Don’t swipe Ventra cards in your wallet, some say their debit card has been charged instead

By Sun-Times Wire

Nausheen Husain~Sun-Times

Rolling out a new citywide payment option for public transit is not going to come without its fair share of problems. Getting trapped in turnstyles and confusion about card distribution are obviously problems that are going to surface, but there’s one teensy issue that might be harder to fix.

Chicagoans have taken to Twitter to complain about their debit/credit cards being charged instead of their Ventra card after waving their wallet. This should only affect contactless payment enabled cards. Be on the safe side, take your Ventra card out of your wallet before swiping

DePaul University of all places has provided an explanation:

If you use your Ventra card while it's in your wallet, you could be charged twice since debit cards are also a payment form. Take it out!
— DePaul University (@DePaulU) September 10, 2013

Students: Ventra charges 1st touch-enabled card it senses. If you have touch debit/credit card, take U-Pass out of wallet to use.
— DePaul University (@DePaulU) September 12, 2013

Correction: Risk of @VentraChicago scanner double-charging debit card in your wallet only a risk if using Visa Ventra pass, not U-Pass
— DePaul University (@DePaulU) September 11, 2013

Tweets by ScottSutton5

So, you have to protect your debit and credit cards from #ventra or it will steal money. Nice @cta #cta !
— Randy Hardwick (@randyontheglobe) September 11, 2013