Had an Opal card when you were in Sydney with unused balance? Withdraw it before the government gets it.

Last updated on November 1, 2025

Have you visited Sydney Australia and the surrounding areas and bought an Opal card to use on the public transport system in the last 5 years? Did you have balance left over on it? The New South Wales government is going to claim that money if you don’t.

On October 15th 2025, The NSW Government announced that they will be claiming the money on unused Opal cards starting in 2026. According to them, there is 70 million Australian dollars locked away in unused Opal cards, so they have introduced a new Bill to allow them to claim that money. If the Bill is approved, they will be able to claim the money from Opal cards that have not been used in the last 5 years.

What is happening?

The NSW government wants to introduce a new Bill that will allow them to claim money on Opal cards that have not been used in the past 5 years for themselves.

When is it happening?

If the Bill is approved, people will have 12 months to do something about it before the funds are taken.

Who is affected?

Anyone who has an unregistered Opal card with money on it and has not used it in the last 5 years. Opal cards can be used in Sydney and its public transport network, all the way to the Blue Mountains, Central Coast, Wollongong, and Newcastle and Hunter region, so if you visited any of these places using public transport on an Opal card, you might have money left in it.

How can I claim the money?

You can claim the money for yourself in a few ways:

You can:

use the remaining balance on your Opal card for public transport trips – obviously if you are still physically in the area. Alternatively you can pass on the card to someone else who will be
transfer the balance of your old Opal dormant card to a new active Opal card you currently use
register the Opal cards to protect the balance, since only unregistered Opal cards will be affected. Note that registering the card will not let you reclaim the money directly – registering will allow you to add a bank account to transfer the money to, and you can only add an Australian account. To do this, after adding a bank account, you need to:
request a refund of any remaining value on an old Opal card to be transferred to a bank account. Only Australian bank accounts are accepted. If you have a large balance, you can try and find someone with an Australian bank account to receive the refund and then transfer it to you.

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