What the dillyo? People go on and on about the 10% discount you get when you put $20 or more on your card, which itself costs $5. Wow, you mean just like what happens when you put $20 or more on a free paper farecard that you won’t lose or damage if you’re not an idiot?
Discount, bonus, whatever.
You don’t have to be an idiot to lose a tiny thin piece of paper, or to have the magnetic stripe on the paper not work anymore or for the paper to be damaged in the turnstile or in a rain storm.
The SmarTrip discount is for any amount over $20 you get a 10% bonus, so if you add $100 dollars to your card, you get $10 extra for free. Which you can’t do with a paper farecard.
The most important difference (to me) between the SmarTrip cards and the paper farecards is that you can carry a balance of up to $180 dollars on the SmarTrip cards and only $22 on the paper cards. This is great for people who use metro everyday, as this allows them to pay for parking and the train fares without having to buy a new farecard every week and having to carry cash for parking.
Also, if someone steals your paper card or you lose it, there isn’t anyway to recover the funds. With the SmarTrip card all you have to do is call metro and they’ll send you another card with the proper amount already loaded and the other card will be deactivated.
For more info http://www.wmata.com/riding/smartrip.cfm
You get 10% bonus on paper farecards too. Do it five times with $20 or once with $100.
The point is, you don’t have to do it 5 times to get the same amount plus you get all the other benefits.
Look, it’s quite plain that you don’t think the SmarTrip cards are worth it but for those who do, being able to get the 10% discount on amounts over $20 is a good thing.
I think they’re worth it. They shouldn’t try to make people think that the bonus is special to SmarTrip.
I just wish they were used on more busses.
<— glad he lives in Arlington