Staying near Times Square. Where can you get a Metro card for the subway?

There is a huge subway station at Times Sq. / 42nd St and 7th Ave/Broadway. There are plenty of machines down there that take credit cards, ATM debit cards or cash.

Also, lots of newstands and small convenience stores sell them also. Look for the Metro Card logo.

Word to the wise.......when travelling keep you Metro Card easily accessible in a front pocket. Do not put it in your wallet and make a big deal about taking out your wallet each time, pulling out the card, then returning the card to the wallet and putting the wallet away. It just shows the entire city where your wallet is, especially on the bus and on the subway platform. Try to be discreet.

And do not store your wallet in a back pocket. Do not tempt anyone. You never know who is watching you and other tourists.

Remember about the free transfers.
Bub to bus......or subway to bus.

You can also purchase Metrocards at the Times Sq NYC Visitors Center. It's on the E side of Broadway, just S of 47th.

Also, there's a small transportation museum in Grand Central Terminal where you can purchase cards and other subway related merchandise. I bought some holders for the Metrocard for $1.50 each, which has enought space to slide the card in and out without it clinging to the sides.

Almost any subway stop sells them too, but only in the vending machines.

If you are paying cash you can buy a MetroCard from ANY subway stop. Simply go to the attendant sitting in the glass enclosure, tell them what you want and slide your money throught the slot to them.
If you want to use a credit or debit car, you need to use a MetroCard vending machine, located just outside of the turnstile entrance. Even the one day Fun Pass is available through the machine now.
You cannot buy a MetroCard on a bus, so get one from the subway first. It might be a good idea to buy your first card from the attendant so you can ask them for a map also.

Just a note: you can't buy the one day unlimited Fun Pass from the booth clerk, you have to buy it in the machine. The machine will only let you buy one at a time (the clerk can make change for you) and it's a royal pain if you have to buy Fun passes for a group. NYC wants the tourists but they don't want to make it easy to be a tourist.

I do believe the Metro Card dispensing machine, found in every subway station, will only dispense one card for each purchase.

Look at this website:

www.mta.nyc.ny.us/metrocard

which will give you a list of places, aside from the actual subway stations themselves, and also explain the different Metrocard options.

How many days are going to be there, i was there for 7 days and got the pass from subway stop attandant behind the glass. You get to go on any subway and bus as many times as you want, it was cool, it's easy and fun. You can go anywhere!
Loved it.

We just visited for 4 days (family of 5) and bought a $4 fun pass each day. We could only buy it from the machine at the subway stations but I heard you could buy them from various locations outside the subway. We went EVERYWHERE using the subway and never felt unsafe, including a 10:30pm ride from Brooklyn back to midtown Manhattan and a midnight ride from Grand Central. It was the weekend and there were tourists everywhere, however. What a wonderful city! I did a lot of research on this site and just had to eat at certain restaurants (Luna's in Little Italy) and go to the best bakery I've been to -Veniero's - so we just hopped on the subway and off we went. It's a great system.