RexxAppeal t1_ixozgwi wrote on November 25, 2022 at 3:55 AM

“If you have money in the Mastercard debit Wallet you can use it to add funds to your Travel Wallet or purchase a SEPTA fare for your Key Card. You can't transfer money from your Travel Wallet to the Mastercard debit wallet and your Travel Wallet money can't be used to pay for things like coffee or groceries. If you only have money in the Mastercard debit Wallet, you'll still be able to pay for a trip on SEPTA - it just won't be a discounted fare.”

https://www.septa.org/key/faq.html

Basically the tldr is you can activate the debit feature, but it’s not a great idea because the fees are absurd. There are better reloadable debit options, eg Amex Bluebird.

DJRoombasRoomba t1_ixozq37 wrote on November 25, 2022 at 3:57 AM

I think that's saying if you only have money in the Mastercard and not the Travel Wallet you can only use the Mastercard for Septa, isn't it? That's what I'm getting from that, anyway. As much as I don't want that to be true.

RexxAppeal t1_ixp1bcf wrote on November 25, 2022 at 4:12 AM

It’s saying if you have too low a travel wallet balance, it will pull from the debit side as a cash fare instead of a Key fare.

Tomorrow try to call in and say you mistakenly loaded it as travel wallet, and intended to load debit. Maybe there can move it or refund it.

Unfortunately I suspect the limit is there to prevent people from arbitraging pretax or reduced fares into a more liquid debit balance, so they may not be flexible on it.

And for the future, research your options for prepaid debit accounts. I don’t know that much about them, but septa key appears to be worse for fees.