being returned. The credit card is required to contain an EMV chip to get a subscription at a station; short-term subscription can also be purchased online. 1‑day and 1‑week subscribers are given a subscription number to be used for future rentals during their subscription period, while 1‑year subscribers are sent an RFID card. All types of sign-up can also be attached to a Navigo pass. The RFID card and Navigo pass allow direct use of the card readers at Vélib stations. Financing The system was originally financed by the JCDecaux advertising corporation, in return for the city of Paris signing over the income from a substantial portion of on‑street advertising hoardings. JCDecaux won the contract over a rival bid from Clear Channel. JCDecaux paid the system start-up costs, totalling about $140 million, and employed around 285 people full-time to operate the system and repair bikes, under a ten-year contract. The city received all revenue from the program, as well as a fee of about $4.3 million a year. In return, JCDecaux received exclusive control over 1,628 city-owned billboards; the city receives about half of that advertising space at no charge for public-interest advertising (slightly different numbers were reported in July 2008). This model was first used in France in 1998 by Adshel (now part of Clear Channel) in Rennes. Due to an unexpectedly high rate of vandalism compared to the Lyon bicycle hire system, the Paris City Council agreed to pay replacement costs of $500 per vandalised bicycle, leading to unexpected costs of up to €2 million per year. Issues Theft and vandalism At least 3,000 bicycles were stolen in the first year of operation, a number far greater than had been initially anticipated. By August 2009, of 20,600 bikes introduced into service, about 16,000 – some 80% of the total – had been replaced due to vandalism or theft; of the latter, fully 8,000 were stolen. Stolen Vélib' bicycles turned up in shipping containers destined for North Africa, and in cities as far away as Brașov and Bucharest, Romania. Vandalized cycles were sometimes thrown in the River Seine, or hung from lampposts. In 2009, the New York Times reported that it was common to see Vélib' bicycles in their docking stations with flat tires, broken pedals, or other damage. In 2012, however, the Financial Times reported that "attrition rates have fallen significantly" since the first two years of the