Changing over Student Leap Cards

mess2success

So I looked on the website and couldn't find any answers to my question so I thought someone here might be able to help me.

I currently have a Student Leap card that I received last year and is still valid until the 1st January. Last month I went to get the new Student Leap card at an express agent but when I went they told me that they were no longer able to transfer the balance of the old card onto the new card. I had thought I would have enough time to use all credit and rambler ticket remaining on it, but don't. There is currently about €15 credit and 15 days left on the rambler ticket. I'm now heading back home down the country for Christmas so won't have use for the card for the remainder of the year.

Roughly this amounts to €60 on the Student Leap card. I would hate to lose this money. I see you can ask for a refund of credit if the card is stolen or lost, but I just want the balance transferred to my new card. Is there anyway to do this? Or am I about to lose out on all my money on the card because it expires on January 1st?

Seaswimmer

I have the same issue with my sons student card. Expires 21st Jan.

I rang LEAP and they told me to report the card lost or stolen on the website and I would be given a refund. There dosent appear to be anyway to transfer credit.

He only uses the e-purse so I am not sure how the refund works on a Rambler, presumably its pro-rata for the number of days used/left.

Dravokivich

If you are getting a new student card, the student travel card crowd can transfer balance from a student travel card to a new student travel card when that is being produced. However I've heard of issues with them trying to do it across different card types, without being instructed to, so it may be the reason why the person you were talking to wasn't permitted to do it.

If you're no longer valid to get a student travel card you're just going to have to cancel it through leap and get a refund of any remaining balance.

AlekSmart

Dravokivich wrote: »

If you are getting a new student card, the student travel card crowd can transfer balance from a student travel card to a new student travel card when that is being produced. However I've heard of issues with them trying to do it across different card types, without being instructed to, so it may be the reason why the person you were talking to wasn't permitted to do it.

If you're no longer valid to get a student travel card you're just going to have to cancel it through leap and get a refund of any remaining balance.

Wow,just WOW !!

This really is incredible....What did the Integrated Ticketing Implementation Group spend that €45 Million on exactly ?

This situation simply cannot be allowed to occur.

If the NTA have not put in place a protocol to transfer balances and/or products between Leapcard types,then somebody at the Top of the Authority should
a) Publicly outline the situation
b) Tender their resignation.

This just HAS to be addressed today...as in NOW.

It represents for me,another example of a group of Neanderthal's being given an iPod to play around with,and not surprisingly breaking it into pieces !! :mad:

ordinary_girl

AlekSmart wrote: »

Wow,just WOW !!

This really is incredible....What did the Integrated Ticketing Implementation Group spend that €45 Million on exactly ?

This situation simply cannot be allowed to occur.

If the NTA have not put in place a protocol to transfer balances and/or products between Leapcard types,then somebody at the Top of the Authority should
a) Publicly outline the situation
b) Tender their resignation.

This just HAS to be addressed today...as in NOW.

It represents for me,another example of a group of Neanderthal's being given an iPod to play around with,and not surprisingly breaking it into pieces !! :mad:

My student leap card had an expiry date of 31st December 2014 written on the top corner of it. About 2 weeks ago I got a "new" student leap card in the post (exact copy of my old one, except with a new card no) with the exact same expiry date written on it, because apparently there was a problem with my first card because the chip on it expired on the 11th of this month. So I foolishly though I'll just call leap and get them to transfer the days from my first card onto the new one they sent me, but apparently they "don't have systems for that". Awful, awful service.

I've had to a request a refund for the days on my old card while having to shell out for another ticket on the newer card. Surely being able to transfer days to another card is a very basic thing that leap should be able to do?!

Dravokivich

@Alek, the issue is more so down to tickets applied to the leapcards, which are based on card type. T'is only a hurdle though. there should be a way of getting either over it or around it.

mess2success

I was changing from the 2014 Student Travelcard to the 2015 Student Travelcard so there is no issue of changing of ticket types.

The guy at the Express Agent just said that the printer of the cards could no longer transfer the funds to the new card, as had been the case the year before. In the previous year my credit was transferred over when my new card was issued.

It seems all I can do is claim that the card was stolen or lost and try and get my refund. It's a little annoying that I have to pick one of these options as neither is true, but alas I guess that's just the way things work. It would be a great help in the future if you were able to transfer your funds yourself on the website if both cards were registered. That seems the best way to cut down on unnecessary administration work instead of claiming the card was lost.

AlekSmart

Dravokivich wrote: »

@Alek, the issue is more so down to tickets applied to the leapcards, which are based on card type. T'is only a hurdle though. there should be a way of getting either over it or around it.

Absolutely.

But a rather basic hurdle,which was most definitely there to be seen,noted and rectified BEFORE Dec 2014.

The ITS project did'nt simply arrive in the post.

This is the BASIC stuff....the REALLY basic stuff,and it most definitely requires a response better than "Tell us you lost it ".....For crying out Loud.....I wonder if the OP got that in writing ????

Lucan Bohs

I got a new leap card in the trinity su this afternoon and there was no problem with the credit from my old card being transferred!

mess2success

Hmmm interesting. I went to the UCD express agent. Maybe their printer was broken or something. I got the new card in November.

Dravokivich

All that should matter is when the card you are replacing is set to expire and the start of the college year. So you should have been able renew and transfer anything applicable from sept/oct.

Seaswimmer

Lucan Bohs wrote: »

I got a new leap card in the trinity su this afternoon and there was no problem with the credit from my old card being transferred!

As a matter of interest what type of credit/tickets were transferred.

My son was unable to transfer his but in UCD!!

Lucan Bohs

Seaswimmer wrote: »

As a matter of interest what type of credit/tickets were transferred.

My son was unable to transfer his but in UCD!!

I had €6 worth of travel credit and 4 days left of my 30 day student rambler

mess2success

So it seems as if the UCD express agent is the problem more so than the cards. That's good to know. Next year I might just renew in Trinity.

xOxSinéadxOx

With the roll out of leap it was a great opportunity to abolish the 'student travelcard' and for a student leapcard to be provided by LEAP.

Dravokivich

xOxSinéadxOx wrote: »

With the roll out of leap it was a great opportunity to abolish the 'student travelcard' and for a student leapcard to be provided by LEAP.

Its an issue with tendering the franchise of Student Travel Card and the support/services associated with it. It seems the NTA may have wanted to keep it a separate entity to Leap altogether.

mess2success

Just to give a quick update. I applied for the refund by claiming my card was lost on December 19th and just received the refund of over €60 at midnight January 12th. So the process can take a while, but I'm putting down much of the delay to the Christmas period. Just glad I got my money back as I would have been raging to lose out on that much.

Thanks for all the comments. I think much of the issue was with the vendor in UCD and their printer not allowing transfer of funds. Next year when I need to renew my card I'm definitely going to make sure that the printer is fully operational.

Seaswimmer

Quick update. One of the kids got a new student Leap yesterday in UCD and they were easily able to transfer over the credit (epurse) so whatever issues existed before Christmas seem to be resolved..

lucernarian

Given that issue would obviously crop up around Christmas and New Year, both the pay-to-say-youre-a-student card operators and the leap operators should have sorted this out sooner.

On a vaguely related note, I've found the leapcard.ie support to be useless at dealing with queries that can't be answered by their FAQ anyway. Not very helpful in my experience.

Victor

lucernarian wrote: »

On a vaguely related note, I've found the leapcard.ie support to be useless at dealing with queries that can't be answered by their FAQ anyway. Not very helpful in my experience.

Do you have any outstanding queries?

AlekSmart

lucernarian wrote: »

Given that issue would obviously crop up around Christmas and New Year, both the pay-to-say-youre-a-student card operators and the leap operators should have sorted this out sooner.

On a vaguely related note, I've found the leapcard.ie support to be useless at dealing with queries that can't be answered by their FAQ anyway. Not very helpful in my experience.

On an equally vaguely related matter,the arrival of the Student Leapcard,and it's use of the "Pay-To-Say-You're-A-Student" operators. (:D Absolute Classic-Worth an award of somesort ) solved,at a stroke,the major issue of Student Rambler Tickets being sold to Big Burly Bearded Builders et al,without any I.D. being sought.

The introduction and funding of the extended "Child"16-19 Leapcard can be viewed in the context of the closure of this significant loophole.

lucernarian

Victor wrote: »

Do you have any outstanding queries?

No, a different agency answered my questions after multiple emails sent to leapcard.ie. For what it's worth, they told me to contact a different party because they basically didn't read my email properly, gave me information that was already available online and also gave out incorrect information about fare determination (that it was the operator, not the NTA who are responsible for setting overall PSO fares).

lucernarian

AlekSmart wrote: »

On an equally vaguely related matter,the arrival of the Student Leapcard,and it's use of the "Pay-To-Say-You're-A-Student" operators... solved,at a stroke,the major issue of Student Rambler Tickets being sold to Big Burly Bearded Builders et al,without any I.D. being sought.

An issue that could have always been solved from within e.g. the Higher Education Authority and/or the NTA instead of a for-profit company. Or use RFID tech compatible with existing Uni student cards and Leap. I didn't object to the Student Travelcard company after Leap became incorporated but this story is another sign of the incompetence of this operation and how yet another aspect of Leap card was dysfunctonally rolled out. The payzone retailers are still getting away with insisting on cash payments etc.

AlekSmart

lucernarian wrote: »

An issue that could have always been solved from within e.g. the Higher Education Authority and/or the NTA instead of a for-profit company. Or use RFID tech compatible with existing Uni student cards and Leap. I didn't object to the Student Travelcard company after Leap became incorporated but this story is another sign of the incompetence of this operation and how yet another aspect of Leap card was dysfunctonally rolled out. The payzone retailers are still getting away with insisting on cash payments etc.

Yep,it's only now we are seeing the true value of the "Soft-Launch" principle....10 years and €40+ million for the ITS programme,and thus far the most givin'out is about Bus Atha Cliath .......has anybody tried to phone Joe ???

(I always felt that the words of the former Secretary General of the Dept of Transport,Julie O'Neill were worth including on a sticky or somethin.....Ms O'Neill ventured an opinion that,in her 30+ years of Public Service,nothing had given her more sleepless nights than the ITS programme )