No bank cards?

[stormsdotter.livejournal.com]

I went to buy my T pass for June before getting on the train today. I tapped my card, selected the monthly pass option, and then tapped "Debit" for payment and inserted my card.

The machine gave me an error and told me it was not accepting bank cards.

My TD card is a debit card, and I've been buying my T passes with it for years. Does anyone know what's going on?

Comments

[zmgmeister.livejournal.com]

I remember one time at a grocery sotre where the card readers were acting up, they had me put the thin plastic shopping bag over the card and slide it through, for some reason that helped.

Don't know why some machines would take debit but not others. If it was from an out-of-town bank and it worked on credit but not PIN debit, I'd guess it wasn't on the same payment network, ie. those Maestro and Cirrus logos on the back of your debit card.

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

Ok, there's (at least) 3 different problems with using credit/debit cards at T machines:

1. The network or server sometimes gets overloaded at the end of the month
2. Some machines have trouble reading magstripes, and display the misleading error "Bank card type not valid for MBTA purchase."
3. Some machines have broken pin pads. This problem only affects debit pin transactions, so doing a credit transaction on your debit card is a workaround.