Renewing Myki

When I tried to"touch off", the Myki reader flashed a message at me.  I'm still not certain what it said, because it flashed up and went so quickly.    A different Myki reader operated normally, but I wondered if the message had something to do with the fact that my Myki card might be getting close to the end of its 4 year life.  It doesn't seem to have been that long, but I checked on the top-up machine, and yes, it was indeed due to expire in a couple of weeks time.

I paused to reflect on the fact that our London Oyster cards had worked without a hitch recently, more 5 years after they had last been used (and in one case, probably about 6 years since it had been first issued).   However, I suppose banks re-issue cards regularly, so I guess Myki isn't alone in having a drop-dead date.

So I headed to the ticket office, where the Myki was changed over without problems, although they pointed out that the new one wouldn't have my name on it (if I wanted that, I had to go to Southern Cross).  I didn't see this as an issue, although hopefully this won't give rise to issues when the ticket checkers look at it.  The Myki money balance was transferred  over, too.   Later in the day, I received an email confirming that the transaction had occurred, and all seemed fine, save that it stated, "If auto-top up was set up on the old Myki you will need to set it up again on the new Myki. Auto top-up arrangements are not transferred to replacement Mykis."   Once again, this isn't an issue for me, but I can see that it could be a little annoying for some people.