Transit riders in Toronto, Hamilton, and the surrounding areas who also use Presto transit cards can now load their card onto their iPhone or Apple Watch to pay for rides.
There are two ways to add a Presto card to Apple Wallet. You can either buy a new card or move your old one over using the Presto app.
That being said, for simplicity’s sake, unless you have a discounted Presto agreement like a student or senior plan, I think most riders will be happy just making a new card in Apple Wallet and loading funds from that app.
To make a new card, open Apple Wallet, tap on the plus icon at the top left, select Transit Pass, and then choose Presto card from the list of passes. No matter how you set up your card, you can easily add funds right from the Apple Wallet interface, but you will need to use the older Presto app to set up an autoload.
Once added, the transit pass will automatically be loaded into your phone’s ‘Express Transit Pass‘ section. This means you can tap to pay for transit without unlocking your phone. Simply hold your phone to the terminal and it will pay with your Presto card. If you don’t use Presto, you can set your debit or credit card as your Express Transit Pass.
Due to the design of the Presto card, loading it into Apple Wallet disables your physical card. Preston only allows each card to access one bank of funds at a time, so you can’t use your physical and digital cards at the same time.
Speaking of working without connectivity – when your phone is dead, but still has enough juice to show the dead battery icon, it will still work as a transit pass.
Once loaded into Apple Wallet you can use your phone or Apple Watch to pay your fare. However, on transit lines where you need to Tap on and off (GO trains, UP Express, etc.), you need to make sure that you tap with the same virtual card when you board and get off the train. That means if you tap on with your watch, you also need to tap off with your watch.
How it works on Android
In the Presto app on an Android phone, you can add your card to your Google Wallet, but once you do this, it disables your physical card since the phone is effectively taking its place. When you load the card into your Google Wallet, it’s recognized as a ‘Transit Pass,’ which means you’ll be able to tap to pay your fare without unlocking your phone. That said, the screen needs to be on.
The Transit Pass will also tap by default on bus, subway and streetcar terminals even if you’ve set a default payment card to be your credit/debit card. The Transit Pass will always override your other cards when at a transit payment terminal.
That being said, reports from TTC riders on Reddit state that the Google Wallet implementation was rocky when it launched four months ago. One user suggests opening your Google Wallet on the Presto card to make it work best, but your mileage may vary.
MobileSyrup may earn a commission from purchases made via our links, which helps fund the journalism we provide free on our website. These links do not influence our editorial content. Support us here.
