CTA Tattler

If I remember correctly, it used to be 10% on all refills, so $1.00 per $10.00. When the CTA changed the fare structure this last time (cash rides to $2.00) they also got rid of the straight 10% on all cards, removed any bonus on the paper cards, and changed the bonus on the plastic cards to $2.00 for each $20.

While they did post these changes on their standard small "Rider Alert/Notice" things at the time, I don't recall ever seeing any notice sent to my e-mail (which they should have for anyone that got the card online) about the bonus changes. This was especially galling, since every time my cards get reloaded, I get a notice from the CTA about it. I don't understand why it would be so hard to e-mail card users about changes if they can already auto-email anyone about card reloading.

Of course, I also don't understand why the south bound Jarvis to Thorndale stretch was/is a slow zone all of a sudden this year, when they just did substantial tie replacement (and I would assume an inspection when you replace the very thing that holds the rails in place) on the same stretch just this past summer. What ever happened to "all red line slow zones will be eliminated before three-tracking begins?"

Know what else doesn't work? Using too much change to buy a single fare.

This morning, I brought a handful of nickles and dimes to my station to buy a $2 ticket (I'm between CC+ cards for a few days), and after I got to about $1.60, the machine read, "NO MORE COINS." WTF, 'no more coins"?! Legal tender! The agent there explained that the machine can't take more than 15 coins at once. How stupid is this? Luckily, the kind agent had a few quarters he exchanged me for nickles, so all ended well enough, but...how stupid!

more stupid than a double post...sorry...

On a random note, the buses sucked this morning. I waited forever in the lovely springtime sleet for the 22. It came bunched up with another 22 and was packed. So I squeezed myself in at the very front and the dude behind me stood by the driver and looked into the bus, dismayed. Then he shouted in an irritated voice, "PEOPLE! Let's move to the back of the bus! This is why New York rules the world and you don't!"

A few people inched where they could and the CTA Vigilante found a nice spot to stand, where he proceeded to bitch about people's bus etiquette for 20 minutes. It was way too early to deal with douchebags like that. I hope his socks were wet when he got to work.

How is $2 for every $20 different from 10% when they don't stipulate anywhere on their website that the $20 must be loaded at the same time? Seems to me, it ought to work out to the same thing, unless they plan on clarifying their wording.

Sorry, but this is kinda old news. That change went into effect more than a year ago. Sorry that it took you 16 months to realize you were only getting $2 instead of $3. Yeah the didn't publicize it that well, but it did get lost inbetween all the other services changes during that time.

Legal tender got nothing to do with it. CTA is well within their rights not to take your coins: http://www.treas.gov/education/faq/currency/legal-tender.shtml

Still, it's stupid. It's money. And it's not like I was feeding pennies into a machine to purchase a $20 pass. It was $2 worth of silver coins, what most people have should they shake their couch, and the machines won't accept it. Again, I say most perturbed, it's stupid.

There's no silver in any of those coins.

Are you really losing money since it was a bonus to begin with?? you're really can't lose something you didn't have to begin with.

i have to agree with cmama. pay a bit more attention. however, if this is happening to other people, they should go ahead and change it now... so, um... thanks for the public service announcement?

To some of you who don't think this is news, the part that $10 doesn't get you a bonus is definitely old news. What I didn't know is that $30 doesn't get you a $3 bonus. I'm not sure if it did in the past, but it seems like it should.

And the CTA did a bad job of publicizing it in the first place, so I think it's fine to mention it again, esp. the $30 no-bonus part.

Ever since they changed from the 10% to the $2-for-$20 bonus, it sort-of peeves me that if you have the transit benefit program through your employer, and you use a Chicago Card Plus, and you use a credit card to guard against negative balances, you can't choose to have it load $20 instead of $10. I guess that makes me a tightwad.

Before the Chicago Card, you used to get a $1 dollar bonus for every $10 you put on a card. It's never been a '10%' thing. They simply raised it from 1 for 10 to 2 for 20.

Also, the CTA isn't a bank.

Colud you explain your math for why you are "Total money lost for me: $76.". I figure that if that is true you load an average of $140 per month on your CC card and you should have a monthly! Here's how I see it: $30 gets you a $2 bonus, you feel you were jipped $1, so being out $76 is 76 $30 reloads which is $2,280 in what you said was 16 months, which is $142.50 per month you would have to load on your card. to be jipped $76. I'm no accountant, but there is no way you are out $76 and if you are then you should have gotten a monthly because you are out a lot more than that!

I wrote this two months ago, and I still feel like a moron because it took me 16 months to notice. It was intended as a PSA so no one else makes the same mistake I did.

My normal monthly usage gets me slightly under the $75 monthly, so that's why I'm still on refills.

Looks like I did screw up my math though...here are the correct calculations:

During the (long) time I had $30 as my refill value, I was charged 38 times for a total cost of $1140. I received a $2 bonus those 38 times, giving me a total bonus of $76.

If my refill value had been $20, I would have been charged 57 times (1140/20), and would have received a $2 bonus each time, giving me a total bonus of $114.

If my refill value had been $40, I would have been charged 28.5 times (1140/40), and would have received a $4 bonus each time, giving me a total bonus of $114.

$114 with either of those options - $76 I actually received = $38 in lost bonus money for me

Well, for those of us who don't track the CTA like hawks, this is definitely news: I never saw or heard anything about this change in the bonus structure. I'm glad this was posted and I've changed my re-load amount.

I thought I set mine at $20 dollars and only go back to the site and notice that it was taking out $30. I think it just a nice CTA revenue computer bug.

All I know is, that when I lived in New York, if I needed money back from my card, for whatever reason, they would give it back to me. You could also buy train cards with your debit card. The way it's run here kinda sucks, honestly. I know the CTA is not a bank, but it really is ridiculous that you don't have more flexibility, and I especially love it when you swipe your card and pay your two dollars, and then you have to wait through three trains in rush hour, and by that point you don't have enough time or else you'll be late, so then you go back out of the train station to take a cab and there's no way for you to get the 2 dollars you just spent back, even though you never rode the train. It's a waste of money. They are also crazy for parking tickets in this town, too. I love Chicago, but man, they really know how to hose you. If I had any other way of getting to work, I'd take it. I just moved here, as well, so maybe you all know some things that I don't???? I don't make a lot of money, so when things like that happen to me, it matters a lot to me.