Seeking ideas for using up commuter benefits / WageWorks balance in NYC

February 20, 2020 7:26 AM

I have $400 in pretax commuter benefits that expire in about a month. I live in NYC. Any ideas on how to use them up or bank them?

The most obvious way would be to put them all on a MTA Metrocard or two.

But I don't use the MTA all that often -- I get around via cycling more.

I will also put some on NJ Transit rail tickets to the airport, since tickets there don't expire and I go to the airport frequently enough.

I travel via Metro-North and LIRR in the summer, but I cannot bank those tickets since they expire after 60 days.

I'll use some of the balance for Amtrak and other upcoming expenses. I know I can use it for Uber as well, but I think only at time of purchase. If you know of ways to bank the cash, lmk!

Any other ideas for this $400?

Thanks!

posted by Borborygmus to Work & Money (14 answers total)

You can pre-pay Uber — "Wallet" in the menu.

Also, how often is "I don't use the MTA all that often"? If you got a card with 145 rides on it, would you use them all up eventually?

You could buy three monthly passes and sell them. I have no idea if that's legal or not.
posted by Ampersand692 at 7:35 AM on February 20, 2020 [1 favorite]

I think you could buy a prepaid OMNY card and put it all on there.
posted by RajahKing at 7:41 AM on February 20, 2020

Be sure to confirm that any imagined use of the funds is in line with your plan requirements- many do not allow you to use the funds for anything other than transporation related to your job (no airport or weekend travels).
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 7:48 AM on February 20, 2020

Can you use it towards an annual CitiBike membership?
posted by TORunner at 7:55 AM on February 20, 2020

Metrocards, but donate them?
posted by notquitemaryann at 7:59 AM on February 20, 2020 [3 favorites]

Keep a couple extra loaded if you ever get visitors from out of town?
posted by btfreek at 8:06 AM on February 20, 2020

You may hit a monthly spending cap ($230 or so the last time I needed to know), so if you have to spend that much you need to do some by the end of February and spend the rest in March. You are allowed to file for reimbursement of expenses incurred earlier in the tax year, as long as they were eligible and your total in any given month didn't exceed the monthly limit. Citibike membership should qualify, though, and I think you could file for reimbursement of last year's membership if it was paid during your eligible period.

Reselling cards paid for with pre-tax benefits is technically tax evasion and explicitly disallowed, but people do it on a small scale all the time.
posted by fedward at 8:31 AM on February 20, 2020

Transbridge Lines to PA (and Newark) don't expire. The website says they do, but the drivers don't check. If you want a cool day trip on this line, Doylestown has a spooky, artistic concrete castle.

LIRR 10-ride passes (the paper ones) last for six months (I have one in my hand right now: good for 10 off peak trips from the stations listed within six months of the date.) NYC Ferry/East river ferry paper passes are good for a year. The digital passes are always a worse deal than the paper fare media.

You can load up PATH money on a metrocard and it's good as long as the metrocard is-- there's lots to do in the Jersey City/Hoboken area.

You can buy Lyft passes and gift cards, but I'm not sure how those work.
posted by blnkfrnk at 9:06 AM on February 20, 2020

I was going to mention PATH, but blnkfrnk beat me to it.

Technically, MetroCards expire, but you can auto-transfer the balance at a ticket machine to a new one, so (keeping in mind the cap--think it's $230/mo.?) you could load one up and use it indefinitely. Technically it's just for commutes, but it's impossible to police/distinguish on an unlimited card (I'm a fairly scrupulous person, but I'm not keeping a separate MetroCard from my commuting unlimited card). I also don't think there's really an ethical (and probably not even a legal) problem with using them to commute to a different job than the one the card was issued for, even if the new employer doesn't offer the benefit. MetroCards can hold one active unlimited and one refill, so that would be $260 of it right there (you'd have to buy the active one now and the refill in the new month to avoid the cap).
posted by praemunire at 9:42 AM on February 20, 2020

Do they actually expire? Or do they just get refunded/paid out as taxable income to you?

(I ask because I tried to use up my commuter benefits before leaving a previous job, failed to completely use up, but then got the balance refunded to me a few weeks later.)
posted by flicken at 10:20 AM on February 20, 2020

Since you bike, could you use them for bike tuneups? Or bike parts/repairs?
posted by spinifex23 at 3:48 PM on February 20, 2020

Response by poster: Thanks!

Just some notes for posterity, in case similar questions arise in the future:

If you got a card with 145 rides on it, would you use them all up eventually?

Maybe, it might take a few years.

I think you could buy a prepaid OMNY card and put it all on there.

No OMNY yet, have to wait: All subway stations would receive OMNY readers by October 2020, in preparation for the launch of a prepaid OMNY card by February 2021

You may hit a monthly spending cap ($230 or so the last time I needed to know)

This is a great warning! I would not have known. It's $255 btw.

LIRR 10-ride passes (the paper ones) last for six months

Alas, there's also a $10 refund fee, so not the best use of my funds!
posted by Borborygmus at 9:03 AM on February 21, 2020

"You are allowed to file for reimbursement of expenses incurred earlier in the tax year, as long as they were eligible and your total in any given month didn't exceed the monthly limit"

fedward, do you have a link that explains this? I'm likely to be in that kind of situation this year, since my employer is slow to figure out our pre-tax deduction system, and I'm incurring parking expenses while they do. My amounts aren't large enough that I'd run into the monthly ceiling, even in catching up. I'd sure like to be able to put aside money in, say, June that would apply to Jan-May parking expenses. In the past, our previous FSA provider didn't allow that, but I'd be very happy if I can cite this rule in case of a problem.
posted by NumberSix at 9:56 PM on February 21, 2020

I don’t have anything handy because I walk to my current job. My last two jobs where I used transit benefits both used third party administrators, and there was always a link to request reimbursement for out of pocket expenses. You’d fill out a form (like this PDF from Wageworks) and either include a receipt or say “no receipt provided” and then submit it. One employer always screwed up their payments at the start of the year, so I had to pay out of pocket in January (and maybe even February) and claim the expenses in March once funds were available for reimbursement. The one thing I remember was that if you checked the “no receipt” box you had to sign next to it and also sign the form as a whole.
posted by fedward at 8:14 AM on February 22, 2020