Since Monday, Aug. 13, drivers going into Malaysia are no longer able to top up their Touch 'n Go cards at the Causeway immigration checkpoint.

No more top-up services at Causeway

According to a Channel NewsAsia report, the service "has been removed from counters that are for traffic inbound from Woodlands at the Sultan Iskandar building".

This move is to reduce traffic congestion resulting from drivers needing to top up their cards.

Although top-up services in the car zone are no longer provided, those in the inbound (to Malaysia) lorry and bus zones are still in operation.

The service will also still be available for outbound traffic from Johor Bahru to Woodlands.

[related_story]

Can still enter without sufficient value

Here's the thing, though: if you're driving to Malaysia from Singapore, you can still enter even if you do not have enough money in your Touch 'n Go card — because you don't have to pay at the entry point.

However, you will have to top your card up within Malaysia before returning to Singapore.

Here's a nifty list of locations that allow you to do this. If you're lazy to click the link, you can do so at a wide range of places including self-service kiosks, Watson's, Guardian, Tesco, Giant, KK Super Mart, MyMydin, Cold Storage, several banks and petrol kiosks.

If your card balance is found to be insufficient when leaving Malaysia, you will still be able to top up your card, but may face a penalty.

Only need to pay toll charges when leaving

This measure, a recent change announced in late June, was also a move to reduce congestion and facilitate the clearance process when entering. You can read more about it here:

[UPDATE on Aug 16: At least one driver has informed us that he still had to pay toll, as recently as in the morning of Aug. 15, when entering and not when leaving. It is possible this new scheme has not kicked in across the board yet. After all, the June announcement of this change was timed as “soon”.]

Top photo adapted from Wikipedia.

Content that keeps Mothership.sg going

?

You don't want to read this article about blackheads, but you do, don't you?

?

Get yourself a healthy dose of local history in comic strip form here!

https://www.facebook.com/MothershipSG/posts/2013692198670422