In a press release today, the company said that the introduction of an “Overdue Replacement Administrative Fee” will be launched on November 15 this year, which aims to encourage customers to promptly replace Octopus cards that are due to expire and become invalid.

The company will offer a minimum of a three-month notification period to inform customers of their replacement, beyond which customers can still return their invalid cards for a refund or replace cards with new ones free of charge during a further one-year grace period.

The remaining value and most of the associated Octopus services or offers will be transferred automatically and free of charge to the new card, and old Octopus cards will become invalid after the three-month notification period.

However, under the new administrative fee measure, customers who do not go to replace their cards after one year will be charged HK$20 per year from the remaining value stored on and the deposit of the invalid Octopus until both sums are fully depleted.

The measure will be introduced on November 15 this year, and the earliest date for the charge will be November 15 next year.

The Card Replacement Programme was first introduced in 2017 to gradually replace Octopus cards over 15 years old.

Customers who hold an Octopus card due to expire will hear three “Dood” sound upon tapping their Octopus card on an Octopus reader during the three-month notification period. They can check whether their cards are due for replacement via the Octopus website, Octopus’ Interactive Voice Recording System, and Octopus Service Points at designated MTR stations and shopping malls.

In addition, customers who have their Octopus cards registered in the Octopus App will receive a push notification via the App, SMS message, or email informing them when their Octopus cards need to be replaced.