Do you often travel by public transport? Then you can pay in more and more countries using your iPhone or Apple Watch. You can easily add a public transport card to your Wallet and use it to check in and out.
Adding a public transport card is not yet possible in all countries that support Apple’s Wallet app. For example, in the Netherlands you can use OV-pay and pay via your debit card, but a public transport card is not yet supported. We explain in which cities and countries you can use the Express public transport card.
Link public transport card to Wallet
With a public transport card you can easily pay for public transport rides using your iPhone or Apple Watch. You can easily add a digital public transport card to your Apple Wallet. In most cases you can top up this public transport card using Apple Pay, the credit can then be used on public transport in that country or city. Click here for more information about the public transport card for Wallet and in which countries/cities they are available.
- Open the Wallet app for iPhone
- Tap the plus button
- Select ‘Public transport card’
- Search the list for the desired public transport card, for example ‘Suica’
- Tap ‘Continue’
- Choose an amount and tap ‘Add’
- Agree to the terms and conditions
- Pay with Apple Pay
The public transport card is automatically added to your Wallet and you can use it immediately to pay for your journey. Do you want to top up the balance on your public transport card? Then open Wallet, tap on your public transport card and choose ‘Add balance’.
Some public transport cards can only be added if you have added a local payment method to Wallet. For example, in Japan, only Suica can be paid for with a foreign credit card (Apple Pay), the others require a Japanese payment method. When setting up a public transport card, a check is made to see if you can make the payment.
Using a public transport card
Express Mode lets you use some of the cards in Apple Wallet automatically without waking or unlocking your device. You also don’t need to confirm with Face ID, Touch ID, or your passcode to use the card. This lets you quickly check in on public transportation. In this article, we explain how to enable Express Mode for transit cards.
Once you have activated the express mode, you can use the selected card very quickly on public transport. All you need to do is hold your iPhone or Apple Watch against the check-in column in the designated place. The access gate or column will trigger the NFC chip in the device and thus activate the card. You will then be checked in automatically. Repeat this to check out.
If you don’t want to use express mode, you must first open the wallet app on your iPhone or Apple Watch, open the public transport card and then hold it against the check-in column.
View transactions
The public transport card in Wallet works super smart. As soon as you check in, you will see your current balance on the lock screen of your iPhone and the amount will be debited when you check out. You will then see how much the ride cost and you will see the remaining balance. The recent transactions can also be viewed in the Wallet app after you have opened the public transport card.