Dormant Opal funds
There has been an announcement that dormant Opal cards, cards that have not been tapped on for five years or more, will be cancelled and the remaining funds will be reinvested into public and active transport related initiatives.
The Bill will be before parliament this week and has not yet been approved.
If approved, there will be a 12 month lead time with an awareness campaign, designed to provide passengers ample time to manage their Opal card balances if they wish to keep them active.
Customers can transfer the balance to an active Opal card they currently use or refund the value.
This change will only apply to unregistered Opal cards. The average balance on dormant unregistered Opal cards is $4
Frequently Asked Questions
No cards will be cancelled within the next 12 months. Over the next 12 months transport will be raising awareness of this change to give passengers plenty of time to manage their Opal card balances.
You can:
- use the remaining balance on your Opal card for public transport trips.
- transfer the balance of your old Opal cards to an Opal card you currently use.
- register the Opal cards to protect the balance as only unregistered Opal cards will be affected.
- request a refund of any remaining value on an old Opal card. Please note, Opal cards are required to be returned in order to refund the value, and refunds can only be processed to Australian bank accounts.
No. All Gold Senior/Pensioner and Concession Opal card types are registered Opal cards and will not be affected by this change.
Opal cards are considered dormant if they haven’t been tapped in five or more years. The dormant period is from the last tap on only, not the last top up.