Ita Buttrose is the face of a campaign to encourage seniors to use Opal travel smartcards in NSW ahead of the retirement of a slew of paper tickets next month. But users could be slugged with fees to use the card. Picture: Tim Hunter.

The hidden costs are being levied by some retailers every time someone uses a credit or debit card to top up their travel smartcard, despite the fact stores already receive a commission for every recharge.

A survey conducted by the Greens found every single convenience store around Sydney’s busy commuter and tourist hub of Circular Quay charged customers to top up their smartcards with a bank card — with some fees totalling as much as 80 per cent of the cost of the minimum top up.

The Greens NSW transport spokeswoman, Dr Mehreen Faruqi, called on the Government to prevent retailers from adding a charge onto customers’ smartcard top ups, citing the few alternative methods of recharging Opal cards. But she said the response so far suggested the Government was “trying to wash their hands of responsibility”.

Paper tickets are being phased out in many cities, pushing people onto smartcards. Picture: supplied.Source:News Corp Australia

All of Australia’s many smartcards allow some level of recharge at local retailers. While top ups with cash are usually free, those made with a bank card can, like any other purchase, attract a surcharge.

EXCESS CHARGES

The Reserve Bank says retailers can pass on “reasonable card acceptance costs”. But in a consultation document on potential changes to payment regulations, released this month, the RBA stated “surcharge levels on some transactions appear to be well in excess of the merchants’ likely acceptance costs”.

Around Circular Quay, the fees retailers charged ranged from a 50c surcharge levelled on American Express payments only to one shop charging a flat fee of $2 on all card payments.

With the minimum Opal top up for a pensioner being just $2.50, a $2 surcharge would amount to 80 per cent of the top up amount. Even a more likely $10 recharge would attract a 20 per cent surcharge which, for a regular user, could amount to more than $100 a year in fees.

The problem is compounded in NSW due to limited alternative recharge options. When Opal was launched, top ups could not be made at stations and the only way to avoid retailers was to do a transaction online. However, the $40 minimum online recharge is one of the highest in Australia.

in contrast, Perth’s Smart Rider and Queensland’s Go Card allow online auto reloads of only $20 and Adelaide’s MetroCard as low as $15. In most cities, lower amounts can be topped up at retailers or at recharge machines while in Tasmania bus drivers can recharge Greencards smartcards.

However, in NSW there are only around 100 top up machines, far fewer than the total number of stations, forcing many to recharge at retailers.

A fee free Opal card top up machine. A welcome, but still relatively rare, sight across NSW. Picture: supplied.Source:Supplied

Dr Faruqi told news.com.au a small fee to cover bank charges might be defendable but a 20 per cent surcharge was certainly not.

“This is a direct result of the government relying heavily on external retailers for Opal ticket selling, rather than retaining trained Sydney Trains staff and providing enough top-up machines at stations and stops.

“Surcharges on Opal top-ups increase the cost of public transport for people, but the government is trying to wash its hands of responsibility. It seems the government just isn’t keeping track of how many [retailers] are adding surcharges onto card payments, let alone the dollar amount of the surcharges.”

PAPER TICKETS

Larger retailers, such as Woolworths and 7-Eleven, do not charge to recharge.

On January 1, top up traumas will increase in NSW with the majority of paper tickets being retired. These include popular options for pensioners, forcing many who have so far shunned smartcards onto the Gold Opal card which is currently being promoted by media personality Ita Buttrose.

A spokeswoman for Transport for NSW (TfNSW) told news.com.au retailers were the most popular method of topping up Opal cards with more than 2000 locations statewide with no excess charges for using cash. While half of all users went to retailers to top-up, 60 per cent of seniors did the same suggesting they will be more severely stung by surcharges after January 1.

“Opal’s convenience is exemplified by how easy it is to top up,” the spokeswoman said, pointing to the instillation of more fee free top up machines in 2016.

In Tasmania, Greencards can be topped up by bus drivers.Source:News Limited

While TfNSW has barred some retailers from selling Opal for refusing to recharge cards or charging for the cards, which are free, none have been sanctioned for charging excess fees.

Speaking in state parliament last month, roads minister Duncan Gay, representing the transport minister Andrew Constance, said retailers’ surcharges were “outside of TfNSW’s responsibility.”

Dr Faruqi said the response wasn’t good enough. “The government needs to urgently investigate what it can do to curb these excessive surcharges, possibly through amending their agreements with the Opal retailers to limit or ban surcharging,” she told news.com.au.

The CEO of the Australasian Association of Convenience Stores, Jeff Rogut, told news.com.au that retailers were encouraged to make payments as hassle-free as possible — but the vast majority of convenience stores were franchises and individual business owners decided whether to levy surcharges and the level of those fees.

In Melbourne, only 22 per cent of Myki users recharged at retailers due to the far lower number allowing top ups, because recharge machines were in abundance and because credit could be added to cards at ticket offices. More than 65 per cent of Melburnians chose to instead recharge at stations and trams stops.

A spokesman for TransLink, which manages south east Queensland’s Go card, said ticket windows, top up machines and 7-Eleven stores were options for people that wanted to use a bank card but avoid fees.

“TransLink recommends customers use auto top up as it is the most convenient way to ensure you always have enough balance on your Go card to travel and avoid surcharges.”