EasyCard

[1] Like conventional electronic fare systems, the card employs RFID technology to operate without physical contact.

Fares deducted from the card depend on the distance traveled and whether a public bus was used within a transfer time frame (currently, one hour).

Prior to the current rebate scheme, IC card users were instead given an automatic 20% discount off every published fare.

Fares deducted from the card depend on the distance traveled and a 15% discount over single journey tokens, which is the same as iPASS.

The EasyCard machine prevents repeated transactions on the same card until the bus travels into the next paying section.

As of 1 April 2024, EasyCards can now be used to pay for purchases at a variety of stores across Taiwan including 7-Eleven, FamilyMart, Cosmed, OK Mart, Hi-Life, Starbucks, Muji, Daiso and Pacific SOGO.

The balance on a card can be checked on the scanner unit whenever a transaction is made or using an EasyCard Reader located at all Taipei Metro stations.

[20] Joint-branded cards allow for an EasyCard to be linked with a credit or ATM account to automatically add value.

The option remains popular with users in spite of handling fees and a limit of how much money can be added per day (NT$500).

[24] Auto-recharge applied to debit card to make up to 3 times of each NT$500 at all Designated retailers and value-adding machine at Metro stations Several attempts have been made to embed EasyCard radio chips into mobile devices, enabling "transactions by phone."

Users are not billed by their telecommunications accounts; rather, they can read transaction records and check balance using a supported mobile phone.

EasyCard uses multiple encryption techniques to prevent illegal modification of values and hacking.

At the 27th annual German Chaos Communication Congress hacker conference ("27C3") in 2010, German free software programmer Harald Welte showed that it is possible to artificially change the amount of money stored on a first-generation EasyCard —based on the MIFARE Classic chip— using nothing more than a USB RFID reader and a laptop computer running open source software.

Critics have called for stronger measures to promote name registration of EasyCards in order to protect consumer rights.

An EasyCard reader on a New Taipei City bus.