Do Smartrip cards weaken?
I've used my Smartrip card for about 3+ years now. Last week, it started to act up - I needed to retouch it several times both at the gates and at the vending machines when adding money. Removing it from my wallet's outter flap seemed to help.
But this morning, I needed to vigrously scrub it against the gate sensor before I could exit the station. (And I tried several gates.)
The card has a slight curve to it - conforming to the shape of my wallet. But it's otherwise undamaged.
So....
What's the life expectancy on these cards?
And how would I transfer the funds from the old card to a new one?
I've had little issues with my Smartrip card. The one thing that I kind of have a gripe about is when I'm reloading at a Metro TVM. When I tap it again, it takes a couple tries, even though I hold it flat against the target, to get it to put the value on. Some machines must be very sensitive to the proximity. The same happens to me on a couple buses. One farebox I tried when I was on the C8 had some sensitivity issue with the card reader (damn GFI Odyssey boxes) in which some riders had a time trying to get tap their cards on the bus.
I used to keep my card in my wallet, and the exact same thing happened to mine. It would get harder and harder to get it to work at the gates/parking garage.
One day, it simply would not work when I tried to exit. No matter what I or the station manager did, we could not get it to read. The station manager was cool, and he let me out, since I told him I was simply going to walk to the machine that was right there any buy a new one. I had to, since I wouldn't be able to get my car out of the garage without a working card.
So I bought a new card right on the spot at the machine, and called the number, and had them transfer the balance from my broken card to my new one. It took a few days, and I had to use a machine and punch in a "code" to complete the transfer, but it worked out great.
Now, I keep my SmartTrip card in a hard, plastic holder around my neck along with my work badge. It keeps it in pristine condition, so I am expecting this one to last longer.
The folks in the kiosks (station managers?) seem to have a reputation as being unhelpful and less than friendly but I have run across several that went out of their way for the customer and made my day a lot nicer.
In particular I'll be forever thankful to the one at Woodley Park / Zoo who found and held on to my key case when it dropped out of my pocket one morning.
OK, so I'm answering myself a bit here. (Is that like talking to myself?? )
I called the 1-888-SMARTRIP number (it'd be nice if this number was printed on the Smatrip card) and a nice guy says I can do one of:
Mail my card in a prepaid envelope available at station kiosks. If there's no damage to the card, they'll send a replacement without charging $5. If they do determine it's damaged, they'll send a replacement but ding my account the $5.
Ask to have a card sent to me now, and they'll deduct $5. But credit it back if they later get my old card and determine it's undamaged.
Go to a Metro office (I forget where - Metro Center I gather), and get a replacement card on the spot there. But if my card happens to work when they try to scan it, they won't give me a replacement.
In all 3 cases, they'd transfer my balance to the new card.
I decided on the first option.
I went to my nearest station (Crystal City) during lunch and asked for the envelope. The guy in the kiosk produced it and then stepped out of the kiosk to help me understand how to use it (it's got a small tear-off form which shouldn't be torn off except for a small piece which serves as a receipt). And he confirmed that my card was indeed not readable. (So I checked "Not readable at SMADS" on the form.) He said, btw, that the cards are supposed to last 25 years. That's kinda hard to believe.
Anyway, aside from the inconvience of an unreadable Smartrip card, the experience was overall pretty good as I was met with pleasant competance both at Crystal City and on the phone with the Smartrip guy.
As for the old card, I guess the card flexed enough over the years of daily use that the internal wiring eventually snapped apart. I hope that's not considered "damage".
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From what I understand the RFID cards (Smartrip cards) do have a finite life to them. The electectronics that are in the card, basically a wire in the card that energizes when in promixity to an HID reader, will only energize a finite number of times. How many times? I have no idea. But, every card will at some point stop working. Each time the card is energized, it becomes a little less able to be energized again. You're likely to get hundreds to thousands of reads from the card before you notice it starting to go bad.
Then of course you have the readers themselves. Not all readers are equal. Some produce a stronger energy field than others. So you're likely to have a card that has had hundreds of reads from various scanners before the card begins to loose its ability to energize. Then once it does, you'll start to notice that you card has a hard time reading at some readers, while at others there is no problem. This is likely due to the combination of a weak RF signal from the reader as well as a card that is beginning or well along on loosing it's ability to energize.