Singapore — After being charged $24 for the replacement of a misplaced EZ-Link card, a member of the public wondered if it was too high a price to pay.
The member of the public had asked a question regarding the replacement fee in a Facebook group named “Complaint Singapore” to determine if the amount was fair.
In his caption, he wondered if $24 was a reasonable amount of money to charge for a misplaced primary school EZ-Link card, with various fees being stacked upon one another.
While applying for a new EZ-Link card, the netizen has taken a picture of a screen reflecting the various fees incurred for purchasing a new card.
The card itself cost $5.00, while the personalization fee and administration fee cost $3.10 and $11.00 respectively. There was also an initial top-up of $5, resulting in a replacement fee of $24.10 in total.
As such, the netizen was not sure if the price of the EZ-Link card was justified and asked if it was reasonable.
After reading his post, many netizens took to the comment section to express how they felt about the matter, with many remarking on the pricing.
A few noted that while the EZ-Link card looked deceptively simple, there is a lot of work and processes involved in the making of a new card for a student. This leads to multiple costs being incurred, resulting in the final price of $24.10 which they deemed to be reasonable and fair.
Several other netizens mentioned that the price would act as a deterrent for members of the public and encourage them to take good care of their belongings.
A few others said that rather than penalizing children and students for this, the cost was meant to urge parents to educate their children on the values of responsibility instead.
One netizen, in particular, urged others to be more sympathetic for the student who had misplaced the card, saying that anyone could lose one of their possessions any day.
You Zi Xuan is an intern at The Independent SG. /TISG