Photo: Vitaly Gariev / Unsplash

Topping up your city card: how to add new credit to your pass

A city pass only earns the name if you can keep using it. Until now, a city card on MijnEvent was single-shot: buy it, spend it, done. From today every city card is top-uppable — including the physical pass with a pre-printed QR code that you picked up at a counter or found in your letterbox. Adding new credit takes half a minute, right on the programme's public page.

Scan the QR — or type the code

The programme page of your city card has a new block: "Already have a city card?". You have two options. The fastest: press Scan QR code and point your camera at the QR on your pass or in your voucher email. The page recognises the code and takes you straight to your balance.

No camera at hand? Type the card code instead. It uses three input boxes of four characters — the dashes are already shown between them, so you never type those. Pasting works too: a copied code distributes itself across the boxes. Lowercase letters or a mixed-up O and 0? Corrected automatically.

The top-up block on the programme page: scan the QR or type the card code Scan the QR code on your pass, or type the card code into the three boxes — the dashes are already there.

Pick an amount and pay with iDEAL | Wero

After the check you see your current balance, the validity and — if the pass can be topped up — the top-up form right away. Pick an amount (€10, €25, €50 or €100), optionally leave your email address for the confirmation and pay with iDEAL | Wero. As soon as the payment is confirmed, the amount is on your pass. Up to a maximum balance of €150 per card.

The balance page with the top-up form Check the balance and top up right away — the amount lands on the same pass.

An empty or expired pass? Simply usable again

The best part is in the edge cases. Has your pass been spent down to zero? No need to buy a new one: topping up reactivates it instantly. And did the pass expire while it sat in a drawer? Same story: adding credit makes it valid again, and the validity is extended as if the pass had just been issued — it can never get shorter. One physical pass lasts for years.

After a successful top-up you immediately see the new balance, and if you left an email address a confirmation lands in your inbox with the amount added, the new balance and the validity.

The confirmation page after topping up Right after payment: the new balance and the (extended) validity.

For issuing organisations: reuse instead of reprint

For municipalities, BIDs and retailers' associations this changes something fundamental. A physical pass used to be as finite as the credit on it; now it is a reloadable carrier. That saves print runs and issuance admin, and it lowers the threshold for repeat spending: someone who already carries the pass tops it up faster than they would buy a new voucher.

In the dashboard, top-ups simply count towards the issued credit and the charts, and spending at participating shops works exactly as before — scan, redeem, automatic email to the card holder.

Try it yourself?

Topping up is part of the Gift cards & city cards module. If you already issue a city card through MijnEvent, the feature is live on your programme page automatically. No city card of your own yet? Have a look at the module page or get in touch — we will help you set one up.

Back to blog
Read more