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MB on January 18, 2017 at 9:08 pm

@Peter,

The stored value (funds) on a SmarTrip card /do not/ expire.

The 30-day expiration refers to the auto-reload transaction. When  the funds on your SmarTrip run low, it triggers a request to replenish them from the backend system. Once the credit card authorization is approved, a reload transaction is queued in the fare system until the next time your SmarTrip is used. If you don't use your SmarTrip again within 30 days, the transaction drops from the queue because there's a limit to the number of these transactions the fare system can hold.

You can still recover the funds but it will take a phone call to SmarTrip customer service. This is a somewhat crappy limitation to the auto-reload system, but then again, the feature is intended for frequent riders.

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