You can avoid having to pay extra to top up by doing it on-line, setting up auto top-up or using a luas machine. As a matter of principle, personally I wouldn't pay a premium for phone credit or a leap card top-up, but it is obvious that it costs more to provide the service if it requires a human to process the transaction.
By using an automated service, you are cutting the transaction costs for leap, and you receive a benefit in the form of the lack of a transaction fee.
What would be helpful for occasional users would be the option to set a 5 euro auto top-up threshold. I go through spates of using my card every few months as mostly I travel on my rail only pass. I would rather not have 10 euro sitting unused on the card for months. As I only use the card around Dublin, a 5 euro reserve is plenty for my purposes.
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