Commuter, FSA FAQs

• Buy My Pass: Tell WageWorks which pass you want to buy from which transit or vanpool agency and it will be delivered to your home.
• Smartcards: WageWorks loads contributions directly onto Transit Agency smartcards where available.
• WageWorks Commuter Card: Works at points of purchase such as ticket machines/windows that accept MasterCard® credit cards.

WageWorks also offers three ways to pay for parking:

• Pay My Parking: Tell us how much and when to pay your parking garage and we'll send a check directly from your account.
• Pay Me Back: Pay to park and then get reimbursed via check or direct deposit
• WageWorks Parking Card: Works at parking providers who accept MasterCard® credit cards.

Only parking and mass transit costs incurred by you in connection with travel between your residence and your work place are eligible. Examples of eligible expenses include:

• Mass transit fares, including tickets, passes, tokens, vouchers or other fares for riding buses, trains, Para-transit vans or other mass transportation vehicles;
• Official vanpool* fees;
• Parking fees at or near your work place; or
• Parking fees at a location from which you commute to your work place via mass transportation or a carpool (ex: park-and-ride lot).

*Vanpool is defined as a vehicle with seating for 6 or more adult passengers, excluding driver; 80% of mileage is to transport employees and 50% of seating capacity used for employee transport.

Since WageWorks offers a variety of monthly commuter choices, you must open an account and tell WageWorks how to fulfill for your qualified transit and/or parking expense requests.

A Smart Card is a plastic, credit card size card with an imbedded chip imbedded that stores cash or fare balances. Banks have used them for some time for their credit card holders and now New Jersey transit riders can use their SmartLink SM cards at all of their 13 PATH station entrances. The logic of the card is similar to E-ZPass and all you do is swipe the card at the turnstile. It is so strong, it can read your account even through a leather wallet or handbag. This also helps keep your wallet or bag safe since you don’t have to remove your smart card to use it. New York’s MTA is working on a similar project and WageWorks will let us know when that becomes available.

The SmartLink cards can be purchased through WageWorks. You can elect a WageWorks commuter debit card and use it to fund your SmartLink card.

To review the transit agencies in your area, please go to the WageWorks home page and follow the instructions for first-time user. Once logged into your account, go to the Commuter Tab, Select "Place Commuter Order" under the "Manage My Account" section, then click on the "Transportation" button to review your options.

No. The following is a partial list of ineligible expenses for reimbursement under a commuter spending account: Tolls; Traffic tickets; Fuel; Mileage or other costs you incur in operating a vehicle; Taxis; Payments to a fellow participant in a carpool or to a friend who drives you to work; Parking at your personal residence; Parking at your spouse's place of work; Parking at a mall or similar location where you stop on your drive to or from your place of work; Costs that have been or will be paid by your employer, such as for a business trip; and Parking at an airport for taking an airplane to work.

You will not need to do anything. WageWorks coordinates elections with the Long Island Railroad’s Mail-n-Ride program to ensure that participants do not receive multiple orders. At the time you make your election, you will provide specific information about your mail-n-ride account. Payment to your account (partial or full) will be made from WageWorks directly to LIRR. You will continue to receive your ticket via the mail-n-ride program. NOTE: Elections for the Long Island Railroad (and MetroNorth Railroad) mail-n-ride program must be completed by the 4th of the month. This is regardless of the deadline of your employer.

Yes. By selecting Every Month when you configure your transit selection, you will automatically receive your transit pass/commuter cards and you will not need to come back to the Commuter Spending Account unless you wish to make a change to the monthly frequency or to the type of pass.

Yes, WageWorks offers the sale of reduced fare MetroCards on their site. Or you can sign up to load funds onto a WageWorks commuter card to purchase your reduced fare MetroCard directly from the transit agency.

Yes, you can sign up to load funds onto a WageWorks commuter card to purchase your Senior Discount MetroCard directly from the transit agency.

Yes, WageWorks can support your specific needs. Since you prepay for your annual parking space, you can elect a monthly Pay Me Back election equivalent to 1/12 of the annual cost. Assuming that this amount is less than the maximum IRS limit, you can request additional funds be deducted to cover your infrequent parking expenses when driving in to work.

For those infrequent parking expenses, you still need to remember to update your election before the deadline of the appropriate benefit month. You cannot retroactively submit claims for expenses already incurred.

• Example 1: Your annual parking permit is $1200 per year. You elect for a $100 Pay Me Back parking for January. On January 1, you submit your electronic acknowledgement of the expense paid and you are reimbursed $100. If you later spend additional money for parking at NYU in January, no additional funds can be reimbursed.
• Example 2: Your annual parking permit is $1200 per year. You also anticipate you will drive in to NYU and pay additional parking costs of $50 during the upcoming benefit month. You elect for a $150 Pay Me Back parking for January. On January 1, you submit your electronic acknowledgement of the expense paid for your annual permit and you are reimbursed $100. Later, you spend the additional $50 for parking at NYU. You fill out a paper claim and fax it to WageWorks with your receipts and you are reimbursed $50.

If your monthly transit expenses exceed the IRS pre-tax limits of $240.00 per month for mass transit and $240.00 per month for parking, we will deduct the maximum before tax benefit from your paycheck. Any remaining balances will be deducted from your pay check as an after tax deduction. This gives you the convenience of paying the full cost of your commute by convenient payroll deductions with no outlay of cash by you.

WageWorks makes every effort to ensure that passes are mailed out in time so they can be received by the first of the benefit month. If you do not receive your order by the first of the benefit month, please contact WageWorks within the first three business days of the month. You will be instructed to purchase your exact order directly from your public transportation or vanpool service and will be provided with a Special Handling Form with which you can request reimbursement. The Special Handling Form must be received no later than the 10th of the benefit month to be accepted for reimbursement up to the cost of your regular WageWorks monthly order. There is a lifetime maximum of two replacement cards.

No, they are not insured the way some transit authorities insure transit passes purchased by using a debit or credit card. However, if you don’t receive your pass by the first of the month you should call WageWorks who will tell you how to replace the card. If you lose the card during the month you use it, there is no insurance to replace it. If this is a concern, you may use the WageWorks commuter card to purchase an unlimited MetroCard to benefit from the MTA’s insurance policy. Rather than delivery of the pass each month to your home, you will need to purchase the pass directly from the MTA.

After logging into your WageWorks account, click on “Place Commuter Order” from the menu on the main Commuter page, and then select the Parking option. Choose “I have contracted a space and pay a monthly fee to part there throughout the month.” The site will return a list of parking providers in your area. Choose your provider from the menu.* Confirm your garage’s information, input your monthly expense and parking garage account number, and then complete your order. Remember to cancel your existing parking deduction if you already have one.

*This should pull up your garage’s information. If it does not, there is a link that will take you to a page where you can manually input your garage’s information.

You have six months from the end of the month to file claims for reimbursement from your Pay Me Back account. Be sure to check the deadline for each benefit month on the Account Activity page for this account. If you have a balance remaining after the deadline, you will receive a credit in that amount which will automatically be applied toward your next Commuter deduction. For transit, a benefit month is defined as the month in which the transit pass is useable. For parking, it is the month in which you can actually park.