You can now use your Visa, Mastercard or American Express credit cards, Visa Debit, Debit Mastercard — or add these cards to your mobile wallet on your phone or watch with Apple Pay or Google Pay — to pay your adult fare on Brampton Transit, GO Transit, MiWay, Oakville Transit and UP Express.

If you’re travelling on UP Express, you can also use your Interac® Debit card to pay your adult fare.

To start, tap on a PRESTO fare-card device with your credit or debit card — or add your card to a mobile wallet and tap with your phone or watch. Be sure to take your card out of your wallet to avoid card clash and make sure you have enough battery power on your phone or watch for your entire trip. You can tap on with a credit card when travelling on Brampton Transit, GO Transit, MiWay and Oakville Transit and UP Express. You can tap on with a debit card on UP Express.

GO and UP Express passengers must tap off on a PRESTO device at the end of your trip with the same credit card, debit card or card in the phone or watch you used to tap on with - to make sure you pay the correct fare for your trip.

During a fare inspection, your proof of payment is the same credit card, debit card or card in your mobile wallet you used to pay your fare. If you tap the wrong card or mobile wallet for a fare inspection, your card could be charged an inspection fare.

Contactless payment is only available for adult fares (for now). If you want to pay a seniors fare or other discounted fares, you should still pay with your PRESTO card.

PRESTO says it’s working to expand contactless payment options, including more agencies and more places where you can use use debit cards, soon.

After a successful test run this past year on UP Express, PRESTO expanded the contactless-payment program to Brampton Transit, MiWay and Oakville Transit starting Thursday, August 11.

During the successful pilot on UP Express, passengers made more than 28,500 credit fare payments since March 2021 and more than 6,000 debit fare payments since October 2021 using these contactless-payment options.

Sources:

• PRESTO: “Contactless payment”, here;
• Metrolinx News blog: “New fare options for GO, Brampton, MiWay & Oakville Transit”, here.