Octopus Cards Limited's Automatic Add-Value Service, which reloads a card when its value drops to zero, is growing in popularity in Hong Kong, with 20 financial organizations now offering the service.

Octopus Cards Limited is proud to announce that financial institutions offering Octopus Automatic Add-Value Service (AAVS) has increased to 20 major banks and credit card issuing companies in Hong Kong. Citibank and Hang Seng Bank are the most recent additions to offer this service to their credit cardholders.

Being the first-of-its-kind in the world, the AAVS has been operating since 1999. When the remaining value on the card reaches a zero or negative balance, or when the remaining value plus the maximum negative value is insufficient to settle the full cost of the transaction, the card will be automatically reloaded with HK$250 through the extensive network of Octopus readers all over Hong Kong (each card can only be auto-reloaded once per day). The reloaded amount will be deducted from the cardholder designated credit card, savings, current, or integrated bank account, with every AAVS transaction clearly shown on the bank statement or passbook.

With AAVS, cardholders can avoid the hassle of ever lining up again for manual recharging. Currently, over 450,000 Personalized Octopus cardholders are enjoying the convenience and simplicity.

he introduction of the novel AAVS signified our dedicated efforts to make the reloading service even more convenient to our cardholders, said Cindy Cheng, Sales & Marketing Director of Octopus. o further strengthen the service provision, we have been continuously teaming up with more banks and credit card issuing companies over the past few years. Including Citibank and Hang Seng Bank, which have recently launched the service to their credit card customers, we now have 20 partners participated.

To take care of customer needs, some participating financial institutions also allow customers to auto-reload Personalized Octopus cards for up to three friends or relatives aged 12 or above through the AAVS.