I want to highlight an issue that may not be commonly known or well appreciated among SimplyGo users, which underscores the need to improve the final product before it is made the de facto mode of public transport payment for everyone. 

With the recent increased public interest in SimplyGo, I downloaded the SimplyGo app in January to start monitoring the breakdown of my travel expenses. I am thankful that I did, but for all the wrong reasons.

On reviewing the fare expenses from Jan 20 to Feb 8, I discovered that there were 19 instances where SimplyGo had overcharged me on my credit card, essentially doubling or even tripling the maximum fare charged to me, depending on how many modes of transport – bus and MRT – I had used and completely ignoring the distance-based fare principle.

This was alarming, considering that I have been using linked credit card payments to pay for public transport fares for years. 

The issue surfaces within a given trip when a different mobile device is used to pay for a fare, regardless of whether the device is linked to the same credit card or not.

So while the physical credit card or a linked iPhone or Apple Watch may all be valid payment modes, alternating between any of these modes within a single trip would result in separate charges for each leg of the trip.

As the fare reader is unable to determine the end-to-end origin and destination, each leg is charged the maximum charge. My only recourse is to write in to request reimbursement for those limited transactions I am able to access via the app. 

This issue may also be impacting many others.

SimplyGo needs to address this, as most commuters may assume that the mode of payment device should not impact the final fare as long as it is linked to the same payment mode, that is, the same credit card.

Commuters should be either explicitly informed about this, or the device payment should be made seamless. Otherwise, this “bug” in overcharging could be inflating costs for commuters.

Ernest Wee Wen Liang