I have been reading with interest various comments in this paper on the introduction of Octopus cards. Recently, with this concept also extended to public buses, the disadvantages to consumers have become more apparent.
The commuter pays $150 in advance for an Octopus card which has a face value of $100 - the balance of $50 being the deposit.
In practice, even if the negative value is a few cents, the card-holder cannot use up to the value of $30 set aside for over-travel, since the Octopus system rejects the card after a single negative trip. So, it is not fair to hold over $30.
A sum of $10 would be more practical considering that travel rarely exceeds this amount for a single trip in Hong Kong. This clever ploy merely serves as a high stockpile of interest-free funds to the company, apart from the interest generated by advance payment for services yet to be used.
In the case of the MTR and KCR, the Octopus system was supposed to replace stored value tickets, but Octopus users are still at a disadvantage, since the fare reduction offered by it falls well short of the free last ride with the stored value ticket. Hence the commuters are financially disadvantaged when using this new Octopus system.
In the case of buses, the disadvantage becomes even more obvious since unlike the KCR/MTR, which have a single ticket/Octopus arrangement with fare reduction for Octopus, there is no difference in the cost of bus fares whether you pay by coins or use the Octopus card.