The Octopus Card or ( the magical bus ticket with OVERDRAFT )

And I kid you not!

In May 2012 I got myself an Octopus card on the advice of my friend Yiman, a much more experienced Hong Kong traveller (at the time ;-).

The Octopus Card (not my pic)

You can load this card with any desired amount and swiping it across the Octopus Readers distributed throughout the public transit system and other places will automatically deduct the proper amount for the respective distance traveled on the respective mode of transportation. And those modes include The Peak Tram, any MTR train, buses, double-decker trams, the Star Ferry and other HK ferries.

Support our troups?. NOT!  Octopus Card reader at vending machine

As if this was not enough, you can hold it against most kinds of vending machines all over the city and it pays for your purchase.

Hong Kong Post Office: See those little yellow rectangles: Octopus card readers ;-)

And it works at 7/11 or Circle K.  It also works in the supermarket!  It works ... (hold on to something stable!) ...  in the General Post Office to buy stamps!

After you swipe it, it tells you the amount that is left on the card.  After exiting the tram the other day I had ~ HK$ 130 left.  Then I went shopping at my supermarket and used the card to pay.  Only later did I start wondering whether I actually had enough left on the card to pay the ~HK$ 145 that I spent buying wine, cigarettes and chocolate.

When I went to refill the card the next morning (at any MTR station) with 500 HK$ (hey, I travel all day every day), the balance slip informed me that my balance prior to top up had been  -17.4 HK$. Yes, that is a MINUS.
That means that they let me pay my grocery bill even though my balance was insufficient. "THAT is NUTS" was my first thought! These people don't even know where I live. I am using the Octopus card that I got last May.  How are they ever going to get their money back?
The brain mill of this German sometimes grinds very slowly, but then it does grind very fine too ;-)   It finally dawned on me that when I got myself this card last May, I paid a deposit of HK$ 50 in addition to the amount I put on the card to use. I was almost disappointed when I remembered that.  On the other hand: It is still admirable that they let you use the deposit to create an overdraft. Try that in Germany, where the main Parking Facility at Frankfurt International Airport doesn't even accept credit cards ;-)