SINGAPORE - From July 1 this year, customers of United Overseas Bank (UOB) will be able to use their credit cards to top up their Cepas cards for travel on public transport.

They can do so at the nearly 500 General Ticketing Machines (GTMs) at MRT stations islandwide. Cepas stands for contactless e-purse application.

The new cashless top-up option can be done via contactless payment options such as Visa Paywave and Mastercard Paypass, or by inserting the credit card into a GTM.

Commuters can also use the contactless payment option on their UOB debit cards. Currently, this contactless option is not available for debit cards at GTMs.

The new initiative is a collaboration between Transit Link and UOB.

For a start, the initiative will apply to Singapore-issued UOB Visa, UOB MasterCard and UOB JCB cards. It will be rolled out to all other locally and foreign issued credit and debit cards from Jan 1, 2017.

Transit Link chief executive officer 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 the total top-up payments last year.

Transit Link hopes that the new top-up option would increase cashless top-up payments at GTMs by about 10 per cent.

Besides credit and debit cards, UOB cardmembers will also be able to top up their Cepas cards using their smartphones at the GTMs from July 1. Android users can do so via the UOB Mighty Pay while Apple users do so on Apple Pay.

Mr Dennis Khoo, UOB's Head of Personal Financial Services Singapore, said: "Transit is an integral part of the consumer's daily life.

"Expanding contactless acceptance points to the GTMs will further the adoption of such payments and reinforce the move towards a cashless economy."