cardholders to be able to transfer a balance through the SEPTA website, but the site is not equipped to handle that transaction.

Old cards will need to be registered at www.septakey.org for the transfer to be possible.

Cardholders who use a weekly or monthly plan do not need to go through the process of transfer balance.

SEPTA’s challenges getting the Key card running smoothly come as other cities are starting to do away with fare cards. The New York Metropolitan Transit Authority is beginning to allow riders to pay for fares by tapping cell phones or credit cards on touch screens. Twenty other cities are planning to introduce similar systems. SEPTA built the Key system to incorporate such transactions, but the transit agency has no timetable for when the system will be ready to handle the next generation of fare payments.