The in basket: Larry Hoback of Bremerton says, “I have two prepaid passes, Good-to-Go! and ORCA. On the ORCA card, it only reloads from my credit card when there is not enough more to pay the fare.
“In Good-to-Go!, my credit card is hit when the balance falls below $10.
“Who is keeping that $10 float and what is it for?” he asked.
The out basket: Janet Matkin of the Good-to-Go! program says the discrepancy is not by chance.
“The policy for your Good To Go! account is to auto-replenish when the balance gets down to $8 or lower,” she said. “This ensures that you’re never without money in your account.
“If we waited until the account is totally depleted, you might make a trip the next day before the account is re-charged and you would be in violation because there is no money in your account. That could result in a $52 infraction.
“By contrast, if you don’t have money on your ORCA card, the worst that could happen is that the driver won’t let you on the bus or you won’t get through the turnstile onto the ferry.
“The money in your Good To Go! account is always yours,” she said.”If you close the account, you are refunded the entire amount remaining in your account. The ‘float’ is to benefit the customer and ensure the account does not go negative.”
I much prefer the way GTG works. With ORCA I’m never certain whether a reload will work or not until I actually attempt to use the card. It defeats the point of the card if I have to carry around change just in case it doesn’t work.