OREANDA-NEWS. January 10, 2013. Beginning in the New Year, holders of SEB ISIC and ITIC bank cards will be able to prove their right to ride public transport and receive travel benefits in Tallinn and Harju County in the same manner as holders of the new Tallinn Uhiskaart, since the cards are equipped with contact-free chips, reported the press-centre of SEB. 

“The number of contact-free terminals continues to increase, whether for opening doors or for use in the New Year in the public transport ticket system. Anticipating this trend, several years ago we began to issue ISIC and teachers’ ITIC bank cards using this entirely new technology. These bank cards are equipped with special chips, which allow them to be used in contact-free terminals.

This functionality, which has thus far remained unused, will be activated in the New Year, and clients will receive an additional option overnight for using their bank cards. In the same way that smart phones receive regular software updates, the modern bank card will also continue to evolve. In the future, in addition to card payments, bank cards may be used in public transport and why not in place of a key in door systems or libraries and as a contact free source of identification in cafe cash register systems. The result will be a reduction in the number of cards found in wallets, since a single card will offer many different possibilities,” explained Eerika Vaikmae-Koit, Head of SEB’s Retail Banking.

As of 1 January, all users of SEB student and teacher cards will have the opportunity to register their bank cards on the United Tickets webpage, purchase ID tickets for their card and thereafter use it as proof of their right to ride public transport and receive travel benefits. A card registered in the ticket system may be used until the end of the term of validity of the card, except in case the status of the user being a student or teacher ends or the user closes their bank card before the end of the term of validity printed on the card. In such a case the card is deactivated and a notice thereof will be automatically sent to the ticket system.

Buy a ticket – the cards linked with the ticket system function similarly to the current ID-card and the green Uhiskaart. Tickets can be purchase and loaded onto the card using a personal identification code at the website www.pilet.ee , over a mobile phone or from sales facilities. You can purchase and load personalised public transport tickets with various terms of validity onto the card and verify your right for travel benefits (for example free right to travel). The only difference from Uhiskaart is that you can only buy ID-tickets to the card and for the time being you cannot load money to the card to buy e-tickets.

In addition to Tallinn’s united ticket system public transport, SEB ISIC Tudeng (Student) Electron and SEB ITIC Opetaja (Teacher) MasterCard can also be used on Harju County’s public transport lines. For the time being, the public transport function does not extend to the SEB ISIC Opilane (Scholar) Electron bank card.