Where most straphangers see a pile of trashed MetroCards near a subway turnstile, Georgette DiFini sees a week’s worth of free rides.
DiFini, a social worker, has a habit of grabbing tossed cards, checking the balances and transferring any spare change to her MetroCard.
The penny-pinching strategy nets about $10 every two weeks, she said.
“I’d say I check about 45 cards a day going to and from the job” said DiFini, who lives off the F line in Brooklyn.
She said she started picking up discarded cards in May, as economic times were getting tight. She was rejected at the subway turnstile one morning, but when she checked the card, there was still $1.50 left.
“I was about to toss the card and waste it,” she said. “Then I realized that [is what] everyone else does.”
So she started searching for cards at the most strategic place: turnstiles.
“People just see ‘insufficient fare’ and drop it,” she said. “But two out of five cards always has something on it.”
In all, her fellow straphangers pay for about one-quarter of her subway rides each month.
“That’s going to help when they raise the fare,” she said.
On Thursday, the MTA board is expected to increase fares and cut services unless the state can bail the agency out of a $1.2 billion deficit. The city Independent Budget Office said the hike might make a single ride $2.50 and a monthly, unlimited MetroCard $104.
At first, DiFini said she kept a ledger book, counting the number of cards she grabbed and the amount of dollars she saved.
But she’s lost track by now, since she grabs the cards so regularly.
“Every so often, I’ll wait for people to pass through,” she said. “Sometimes, it could be embarrassing. But hey, it’s money.”
But her strategy might not work all the time. New York City Transit Spokesman Charles Seaton said a passenger is only allowed to consolidate leftovers from “up to five cards.” And time-based cards can’t be rolled over.
Still, DiFini said a station agent once swiped dozens of cards for her.
DiFini isn’t the only one who benefits from the cards’ abandoned nickels and dimes.
In September, the MTA took in about $4 million from expired MetroCards that had unused funds, according to a November financial report. The extra balances could have come from cards that were lost, tossed or carried home with tourists.
DiFini said the MTA should upgrade subway turnstiles to tell riders how much is left on a MetroCard.
“The buses tell you what’s left, but on the train, you never know,” she said.