On 11 Dec, 15:30, Roland Perry wrote:

Or they may pass a new law saying that all credit expires a year after
it's added - I think the New York equivalent has that rule.

New York Metrocards expire on a date which is printed on them, it
generally seems to be just over a year after they're issued, but they
are made of thin plastic with a mag stripe, so a year's worth of heavy
use would probably wear one out. You don't loose any credit left on a
card when it expires, you just transfer it to a new card. You can
even do this yourself, just insert it into a ticket machine, and it
will offer to transfer the balance to a new card. This can only be
done for a certain time, I think it's two years, after the card
expires.

PATH Quickcards, which are no longer issued at PATH stations, but can
still be bought from NJ Transit machines, and newsagents etc, expire
after just 180 days, and any remaining rides left on them when they
expire are lost. PATH also accept Pay-per-Ride Metrocards, but not
unlimited ride ones, and have in the last couple of years introduced a
'SmartLink' card which functions in a similar way to Oyster, can hold
both a stored number of rides an unlimited ride tickets, and which
does not expire, but it is only valid on PATH. The MTA has a smart
card ticket on trial at a few Subway stations, but this is quite
different to the PATH SmartLink card, and they are not inter-
available. New York, and the part of New Jersey just over the Hudson
from it, really does need more seamless ticketing between their
various systems.

I have an Oyster cand which is used almost every day, and remember the
date it was issued, it was the 24th of May, pay day, and it was the
first May after they became generally available. I've lost track of
the years, is that four and a half years ago now? No problems with it
so far, other than the print is wearing off in places. It's the old
type with the roundel in red, and a matt surface.