Well I did it...I'm an EZRider now
I signed up for the EZRider card today. I realized a few things that finally put me over the top to do it:
1. The glut of paper tickets in my bag has finally disappeared. I had leftovers from a few months where I traveled for several weeks but still got my benefit. Hopefully the card will arrive before I run out completely.
2. After the fare raise my benefit really only covers about half a month's commute, and the EZRider card only refills when it's depleted, so it doesn't matter if the balance stays on there for a few months before it refills.
3. I realized there is no good reason to order more high value cards at the same time as my commuter benefit tickets. It's just as convenient to have the EZRider card handy and not have to worry about losing or demagnatizing the extra expensive tickets
4. One of my coworkers has one and I can't let him be techie-cooler than me. That's just not in the cards, my friend.
I know this has been discussed before, but can a paper ticket be used just to pay for parking or does it have to be exit coded? The idea of remembering to keep singles around is a little frightening...
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i haven't tried recently,
i haven't tried recently, but paper tickets could not be used just to pay for parking back in the early days of ez rider.
can't recall who it was, but i know someone on here previously mentioned their strategy of using paper tickets to pay for the ride into work and parking, while using ez rider to get home.
but depending on the cost of your commute, you may have to revert to an all paper ticket commute the last few days of the month to ensure you burn through all that commutercheck money.
That was me, and as far as I
That was me, and as far as I know, they still can't. They have to be used in a gate before they can be used to pay for parking.
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The good news is I actually
The good news is I actually receive a ticket and not a commuter check that I then use to buy a ticket, so they never expire, at least as far as I can tell.
Paper in Plastic out, that sounds like an even better idea, and just switch back to paper if the tickets pile up too much.
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There is no "U" in BART
commuter checks don't expire
commuter checks don't expire for a while, and if you end up with too many of them, you can always sell them on the secondary market (a.k.a. Craig's List). My Caltrain monthy is $152 and we can only get $115 a month in commuter checks (amusingly you can get a commuter benefit of $220 a month for parking, but only $115 for transit. No, this country isn't screwed up...). I would also use commuter checks to load my translink card for GG Transit (sadly BART doesn't let you do the same). Generally I could blow through $200 a month in commuter checks if I could get them - so I usually buy 50-60 a month on CL for 80 cents on the dollar.
I would never buy tickets on
I would never buy tickets on the internet. I don't trust Craigslist at all, and I don't want to get ripped off with a counterfeit ticket.
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There is no "U" in BART
I doubt I'd buy a BART
I doubt I'd buy a BART ticket - there's no real way to verify the value on the ticket. Commuter checks on the other hand, the value is pretty clear on the check. If I can't spot something fishy, the teller at Caltrain won't either.
Craig's List is either infinitely trustable or not at all, depending on what you are using it for. Commuter checks - very trustable. But maybe not so much for hiring hitmen, getting a job as a nanny, or finding a hooker, apparently.
could you arrange to meet
could you arrange to meet the person at a station and shove the card in an addfare machine to verify the balance before committing to buy?