Charging to Top up a Leap card
 

I've just tried (literally) to top up my Leap Card at Spar in Parliament Street I was asked for an extra 50c to top it up. I thought it was illegal to put a charge on topping up a Leap Card - yet these shysters are still charging for it.

Go somewhere else... Seriously they will learn quickly when business goes elsewhere

The location has been troublesome for sometime. It has been reported

Yep I said that to them (that they had been reported) - I intend to report them to NTA and Consumer Affairs also.

Do retailers get a fee annually or how do they benefit. Is it just increased business for the benefit?

A 50c fee is very steep even if it was legal.

There is a commission paid

There is no law against it. It is a free country; they are free to charge whatever they like for the service and you are free whether or not to pay or to use a different outlet.

You can avoid having to pay extra to top up by doing it on-line, setting up auto top-up or using a luas machine. As a matter of principle, personally I wouldn't pay a premium for phone credit or a leap card top-up, but it is obvious that it costs more to provide the service if it requires a human to process the transaction.

By using an automated service, you are cutting the transaction costs for leap, and you receive a benefit in the form of the lack of a transaction fee.

What would be helpful for occasional users would be the option to set a 5 euro auto top-up threshold. I go through spates of using my card every few months as mostly I travel on my rail only pass. I would rather not have 10 euro sitting unused on the card for months. As I only use the card around Dublin, a 5 euro reserve is plenty for my purposes.

I've topped up at Easons in Hueston and Centra in Celbridge, neither of these charge extra for a top up.

None of the shops in Cork are charging commission for top-up, but one is refusing to load taxsaver bus passes.

They may not be prosecutable but if they are in breach of their sales agreement they are fair game for complaints to Leap/NTA, surely.