Bay Area transit loses $1M per month on credit card fees

The San Francisco Bay Area's transit agencies are losing roughly $1 million per month to credit and debit card fees, according to a presentation from transit staff to the Clipper Executive Board.

As Silas Valentino reports in SFGate, "The board previously approved $1.5 million to cover these fees levied on mobile transactions, but as rider behavior changes, staff have proposed adding $500,000 to cover further costs." The fees are tacked on to transactions when riders load money onto their Clipper cards. 

As Valentino explains, riders would historically load larger values onto their cards, but now more are choosing to add $10 or other smaller amounts at a time. Consequently, the agency pays significantly higher card transaction fees, as well as added credit card fees now that riders can use mobile payments. "Nearly 9% of all Clipper trips on Bay Area transit were paid using credit and debit cards in February, accounting for more than 1.2 million trips across the system and more than $5.5 million in fare revenue."