Originally Posted by Eastbay1K

I used to manually re-load from time to time, but then I started taking the bus more frequently -not enough for a monthly pass, but enough that I don't worry about running out of $ (especially because the manual online reloads can take up to a day to process). For BART, I have auto-reload on the "high value" ticket, so it doesn't eat the cash balance, and I get $48 for $45, or something like that. For those who regularly ride BART (although I've not looked it up in a while), there are two "high value" prepaid tickets available, which provide a small discount (via extra credit) with each recharge.