AF Payments, Inc., the operator of the beep card tap-and-go payment system, on Friday announced that cardholders whose beep cards are due to expire this year can now extend the validity of their cards by one year through the company’s Expiry Date Extension Program for only ten pesos. Beep cardholders do not have to buy a new card or worry about losing their card load when their current card expires.
This offer is valid for standard beep cards with a minimum balance of ten pesos and will run until December 2020. Concessionary beep cards (for Senior Citizens and PWDs) will be extended free of charge.
Cards can be extended sixty (60) days prior and sixty days after the expiry date printed on the card (for example, passengers with cards that expire at the end of December 2019 may extend their card at one of the extension terminals between 01 November 2019 and 29 February 2020). The new expiry date will be based on the same month as the original expiry date with one year added (for example, the new expiry date for a card valid until end December 2019 will be the end of December 2020).
beep™ cards with less than P10 load balance (excluding Concessionary Cards) and blacklisted cards are not eligible for the one-year extension, alongside cards with expiry dates that do not fall within the period specified for the extension (60 days prior and 60 days after the printed expiry date).
Extension terminals are available in six stations of LRT1 and in the Cubao station of MRT3. AF Payments is working with the rail lines to add more extension terminals in the coming months.
As mandated by the Concession Agreement, beep cards have a four-year expiry period.The expiry period has been set to ensure the cards remain functional and secure. Upon further assessment, however, AFPI deemed it safe to extend the expiry period by one year. In addition, the company will assess if further extensions can be made.
According to AFPI Marketing Head Agnes Padilla, the extension program is helpful especially for those who want to save money. “With our one-year expiry date extension program, cardholders no longer need to buy a new card or spendP150 to transfer any remaining balance from the old to a new card.”