• long running

[NSW] Opal Payment by Credit Card or Mobile Device Will Receive The Same Travel Benefits as an Adult Opal Card

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From tomorrow (Monday, 29 July) commuters using their credit card or mobile device to ‘tap on and off’ Opal enabled train, light rail, Sydney Metro, and ferry services will receive the same Opal travel benefits as they would using their adult Opal card.

This is an extension to the contactless transport payments trial run by Transport for NSW in partnership with the Commonwealth Bank, Cubic and Mastercard. The trial is also extending to the Sydney bus network in a staged roll-out over the coming months.

Update 24 Sept: Contactless payments are now available on buses as well

Related Stores

Transport Info NSW
Transport Info NSW

Comments

  • +51

    Except you miss out on 5% discount Opal recharge via Woolworths e-gift cards purchased through affiliate networks.

    • +37

      I think it's great for us casual opal users. I hate having too much money banked up in there as I don't use it often and always have to worry about if I'm gonna lose it or if I'm forgetting to bring it. Having the convenience to pay with a credit/debit card is worth so much more than the $5 that I'll save over 2 years.
      I've been using my credit card for peak times simply cause it's just so much quicker than finding my opal card…

      • just need to register the opal card

        • +2

          For what?? For the government knows every single place you went????
          Nahhhhhh thanks

          • +1

            @ratoloko: Because they totally wouldn't have that with your mobile phone or your credit card payment history…

          • @ratoloko: Donald to Scott: whiiiskyy is on a need to know basis, and he does not need to know

      • Do you have to register your credit card beforehand or just a simple tab and go?

        • +9

          Just tap and go - you'll only need to register if you want an activity statement or to query a charge.

          • +1

            @b3au: How do you register a credit card?

          • @b3au: Register in my current opal online account?

            I’ll need to do that as I sometimes claim train travel costs for work to travel to meetings etc.

          • @b3au: Where do we register the CC? Don't see anything on opal website though.

          • @b3au: Can you use the same CC to pay for other family members, such as your children?

        • -7

          That's right. This isn't a deal as its not actually cheaper doing it this way (as 1st comment said you miss out on potential savings).

          Sharing information and perhaps convenience is not an ozbargain. Its just news/forum post.

          • -1

            @Bryanalves:

            This isn't a deal

            210+ people are not in agreeance.

            • +5

              @ash2000: 210 people (including me) were made aware of this news which was useful to them, hence the upvote. They probably didn't save money though.

              • +1

                @Bryanalves: If you were going to use your credit card anyway you would save money, as it is a straight discount for those people. Arguably for a casual user you'd save money vs an opal card. If you just need to use 2 off-peak journeys (to and from a destination), or travel once on a sunday and then never again then you would be ahead as you'd otherwise have to load more onto an opal count which would sit unusable.

            • @ash2000: Agreement?

      • Same. Too late for me though as I preloaded a bunch of credit on :( Hope it doesn’t ever expire.

    • +19

      Or topping up via Coles so you can get the bonus points from those "spend $xx every week for 4 weeks" offers.

      • are you sure about this? opal recharge is eligible for those spend promos??????

        • +8

          yes it is

        • Yep, do this all the time

        • +7

          Sssshhhhhhhh!

        • +2

          Also worth knowing the maximum Opal balance you can have is $250. Thanks to Coles, It ends up there quite a bit.

        • +3

          Can confirm, just added $100 at Coles Word Square and got the "congrats on 10,000 pts" message on my receipt. Woohoo!

          • @meowmeowmeow: My offer is spend $50 and get 1,000 points?…. So sad

            • +1

              @CyberMurning: 10,000 point offers are 4 week recurring spends. Still, you should eventually get a spend $50 for 4 weeks get 10,000 points if you keep your spend in that basket range (if you spend more it will increase to Spend $60 or 70 etc

        • its not eligible for points at woolworths but it is for coles

      • +3

        Well damn. I need to spend $100 this week for week 4 of a 10,000 point campaign but am going away for the weekend. This nugget of information has been very timely. I'll trot off to Coles World Square tomorrow and throw $100 on my opal card! Thank you!

        • Wow this is a bad deal by Coles. Not mocking or anything but I only need to spend $50 per week. You need to get your spending down I think so they will lower the amount to spend.

          • @Jared17: The last one I had was $50,it steadily increases to $100+ and then I ignore Coles for a few weeks and head back to Woolies. I spend $100ish a week on groceries anyway so I wouldn't call it a "bad deal".

          • +4

            @Jared17: Indeed, this is why I have multiple flybuy cards. There is never any benefit to being a loyal customer. Same for ebay and most other companies.

            Make them think they've lost you, and the offers come flooding in.

            • @ash2000: I assume you can't link multiple flybuys cards to the same velocity account?

      • Does Coles take eGift card for Opal top-ups?

        • -3

          Yes, they do but only one Coles (Wynyard) in Sydney has Opal top-up facility - not sure why they aren't extending it to other Coles stores like Woolworths.

          • +2

            @virhlpool: Coles in Neutral Bay does Opal top-ups too.

          • +5

            @virhlpool: Clearly you need to visit the rest of Sydney more apart from York St; there's many more Coles that do Opal top-ups.

          • @virhlpool: Big supermarkets does not seems to do Opal recharge if there's nearby small shop doing it.

            BTW, as many other mentioned, there should be more than one Coles doing this….

        • +2

          yes Coles do take eGift card for Opal top-ups. i always do that and can confirm that it works at both Coles Wynyard and Coles World Square

          • @ClearRaindrops: Cool! Will go through them now especially if one can use it to meet the requirements for bonus points.

      • Yeah this is good tip. i didn't know this works until reading here last month. Helped me with my Coles flybuys offer this month.

      • +1

        I tried loading $130 opal credit at a coles and they said they could only load a maximum of $120 opal credit. Can anyone verify this limit?

        • +5

          They can technically do it by loading $120 and $10 but they're right in saying that you can't ask for $130.

          • +1

            @kerfuffle: thanks for clarifying :)

            • @other guy: One of the sales assistants at Woolies Town Hall used to crack the shits at me when I asked for $160 every month.

              • +1

                @kerfuffle: I'm definately going to try after work at Broadway Coles. The $130 spend for bonus points finishes today. I don't normally shop at Coles but will make an effort to top up my Opal when these bonus offers come round.

                • @other guy: Report back if Broadway Coles does top up

                  • @SnoozeAndLose: They do.

                    Source: Work in the next street

                    • @kerfuffle: Thanks that means all Coles in the city does Top up, wondering if Parramatta Westfield store does top up too

                      • @SnoozeAndLose: Broadway isn't the city though. I say that as someone who used to work in the city …

                        As for Parramatta Westfield, I don't think they do. Pretty sure both upstairs Woolies and downstairs Woolies do Opal top-ups (definitely upstairs)

                      • +1

                        @SnoozeAndLose: Liverpool Coles does top up opal.

    • Where can you recharge Opal with egift card?

      • +3

        Woolworths Supermarket checkout counters (not self-service). WW stores that are near railway stations do Opal recharges. Look for Opal advertisement stickers on the back/top of the checkout monitors.

    • +1

      What affiliate networks are u talking about?

      • +3

        Cashrewards, Shopback, etc. Anywhere that offers percentage off e-gift cards. They all work through an affiliate network on the backend.

  • +7

    Wow, splendid, this mean I can carry one card less.

    • If Perth ever gets this I can finally ditch my wallet when going to work.

  • +4

    what? I never knew you can tap on an off using your credit card…..

    • They brought it in at the end of last year/start of this year iirc, although previously you did not receive the weekly travel rewards making it useless for regular users. Now they are changing that starting tomorrow.

      • -1

        What weekly travel rewards? I'm a very casual user

      • How do they check if you tapped on using credit card?

        • +3

          Same way they check your normal Opal card - you present your card/device to the authorised officer. https://transportnsw.info/tickets-opal/opal/contactless-paym…

          • +11

            @b3au: If I was a scamming man, I'd think of new ways to get onboard and "scan" people's credit cards…

            • @Munki: to be fair skimming a card through contactless is pretty difficult. Faking a real chip on a credit card is not that easy.

              p.s: It didn't let me comment unless it ticked the associated with the store check box.. weird.

              • @nokia3660: I've removed your association.

              • @nokia3660: well… it is true that there's many secure parts in there, credit card scanning is still happening. (People get charged for something they haven't purchased during oversea trips are still reported)

                I think it's hard to say it is safe until it is proven.

          • +1

            @b3au: They tried to scan my amex on Google pay and gave up. Hmmm…

            • @boretentsu: What happened? Their readers couldn’t read your card?

              • @Peanut money: That's right. Due to time constraint and a busy carriage she gave up. I reckon I could have had a screenshot on the phone and she would have given up XD

      • It was the end of last year - It was a nice surprise stepping out of Sydney airport onto the train to see I Just needed to get out my phone to tap and go rather than having to buy into the whole Opal system for just a few days of travel.

    • +1

      I have accidentally done this few times.

    • +2

      Not to be snide, but how did you miss it?! They literally had sticker ads for it on every terminal.

      • +1

        They might not travel in the city?

  • +7

    will use opal card to travel all day long. last time we have overcharge on day travel took more than 2 months they look into it and also unnessarily follow up emails to recify the issue. at least opal card will have instant travel data that you can check with app or opal site on what actually happened.

  • I don't think this is a deal, and you lose the Woolworths discount (5% minimum, more if you get discounted WISH cards - I currently have 10%) but about time. Ironic that Melbourne beat them to it with a virtual Myki.

    • +20

      How is that ironic?

      • +15

        It's ironic people use the word ironic not knowing what it really means.

      • +7

        It's ironic if you understand how terrible the Myki system is. The context is lost for people who aren't familiar with it.

      • It's ironic in an ironic way.

      • +19

        Its a free ride, when you've already paid

        • +4

          It's the good advice that you just didn't take…

      • +3

        Doncha think?

        It's a bit like…meeting the man of my dreams and then meeting his beautiful wife.

      • +5

        It's like rain on your wedding day

        • +1

          It's actually like ray-yay-yain on your wedding day.

    • +3

      To be fair, contactless payments on trains, ferries & light rail have been around longer than Melbourne's Mobile Myki in Google Pay.

    • +8

      It’s a deal because you don’t have to buy an Opal card, especially for people like me who are interstate and visit Sydney often and have to find that damn opal card with money left on it

      • +2

        Opal cards are free

        • +7

          Yes - but just got to find the store 3 miles from the train station that actually sells one.
          (I know they have gotten better - but that was so weird that they didn't used to sell them at the stations)

          • -5

            @danyool: Most stations have a newsagency that sells them?

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