Some New Yorkers who used their OMNY card for a subway or bus ride this week are finding surprise charges on their bank statements—sometimes for trips they didn’t take.
The problem appears widespread. A Gothamist reporter calling OMNY’s customer service line heard a prerecorded message addressing the issue before being placed on hold for more than 20 minutes with no response.
“You may have experienced delayed processing of tap-and-go charges to your bank card,” the message said. “You may also see charge amounts that reflect multiple trips or multiple days of travel. Please rest assured that you are not being overcharged.”
But some riders said they were being charged more than they should be. Reddit threads have filled with frustrated New Yorkers sharing stories of getting billed multiple times for a single swipe.
“Tapped once and got 7 charges,” one user wrote.
Another said they were charged for 13 trips, even though they only took three.
A spokesperson for the MTA directed Gothamist on Tuesday to a message now posted on the top of the agency’s website that reads, “If you use a Visa card for tap-and-go payments, you may have seen multiple authorization attempts on your card today. Please know you will be charged only for the correct number of trips.”
It’s not the first time the MTA’s contactless payment system has had problems.
In a recent statement to amNewYork, an MTA official blamed a recent software update meant to improve the OMNY system ahead of the MetroCard phase-out at the end of the year.
Jessie Lazarus, the MTA’s deputy chief for commercial ventures told the outlet the issue was first noticed around May 15 and was largely resolved by May 29.
Last summer, a software glitch locked OMNY users out of the system, preventing them from paying to ride, Streetsblog reported. The MTA later issued refunds to those affected.
The billing confusion comes on top of other OMNY problems, including faulty fare readers that kept falling off MTA buses and ongoing delays in fully phasing out MetroCards, which is now expected to stretch into 2026.
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