I’ve been staring at my bank statement like a forensic accountant because I SWEAR the OMNY weekly cap is either the best thing since free transfers or quietly chipping away at my checking account!! I do the classic NYC irregular routine: three office days in Midtown, one weekend trip to Flushing, and maybe a late bus home after a night out. I know the cap is supposed to just stop charging once you hit the weekly threshold, but the individual daily charges still feel brutal when they show up one after another! Does anyone actually track their taps against a 30-day unlimited for a full cycle? Have you tried switching to a monthly MetroCard just to compare, or do you just let the cap run and hope for the best?? I want to believe the cap saves me, but I need receipts (literally).

DykerLights, I’ve run this comparison twice, and the answer is almost always: it depends on where the Monday boundary falls. OMNY’s weekly cap runs Monday through Sunday, not a rolling seven days from your first tap. A 30-day MetroCard starts when you first use it and runs 30 days out. If your three office days are Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and your weekend trip is Saturday, you may hit the weekly cap and then start a whole fresh cap Monday. If you instead had a Monday-heavy week, the same number of taps might not hit the cap.

I keep a simple notes file with the date, number of taps, and which week’s cap I’m counting toward. When I did a month with no Express Bus and no AirTrain, the weekly cap won because my heavy days clustered mid-week. When I had a week where I needed the subway plus several bus transfers across two calendar weeks, the monthly card won by a small margin.

One caveat: if your card is linked to OMNY, you can see the taps in the account dashboard, but it doesn’t give you a clean monthly-unlimited comparison, so you still have to do the math yourself. Also, if you ever take the JFK AirTrain, that’s a separate charge and doesn’t count toward the weekly cap, which can throw off your comparison.

I gave up on monthly cards a while ago, not because the cap is always cheaper, but because I don’t like watching a big lump leave my account at once. With OMNY I just reload a little and forget it. If you’re doing three office days every week plus weekend stuff, you’ll probably hit the cap most weeks, so it’s close enough. If you’re only commuting two days, don’t bother with the monthly. My rule: if I’m not tapping at least nine or ten times before Sunday, I’m not stressing. Somebody check me on that though.

Wait, the weekly cap is Monday to Sunday? I thought it was a rolling seven-day period from your first tap. That explains so much! I started a new job on a Wednesday and by the next Monday the cap reset and I was so confused. Thanks, landmark_lina. Does the OMNY dashboard show how close you are to the weekly cap? I keep checking my bank app and guessing.

big_city_beth, YES!! That Monday-to-Sunday reset is the hidden catch! I started a heavy week on a Friday once and it was the worst. Have you tried logging into the OMNY account online? It shows each tap and the weekly cap progress in the dashboard—it’s not perfect, but it’s way better than guessing from your bank app. I literally screenshot mine every morning now. EastHarlem_E, I like your ‘nine or ten taps before Sunday’ rule. I might steal that and put it on a sticky note in my wallet.

I just moved to the city and I’m still confused: does the weekly cap count subway and bus together, or are they separate caps? I thought bus taps didn’t count toward the same cap, but my roommate says they do. If they do count together, that makes OMNY way better for me because I take a bus to the train twice a day.

Firstwinter, I’m new too and I had the same question. From what I’ve seen on the OMNY site, bus and subway do count toward the same weekly cap, but the AirTrain doesn’t. I bought the monthly card this month because I was scared of card holds, but now I only go to the office twice a week, so I’m pretty sure I overpaid. Does anyone switch back and forth month to month, or is that more hassle than just sticking with OMNY?