26 Facts About Octopus card

Octopus card is a reusable contactless stored value smart card for making electronic payments in online or offline systems in Hong Kong.

Octopus card has evolved for use as payment in many retail shops in Hong Kong, including convenience stores, supermarkets, and fast-food restaurants.

Octopus card won the Chairman's Award of the World Information Technology and Services Alliance's 2006 Global IT Excellence Award for, among other things, being the world's leading complex automatic fare collection and contactless smart card payment system.

The Octopus card system was quickly adopted by other Creative Star joint venture partners.

Boarding a bus in Hong Kong without using the Octopus card requires giving exact change, making it cumbersome compared to using the Octopus card.

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In 2000, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority granted a deposit-taking company license to the operator, removing restrictions that prohibited Octopus card from generating more than 15 percent of its turnover from non-transit-related functions.

Octopus card was originally introduced for fare payment on the MTR; however, the use of the card quickly expanded to other retail businesses in Hong Kong.

The Octopus card is commonly used in most public transport, fast food restaurants, supermarkets, vending machines, convenience stores, photo booths, parking meters, car parks and many other retails business where small payments are frequently made by customers.

The Octopus card company said it would be upgrading the system to allow automatic account updating in the future.

Usage of the Octopus card was extended to Macau and the Chinese city of Shenzhen in 2006.

In Macau, the Octopus card was introduced in December 2006 when two Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants in the territory adopted its usage as payment.

Octopus card "Automatic Add Value Service" is an automatic top-up Octopus card method.

The credit Octopus card used must be one offered by one of 22 financial institutions that participate in AAVS.

For those On-Loan Adult Octopus card issued on or after 1 October 2017, and has not had any add value or payment transaction for three years will become an Inactive Octopus card.

On-Loan Adult Octopus card issued on or after 1 October 2017, and has not had any add value or payment transaction for three years will become an Inactive Octopus card, which administrative fee will be charged.

The MTR Airport Staff Octopus card is available upon application via the company for which that a staff member works.

Smart Octopus provides features like instant transaction notification and in-app top-up function, that were not available originally when using a physical card.

On 11 July 2019, it was announced that Octopus card would be coming to iPhone and Apple Watch in late 2019, but the official launch was delayed till June 2020.

Octopus card system was designed by Australia-based company ERG Group .

Octopus card was selected in 1994 to lead the development of the Octopus project and was responsible for the building and installation of the components of the Octopus system.

Octopus is specifically designed so that card transactions are relayed for clearing on a store and forward basis, without any requirement for reader units to have realtime round-trip communications with a central database or computer.

Octopus card reader includes a fail-safe that prevents reader from initiating transaction when more than one card is being detected at the same time.

Octopus card is recognised internationally, winning the Chairman's Award of the World Information Technology and Services Alliance's 2006 Global IT Excellence Award for being the world's leading complex automatic fare collection and contactless smartcard payment system, and for its innovative use of technologies.

Octopus card then announced that the use of the payment system, Electronic Payment Services, at add-value service points would be suspended until further notice, and that it had started an investigation into the reasons for the problem.

Octopus card reported that there might be cases dating to before 2000, but that only transactions from the past seven years were kept.

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Octopus card stated that it would co-operate with EPS Company Limited, operator of Electronic Payment Services, and banks, to contact customers involved and arrange a refund within ten weeks' time.