Transit Benefit

*On January 1, 2025, all current FSA Health Care, FSA Dependent Care, and Transit participants will be transitioned to the new WEX Health portal. Starting December 2, 2024, all participants can create a “new user” account on the WEX Health Portal site using their Loyola email address. Please note: current Transit participants must make a new election for January 2025. Please see the “electing transit for January 2025” section below.*

Transit Program Basics

The transit benefit is an employer-sponsored program that allows full-time faculty and staff (working .80 FTE or greater) to set aside money from their paycheck on a pre-tax basis, which they can use for eligible transit expenses. This transit program excludes park and ride and reimbursement for parking-related expenses. In addition to our transit program, WEX administers Loyola's Health Care FSA, Limited FSA, and Dependent Care FSA. You can elect up to $325 for 2025 per month.

Changes in transit elections may take between six to eight weeks to apply to your account.
Your transit election, by payroll deduction, is then added to your benefits debit monthly.
The debit card will allow you to purchase or fund your transit cards for the Chicago Transit Authority (Ventra), Pace, and Metra, the transit dollars CANNOT be used for parking decks or park-and-ride lots.

New Changes for 2025

WEX participants will have access to a new and improved portal, a streamlined reimbursement process, and new savings cards.

Timeline of Changes

December 1- Access the new portal and make your transit elections
December 10- Deadline for making your Transit Elections for January 2025
December 11 through January 10- Elections made in this time will be for February 2025
December 26- New WEX cards will be arriving in the mail (can typically take 10-14 days after enrolling) All participants should receive their new debit cards by Mid—January.
December 31- Old WEX/BenefitExpress cards will no longer be active. However, any claims or reimbursement needed for 2024 expenses can be done via the OLD WEX/BenefitExpress portal loyolaexpress.com. 2025 elections or claims must be done via the new portal.
January 1- You can begin to contact the new WEX Benefit Participant Services if you have not received your new debit card in the mail by mid-January or have questions about your new account.

Electing Transit for January 2025

All elections for 2025 moving forward should be done via the new WEX Health Direct Portal.

How to elect transit via the new portal

Create your profile on the NEW WEX portal.

Under New User Tile, select "Get Started"
Enter Demographic Information to verify identity
Enter your LUC.EDU email address to set-up your account (SSO will be available at a later date). You will create your own user ID and password for your account.
Verify your email
Answer security questions
Download the WEX Benefits App for Apple or Android

Begin making your transit elections for January 2025

Under the I Want To section, Select "Enroll in Commuter Benefits"

Select Mass Transit
Select January 2025 as the effective date
Enter contribution amount
You now have the option to fund your Ventra Card directly via the WEX portal if you have an active Ventra Account.
You have until 11:59 pm on 12.10.2024 to make your elections for January 2025. Any elections after this date will take effect in February 2025.
Once WEX finalizes your enrollment, participants will receive an enrollment confirmation email.
Transit participants should be able to see their current transit balances once their accounts have been transitioned to the new portal later this month.

Accessing Account Balance and Rollover Amounts

During this migration to the new WEX portal, you will not have access to view transit or FSA (health, limited, dependent care) balances, rollover amounts, or current elections until your data has been migrated from the loyolaexpress site to the new WEX portal. Transit participants simply need to create an account and select the transit amount they want for January 2025. Once your data is loaded to the new portal you will receive notice from WEX or Loyola.

Receiving your new debit cards

Your new WEX debit cards will be mailed out in late December, and you should receive your new cards no later than mid-January. Please allow a minimum of 14 days for WEX to create your account and issue debit cards. If you have not received your new debit card by mid-January, please contact the NEW WEX Direct Benefit Participant Services, Monday-Friday from 6am-9pm CST.

Contacting WEX

Starting January 1, 2025, there are three ways to connect with the new WEX team.

Via Telephone: 866.451.3399
Via Email: customerservice@wexhealth.com
Via Chat: https://wexinc.com/contact/health

Reminder, your old WEX/Benefit Express debit cards are due to expire 12.31.2024. If you also participate in FSA Health, Limited FSA or Dependent Care please visit that page for details related to this benefit as the transition timeline is different.

Benefits Debit Card

The benefits debit card will provide services for all your reimbursement accounts: transit, Health Care FSA, and Dependent Care FSA. However, this card cannot be used for parking decks or park and ride, as this benefit is not part of our transit program.

Your transit deductions are loaded to your WEX debit card at the end of each month, so funding is ready for use on the 1st of the following month. Faculty and Staff members must utilize their transit dollars by purchasing eligible transit directly with their Debit Card at Ventra, Metra, or other valid transit options noted above. Faculty and Staff can also fund their Ventra Cards via the Ventra portal using the debit card provided by WEX. Current transit and FSA participants your card will expire on 12.31.2024

Accessing the Old WEX/Loyola Express Portal and Transit Portal

Until 12.31.2024, WEX/Benefit Express can be reached during traditional business hours at 877.837.5017 or LoyolaExpress.com. You can continue to view balances and submit claims until 12.31.2024. The contact information for the new WEX platform is located above. Please continue to place 2024 claims requests via the old portal.

IRS Pre-Tax Payroll Deductions

Your unused transit dollars will continue to roll over from one IRS calendar year to the next unless you stop your transit via the Loyola Express portal. Due to the pre-tax deductions and IRS implications, refunds are not given for unused transit dollars. Please transfer any remaining transit to a Ventra Card or purchase transit with any remaining funding. It is advised that you keep track of your transit elections and make changes where needed to avoid carrying over a balance that will not be refunded. Your unused transit dollars cannot be switched over to any other type of savings account, this includes Health FSA, Dependent Care FSA, or HDHP HSA Accounts.

Updated: 12.4.2024

Enroll in the transit benefit program online at WEX Direct. Enrolling online is easy and safe. Our secure website is set up to automatically take you through easy enrollment steps which are noted above.

You may log on at any time to view or change your elections. To change your election(s) online, the cut-off date is the 10th of each month.
Your new change will be effective with the following full month’s payroll deduction(s) taken from the subsequent month’s transit fare media. Funds will be available for use the 1^st of the month following the change.
A minimum of 6–8 weeks is required for all changes to take effect. This includes starting, changing, and ending participation in the program.
For 2025 All changes including cancellation need to be processed via WEX Direct.
Employees are strongly encouraged to keep track of their transit payroll deductions via Employee Self-Service and report any payroll deduction errors to benefits@luc.edu as soon as possible. This includes errors in the deduction amount or if an employee has access to transit dollars but no payroll deductions.
Make sure your transit deductions and available balances do not exceed your actual usage as there are no refunds given for unused transit dollars and unused dollars cannot be transferred to other FSA accounts.
Transit funding can be transferred to Ventra Card(s) or other transit can be purchased as needed.

Transit account participants can purchase transit through the WEX Debit Card. The card gives easy access to ALL reimbursement accounts combined into one card. Card details include:

No debit card fee
Easy access to all reimbursement accounts—health care FSA, dependent care FSA, and transit
The card will be funded with monthly transit election contributions by the last week of every month, and these funds will be available to use by 1st of the following month
Current debit cards expire 12.31.2024. New WEX Direct cards are being processed and will be mailed in Mid December.
Can be used to purchase various mass transit options such as Ventra, Pace, Metra, and Amtrak.
Any transit dollars not used will continue to roll over each month and never expire

Employees leaving the University need to contact the Benefits Department at benefits@luc.edu as soon as possible so that adjustments can be made to their deductions. Employees should log into WEX Direct and cancel their transit.

The debit Card will be shut off as of the employee’s termination date. It's advised that all remaining funding your WEX Debit Card be transferred to a Ventra card(s) before your termination date. You also have the option of using your remaining transit dollars to purchase other eligible transit.
If you have made valid transit purchases using a form of payment other than your debit Card you can submit receipts to WEX/Benefit Express for 2024 claims only. 2025 moving forward claims for reimbursement should be made via the WEX Direct portal.
Due to the pre-tax deductions and IRS implications, refunds are not given for unused transit dollars. Please transfer any remaining transit to a Ventra Card or purchase transit with any remaining funding prior to your termination date.