Touch ‘n Go

Well, Troy and I have embraced our lives in Malaysia further by becoming the happy parents of Touch ‘n Go cards. Troy tried to get one at KL Sentral yesterday, but the office hours are 8:30-5:00, so that didn’t quite work. My mission today was to go to the train station and register him for one. I decided I might as well get one for myself, too. They were really quite easy to get.

The first thing you do when you walk in is go to this little table/counter in the corner and fill out a lovely application. All is asks for is your name, address, passport number, gender, occupation, marital status  and income. And you have to sign it. I’ve noticed here that nobody really cares who signs what. I’ve signed a few things for Troy when he wasn’t there and I did the same with this today. Just signed his name and filled out my application and signed my name. They don’t care because they’re getting cash.

After filling out the application, you go to this little box by the door and pick a number. I’d recommend getting a number first if there are a lot of people, but there were only a handful of other people in there today, so getting a number after I filled out my application was fine. I only waited about a minute and a half, if even that.

Of course, the REAL reason I didn’t get a number first was because I didn’t see the box when I came in and it took me a minute to see the application station. I sat down and looked around for a bit and then noticed the forms. It was while I was filling them out that I heard them calling numbers and looked around for the number dispenser. So, be advised: there is a number dispenser on a table by the wall between the two doors and the applications are located in the far right corner of the room.

After they call your number, it just takes a minute for them to input your information and give you the card. It costs RM10 to get the card and then whatever else you choose to put on it. The website says the minimum start-up amount is RM20 (10 for the card fee and 10 to put on the card), but I recommend putting more than that unless you know you’re not going to use much more than that. We’re going to be here a year and Troy takes the train every day, so I put RM240 on his and RM 90 on mine. That will give him over a month of use. Yay! He’ll be so happy to not have to buy a weekly or monthly pass anymore.  I’ll just go put more money on it whenever he runs low. AND, hopefully he won’t lose this card. He has a tendency to lose his weekly pass. The website is a little contradictory about refunds on lost or stolen cards. One page says yes, a refund can be done if the card has been registered, and another page says no, the terms and conditions clearly state there will be no refund. So, he’d better not lose his card.

Registering the card online is super easy. It only took about 20 seconds to do. The only crappy thing is that my account has already been deactivated. lol. I tried to log in after I registered to check the usage on my card and it said my account had been deactivated. haha. Nice. I registered Troy’s and as soon as I got done, it said an approval email would be sent in 24 hours. I didn’t notice that after mine, so that may be what the issue is. It did send me password reset email with all my info in it, so I have no idea.

Anyways, back to how nice it is to have these cards. The great thing about these cards is that they can be used at the bus station, the LRT terminal and the monorail terminal. AND, according to the website, “Touch ‘n Go card can be use as a mode of payment for highways, public transports, selected parking, retail and theme parks.” How cool is that? Though, the website also says that some parking centers add an additional surcharge for using the tough ‘n go card. Kinda makes me wonder if there are other places that do a surcharge. Either way, though, it’s kinda nice.

Getting this card makes me feel more integrated with Malaysia. I remember being in DC for a weekend and having a public transportation pass there. There’s just something about having the card that makes you feel like you’re part of the society more than you were before. Not a bad thing. Just different.