New cashless top-up for Cepas cards

Starting with UOB clients, commuters can now pay using credit cards, smartphones

From today, a new TransitLink scheme will allow UOB card members to do cashless top-ups on their Cepas cards at ticket machines in MRT stations across the island. Next year, the move will be extended to credit and debit card holders of all other local and
From today, a new TransitLink scheme will allow UOB card members to do cashless top-ups on their Cepas cards at ticket machines in MRT stations across the island. Next year, the move will be extended to credit and debit card holders of all other local and foreign banks. ST PHOTO: SEAH KWANG PENG

A bank is pioneering a scheme that lets its customers top up their Cepas cards for travel using their credit cards and smartphones.

From today, United Overseas Bank (UOB) will offer cashless top-ups via contactless payment options such as Visa payWave and MasterCard PayPass, or customers can just insert their credit cards into one of the 500 ticketing machines at MRT stations islandwide.

Customers can also use the contactless payment option on their UOB debit cards to pay at ticket machines.

Cepas or Contactless E-Purse Application cards include EZ-Link cards and NETS FlashPay cards as well as concession cards.

The new initiative is a collaboration between public transport service agency TransitLink and UOB.

This initiative will apply to Singapore-issued UOB Visa, UOB MasterCard and UOB JCB cards.

It will be widened to include credit and debit card holders of all other local and foreign banks from January next year.

TransitLink chief executive Lee Yuen Hee said: "The whole idea is to extend the cashless lifestyle that the public is used to in the retail space to the transit space.

"This is all part and parcel of our continuous effort to make the transit experience convenient, seamless and an integral part of the commuter's lifestyle."

Most commuters top up their Cepas cards using cash, which accounted for 70 per cent of total top-up payments last year.

TransitLink hopes the new option will increase cashless top-up payments at ticket machines by about 10 per cent.

UOB card members will also be able to top up their Cepas cards using their smartphones at ticket machines from today. Android users can do so via UOB Mighty Pay while Apple users have Apple Pay.

Sales executive and daily commuter Praveena Odunghat, 47, said: "With cashless options, I can keep better track of transport expenses by reviewing my account statements at the end of the month."

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on July 01, 2016, with the headline New cashless top-up for Cepas cards. Subscribe