Ventra Card Status: Closed!
 

My wife and I are heading for a week-long vacation in Chicago on Tuesday. This morning, I went online to load our Ventra cards with 7-day passes. When I logged into my wife's account and clicked on My Cards, I was surprised to see that the status of her card is "Closed" even though it worked perfectly last time we were there last summer (2015) and is supposed to expire in 2020.

Even stranger, her transaction history has an entry in April of this year with a description of "Back Office" for a credit of $2.25. She was nowhere near Chicago in April, and has never called CS for any reason. There is no offsetting $2.25 charge transaction, even though her balance shows $0.00 (as we fully expect).

My Ventra card is fine and I can add money or passes to it as usual.

So, right now, we can't add the 7-day pass to her card like we wanted to. Of course I'll call CS first thing Monday morning to hopefully get this cleared up. But the curiosity is killing me. Anybody have any idea why her card could have been closed? And what in the world does that transaction from April 2016 mean? Strange indeed.

Maybe someone with a card with a very similar number called in to close their account, and the clerk closed your wife's by mistake.

It wouldn't surprise me if it was some kind of clerical mistake. But that credit entry in April? Strange.

I know it's not exactly the end of the world here, but when stuff like this happens, I tend to really shake my head in wonder. I wish CS was open! ;)

There is an inactivity fee of $5/month after 18 months of inactivity, "Back Office" sounds like it could be how they'd mark the inactivity fee. That shouldn't have applied to you being that you were here in 2015, but maybe something screwed up.

Update: When we were in Chicago in July 2015, we put a 7-day pass on my wife's card. According to her transaction history, at one point during that week, her card was swiped twice in succession at the Chinatown L station. The second swipe resulted in a $2.25 charge to her account, putting her in a negative balance. Ventra policy is that if an account stays in negative balance for 6 months, it is closed. The April 2016 transaction for a $2.25 credit zeroed out the negative balance and then the account was closed. We have no choice but to buy a new Ventra card when we get to the airport tomorrow.

Swiping twice in succession at the Chinatown L station doesn't make sense. I was with her and I had my own Ventra card with my own 7-day pass. My account history shows that I swiped my own card at the Chinatown station at the same time she supposedly swiped hers there twice. The only other logical explanation is that when she swiped the first time, she couldn't pass through the gate, so she swiped again. But it seems to me that the only reason she wouldn't be able to get through the gate is if her card wasn't read the first time she swiped it.

Oh well, enough. Time for final preparations, then we're on our way. On the positive side, we both got TSA pre-check for our trip on Southwest tomorrow. Looking forward to getting back to the Windy City.

I guess the lesson is to check your Ventra history after your trip to see if there's anything awry. You could have disputed the extra swipe and the card would have been left live.

So they killed the card, as well as closing the account. Seems wasteful - it would be better if they let a new account be opened, as long as the card was physically OK.

The card is dead and can't be resurrected. My wife's account is open as we can log into it online and check her transaction history. I'm hoping that when we get home from our vacation and register her new card, it will appear on her existing account. I agree it would be totally wasteful if she had to open up a new account to register her new card. They can't be that crazy, can they? ;)

Yes, you can add a new card to an existing account.

We have just one account for our whole family with three different cards registered. Much easier to keep track of when I need to re-fill cards.

Do all 3 cards draw from one master pool of funds, or does each card have its own money account?

Each has its own transit account, but they can all be managed from the same ventrachicago.com account including automated refills, etc.

As GLG noted, each has it's own Fare balance, but much easier to manage all three cards, add funds, etc from a single account.

Plus, one of them is my son's Student card, so no issue having different types of cards on the account.

Update: I just added my wife's new card to my account. Thanks for the tip about managing all cards from one account. We had a great week in Chicago and are looking forward to returning soon.