Starting August 15, 2023, Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) riders will have a smoother travel experience as Interac Debit becomes an available contactless payment option for adult fares.
This initiative aims to simplify the transit process for those in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) by eliminating the need for loading passes or buying tickets.
“Now, Toronto’s transit users can swiftly pay for their rides directly from their bank accounts using Interac Debit. With its integration into the PRESTO network, we’re proud to enhance the transit experience for the entire GTA,” said William Keliehor, Chief Commercial Officer at Interac, in a statement to iPhone in Canada.
This development also signifies a milestone for TTC riders, as they can now use a debit card stored in their mobile wallets on smartphones or smartwatches to pay for adult transit fares. Since the introduction of Interac Debit contactless payments in 2021, about 32% of these transactions have been made using a mobile wallet, including the likes of Apple Pay or Google Pay.
“The ability to tap and pay with a debit or credit card is a feature our riders have long desired, and we’re thrilled to make their commutes more effortless,” said Rick Leary, CEO of the TTC.
Interac’s commitment to enhancing transit payments extends beyond Toronto. In May, nine transit agencies incorporated Interac Debit as a contactless payment method within the PRESTO fare system. Other transit agencies, including TransLink, Société de transport de Laval (STL), Fredericton Transit, and Lethbridge Transit, have also adopted it.
“By integrating Interac Debit payments, transit agencies are catering to the payment preferences of nearly 30 million Canadians. As we navigate the post-pandemic world, such conveniences can play a pivotal role in boosting ridership,” said Andrew Yablonovsky, AVP of Group Product Strategy and Growth at Interac.
A 2022 survey by Interac revealed a strong inclination towards contactless payments among Ontarians. 67% expressed their likelihood to use such payments if available, and 69% viewed Interac Debit as a handy transit payment method.
“We’re elated to offer TTC riders the choice of Interac Debit payment on PRESTO devices. From August 15, transit users across the GTHA can opt for their preferred card, streamlining travel across the region,” said Barclay Hancock, Chief Payments Officer at Metrolinx.
While Interac Debit has landed for contactless payments, TTC riders beyond Rogers and Freedom Mobile customers are still waiting for wireless coverage.
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While I guess it’s not surprising since it appears to have come from an Interac press release, the article is a bit misleading as it implies that the TTC is only going to support debit cards. Thankfully when I visited Presto’s home page, I discovered that it’s both Interac debit and credit cards, like most of the other GTA transit agencies…
Starting August 15, you can tap an Interac® debit or credit card on PRESTO devices
That’s good news, as the big downside to using Interac Debit is that it can’t be set as an Express Transit card in Apple Wallet. That means you’d have to authenticate with Face ID, Touch ID, or a passcode every time you want to board a bus. It’s a bit less cumbersome with an Apple Watch as long as you set your Interac card as your default payment method since in that case you only need to double-click the side button to bring it up.
They said they are working on a digital presto card. I rather have that and then I can it as a transit pass vs using a credit card. And are they going to charge the Presto fare or cash fare if u use a credit card?
Also how would they be able to avoid charging u twice if u hop onto a bus and a train with 2 hours? If u are using a presto card they must have a way of checking the last time the card is used. But can they do this if u are using a credit card or debit card??
Yeah, a digital Presto card would be nicer for frequent travellers and those who need to use other fare categories. For instance, despite having an iPhone, my teenage daughter will still need to use her phsyical Presto card if she wants to only pay the youth/student fare. However, as somebody who only uses the TTC infrequently, loading up a Presto card becomes more of a hassle, so direct payment is a nice alternative.
Transfers are handled properly by the system, as described on Presto’s website:
Presumably they just keep track of the card number, although that could present a challenge for Apple Pay users — you’ll have to make sure you always use the same device to pay your fare on every leg of your trip. Since each one gets a unique Device Account Number (DAN), the system would see a payment from an iPhone and an Apple Watch as being two entirely different cards. The DAN also changes every time you remove and re-add a card to Apple Pay, even on the same device, although you’re not likely to do that in the middle of a two-hour transfer window.
This is the same problem you’ll have if you try and get a refund from stores that require you to present the original payment card — you have to use the same device that you purchased the item with. I once had to take a store credit at Best Buy as I was unable to provide the credit card I used to make the purchase since I’d upgraded my iPhone between the time I bought the item and the time I was trying to return it.
I was thinking the same thing as well with Apple Pay. How does that work if u are not sending the actual card #. Good to know that it will continue to work as long as u avoid the things u mentioned. Thanks.
And how does that work for different price ranges – Youth (to 19), Adult and Senior? Monthly passes? Or, for that matter, Fair Pass? Will everyone just be charged an Adult fare (ka-ching)?
Yup. Direct tap-to-pay is always an adult fare as it has no way of authenticating you. You’ll still need to use a Presto card if you want the youth, student, or senior fares.
I suppose it’s nice to have options, but it still makes more sense to just buy a PRESTO card and load a bunch of money into it for all of the benefits PRESTO offers (cheaper fares, tracked free transfers, etc.), even if you only use the TTC once in a while. Paying cash/debit/credit continues to be the most expensive way to use the transit system, as it is in many places you might visit.
I don’t know what it is that allows some transit networks to store their transit cards onto a phone and others not to. But if you look at the iPhone, for example, there actually appears to be very few transit systems in the world that allow that option and almost all of them are in Asia, so it’s not so much a surprise that PRESTO hasn’t gone that route.
You still get the same free transfers and Presto fare when using a debit/credit card, as it’s still Presto that’s handling the contactless transaction and not the TTC. Ditto for other GTA transit agencies, which have already supported credit/debit payments for a few months.
With Apple Pay you just have to make sure you use the same device for transfers since each device has a unique virtual card number, so if you pay for the first leg with an iPhone and the second with an Apple Watch or physical card you’ll be charged a second fare. Same for those situations that require you to “tap off” when you leave a vehicle.
I think the goal of many transit agencies has been to move away from dedicated fare cards as there’s a lot more overhead in managing those compared to direct payments. London UK and New York City went this route years ago, and even Vancouver had it in place last year, I believe. As usual Presto/Metrolinx is simply behind the times, with the TTC even farther behind the rest.
Fare cards had their place in an era of unconnected vehicles, but the times are changing. Since a fare card stores the money on the card, online access isn’t required to check balances and deduct fares. That’s also why it takes up to 24 hours to load your Presto card online — the info has to be pushed out to every terminal so it can “write” the new money onto your card the next time you tap it.
Processing credit/debit cards isn’t doable without a cellular data connection on every single bus in the transit system, but now the advent of 5G has made that kind of low-bandwidth data much more cost-effective so there’s less of a need to manage a separate payment system, at least for adult fares. Dealing with the special fares is much more challenging as you have to validate the cardholder’s identity, and of course Presto will always have its place for handling monthly passes.
Thanks for the info. It’s great to know transfers would still work with the phone, but does what you’re saying also mean that the adult fare paid with PRESTO was already the highest fare? I was under the impression that there was a slight discount simply for using PRESTO and that there was still a higher fare when paying cash directly to the fare box, for example. I also wasn’t aware London had changed. I was using their transit card up until the pandemic (I work for an airline, so I’m kind of familiar with systems in cities I visit frequently). I knew you could pay with your phone their, as in other cities, but I didn’t know they could track your usage that way and apply the available discounts (like the daily fare limit). Maybe what you’re saying is the answer to why you aren’t able to add more digital transit cards to the iPhone; it might simply no longer be necessary as the technology has developed.
I still have cards for quite a few cities, so it seems they’re still in use in some places, but I should check now to see if they’re really still needed and if there’s a continued benefit. Thanks again for the update!
I think the TTC “cash” fare is slightly higher at $3.35, which is also the same for a Presto “one-ride” ticket. The normal adult Presto fare is $3.30, and that’s what the contactless payment will charge. It’s not much of a difference, but I imagine it would add up over time.
I haven’t been to London personally, so my information is anecdotal at best, but I know they were one of the first transit agencies to adopt Apple’s Express Transit feature, and from the research I’ve done (I write about Apple tech for a living), you do need to tap in and tap out with the same device so it can track fares properly, so I assume it would do the same for things like the daily fare limit.
I imagine most agencies will continue to support fare cards for quite some time, since they’re needed to handle special fares and passes. There’s no easy way of validating your fare class with a standard credit/debit card that wouldn’t be a privacy nightmare, not to mention the issue of mobile wallets all using virtual card numbers that wouldn’t be tied to your actual physical card number — and change every time you switch to a new device or even remove and re-add your cards.
Regarding your point about special fares, I was curious as to why it isn’t possible to add the cards of more transit systems to the Apple Wallet, so I looked up San Francisco’s Clipper Card, which is one of the few cards I have the the iPhone accepts. It seems the way the SFMTA has implemented special fares is by issuing unique cards for the different types of discounts (youth, senior, etc.). Maybe that’s why their cards can work with the wallet while a universal card like PRESTO can’t, unless of course what you said about validation is still the biggest hurdle and Apple just happened to sort out cards for California and Washington, DC for some other corporate reason.
I think it’s more about Presto just not wanting to get on board with Apple Wallet — at least not yet. Apple can’t add support unless the transit agency is willing to cooperate.
However, from a technical perspective, there’s no reason a universal Presto card shouldn’t be able to be added to Apple Wallet with support for multiple fare types. I’m not familiar with SFMTA’s systems, but if they’re using standard stored-value cards (SVCs) then it’s just a matter of writing the correct fare type onto the card.
I suspect SFTMA just uses the different ones for visual identification. That’s admittedly a small flaw in the Presto system as there’s little to prevent me from using my daughter’s lower-fare Presto card other than a different noise and color flash on the terminal, which seems to be the same for all special fare cards (it didn’t change when she turned 13 and the card went from free to the youth/student fare).
I’m not sure how validation would be handled with a digital Presto card, but it could presumably be done the same way as a physical one — by visiting a Presto agent like a Shoppers Drug Mart and having them set the new fare type via NFC. That might be a bit too “low-tech” but it’s probably how Presto would go, considering that they can’t even seem to figure out how to automatically transition from child to youth fares — when my daughter turned 13 last year, her card reverted to an adult fare, and I had to go back to Shoppers Drug Mart with her birth certificate again to prove that she hadn’t actually aged five more years overnight 😀
Why don’t they just add Presto Card onto the Apple Wallet I bought Clipper card for trip to San Francisco its there Transit
I didn’t have to download there metro app or get there physical card just and bought & Top Up it through Apple Wallet under clicking Add Transit & Express card
Apple contacted SF transit agency they issued me the digital card instantly after made payment into my Apple Wallet and you can add any amount you want in the future in the wallet no need App its that easy Don’t have have the physical card keep it home
I guess MetroLink don’t not want pay Apple each transaction $0.15 every time there Riders Tap there Presto Card that why hold back lol.
Well, technically direct payment via Apple Pay is going to have similar transaction fees and it’s still MetroLinx handling the payments.
If anything, I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re higher than connecting a Presto card. I’m not aware of what Apple’s fee structure is for transit cards, or even if there is one (probably), but transaction fees for VISA/MC/AMEX are well known.
I’m not sure what’s taken so long for Presto to get with the program on adding their transit card into Apple Wallet, but I”m more inclined to blame technical limitations. As I mentioned in another post, it still boggles my mind that their system isn’t set up to automatically transition child fares into youth fares. Direct NFC loading in their app also took a lot longer than it should have, so they don’t exactly run ahead of the curve on this stuff.