Huge $100m myki credit surplus sitting in government coffers

Millions of dollars of unused myki credit sits in state coffers earning interest for the government.

Almost $105m of train, tram and bus commuters’ money is in state ­coffers earning interest for the government.

The Sunday Herald Sun can reveal that $104.7m of unused myki credit sitting in expired or ­inactive cards is sitting in a government bank account, prompting calls for the money to be returned and an urgent overhaul of the troubled ticketing system.

Late on Saturday night, after being contacted by the Sunday Herald Sun, the state government said it would find a way to ­return the money to its rightful owners.

“This is money that is owed to Victorians and we want to see it back in their pockets,” a government spokeswoman said.

Public Transport Users ­Association spokesman Daniel Bowen said: “They should ­absolutely be trying to give this money back to Victorians.”

“There’s probably some cases where there are unregistered cards that have been thrown away, but if there’s an old registered card that’s been forgotten about, they should be making efforts to get that money back to people, and they should be putting out a campaign to encourage people to claim back the money they are owed.”

Public Transport Users Association spokesman Daniel Bowen says there should be a campaign to encourage people to claim back the money they are owed.

The money is in accounts managed by a statutory authority, Transport for Victoria.

Most of the unused funds are held on cards that have not been used for four years, meaning they are now expired and are likely to have been lost or thrown out.

The Sunday Herald Sun has been told the funds are not used by government and are drawn down only when a customer actively seeks a refund.

But the government does collect interest on the balance of all myki cards, with the $105m contributing to this total figure.

While commuters are able to claim back their money or transfer to a new card at any time, there are calls for a ­publicity campaign to ensure commuters are aware of their entitled funds to avoid the ­government continuing to ­accumulate money.

Since myki was established in 2012, 42.5 million cards have been distributed. Just 11.7 million of these cards are currently active.

A Department of Transport and Planning spokesman says commuters should check for expired mykis and have outstanding balances refunded or transferred. Picture: Paul Jeffers

Mr Bowen said the eye-watering figure proved why a new system was needed, adding it never made sense that myki cards expired in four years.

“It’s definitely an issue. When it expires a lot of people just go and buy a new card and don’t bother with their old one, which may have money still on it,” he said.

“In many cases, people will just put them in the bottom drawer and forget about it. Others will throw them out, and so a lot of passengers are left with the feeling that they’ve been ripped off.”

While it was possible to transfer an existing balance to a new card, Mr Bowen said it was evident most people did not get around to it. “It doesn’t appear that the government makes any particular effort to let people know,” he said.

“A longer expiry time on the card would help but so would enabling credit card payments.”

Opposition public transport spokesman Richard Riordan said one simple travel account that could be connected across modern forms of payment needed to be at the heart of any new public ticketing system.

The current myki contract ends next November.