How it Works

Many large institutions round fractions of pennies up or down.  The MTA does this as well.  Taking advantage of this feature is known as penny shaving.  You may have seen it in action in Superman III or in Office Space.

Richard Pryor did it in "Superman III."  Samir, Michael Bolton, and Peter Gibbons also made an attempt in "Office Space."  Penny shaving is the process by which one uses fractions of an amount to one's own advantage.  By taking advantage of how an institution rounds fractions of a penny, one can wind up paying less than they have to.

Whenever you add a certain amount above $5.50 to your card, the machine adds 11 percent.  Except that sometimes there are fractions of a penny left over.  Here is an example: 11 percent of $54.50 is $5.995.  So that is 99-and-a-half cents.  The MTA would round that up for you giving you $6.00.  You just earned an extra half a penny!  Now $6.00 is not 11 percent of $54.50, it is 11.00917 percent.  You just got a bonus that is more than 11 percent.  On the flip side, let us say you just added $49.55.  Eleven percent of $49.55 is $5.4505.  In this case, the MTA will round down, and you will only get a bonus of $5.45, losing a twentieth of a penny and your bonus will amount to 10.9989 percent.

But you do not need to worry about doing all these calculations in your head.  Metro¢ard$aver will do them for you.  All you have to do is type in how much money is left on your card and you will get a bunch of options that list all the good rates.