Credit cards now have the power to pay for your bus journeys!

December 11, 2006

Citibank and SMRT have just announced that they are offering their customers in Singapore the chance to pay for their bus journeys or MRT with their credit cards.

The move allows customers to earn back points acquired on the card for free rides. So every time the customers use their card to pay for a bus journey or their MRT, they will receive points which they can then use later to ride the bus for free. This is sure to go down really well with their many customers and the convenience of using the card to pay for bus journeys is certainly better than searching your pockets for loose change!

The cards are a 2-1 card which comes with an EZ link function. It offers rebates of SMRT dollars. The idea is that you are spending the money anyway so why not get something back for it in the long run? Generally the scheme works out that if $700 is spent per month on the card, the user will gain themselves around 400 free bus journeys throughout the year.

It all sounds too good to be true and for some customers unfortunately it is. It seems that the card is only going to be made available to people who earn over $30,000 per year so anybody who does not make that amount of money will not be able to receive the new card.

There will also be a security scan to ensure that passengers only have one EZ card with them when they are travelling. This is due to the fact that some passengers have carried more than one EZ card with them and the system has basically not known which card to deduct the balance from.

Overall the new card is set to be introduced within the first part of 2007. So, if you earn more than $30,000 and you live in Singapore you might as well get yourself one and see how many free bus rides you can get!