There’s been a shortage of Beep cards for a while now. If you ride any of Metro Manila’s trains regularly, then that’s not news to you.
What may come as a surprise to some of you, though, is that apparently, there are newer Beep cards available, and some of them are being sold online. The sad part is that these are scalped cards and are being sold at a premium, and a sizeable one at that.
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If you try searching for ‘Beep card for sale’ on Facebook, you’ll find a few posts on the Marketplace. Some cards are being sold for P120 a piece, others for P150. Seeing as some of these cards will be valid until 2027, then these are clearly new stocks that have apparently made their way to the hands of scalpers. What makes it even worse is that these Beep cards seem to have zero balance on them, so the P100+ reselling price is purely just for the card.
Neither AF Payments (AFPI) nor the Department of Transportation (DOTr) has released a statement on the matter as of this writing. Frankly, we can’t say for sure how this happened or when it all started, but all we know is that for the sake of commuters in the metro, we hope this gets resolved soon.
Have any of you managed to purchase a Beep card—from authorized sellers or otherwise—in the past few months? Tell us what you think of all this in the comments. Now, if you’re already a current Beep card holder, you might want to check out these guides on reloading and validity extension instead.
