For maximum convenience and flexibility you can load your HOP Card with e-money to any value you like, up to $300.
When you have two fare types (ie; both e-money and 10 Trip) loaded onto your card, the system will automatically use the 10 Trip credit first when you tag on for a bus trip. If you would rather use the e-money credit simply advise the bus driver of your intention before tagging on.
Note that you need to tag off in order to avoid a penalty fare - if a penalty fare results in an IOU amount on your card you won't be able to tag on for your next trip. Find out more about fare changes on the City LINK, penalty fares, monthly passes and transfer routes.
e-money |
If you want to have maximum travel flexibility, you should load up your HOP Card with e-money.
You can load up to $300 e-money on your HOP Card. The minimum you can top up by is $10 The cost of your bus fare is deducted from the value on your HOP Card each time you make a trip HOP always applies the correct and cheapest fare for your journey, based on where you tag on and off - You can also purchase everyday items wherever you see the HOP or Snapper sign
It costs 25c each time you load e-money When viewing your transaction history you may see two different amounts for your e-money balance: the balance displayed at the top of the page will always be the latest one.
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10 Trip |
10 Trip offers pre-loaded rides at a discount for a set number of stages.
- You can have a maximum of two 10 Trip allocations (ie; 20 trips) on your card at a time.
- Your two 10 Trip allocations need to be for the same number of stages - so you can load two one-stage 10 Trips, but not one one-stage and one three-stage 10 Trip.
- As you travel, our HOP card readers deduct trips from the first batch of 10, and will tell you when that batch falls below 7 trips.
Once the first 10 Trip batch has been used, the card reader starts deducting trips from the second batch. We only advise you to purchase the 10 Trip option if your public transport journeys are always restricted to a set number of stages, or if you want to limit what you can purchase on your HOP Card. You will not be able to purchase everyday items on your HOP Card with this option unless you also add e-money onto your card.
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Tagging on and tagging off allows the system to record your journey and calculate the best fare.
If you fail to tag off, then the system won't know how far you've travelled and will charge a penalty fare. The penalty fare charged depends on the distance that remains between the stop where you boarded (tagged on), and the final destination on that bus’ route.
Penalty fares apply to both e-money and 10-trip travel but the penalty is deducted from your e-money balance - even if you don't have e-money loaded on your card. If there is insufficient e-money to cover a penalty fare, an IOU amount will result.
Whether you travel using e-money or 10-trip, you cannot tag-on if you have an IOU amount outstanding.
IOU amounts can be cleared by topping up your e-money balance by $10 (minimum top-up) or by the value of the IOU amount (plus the 25c top up transaction fee), whichever is greater.
Your e-money balance and details of any penalty fares incurred can be viewed online, in your transaction history.
Zone passes (e.g. monthly passes) are not available as products that can be loaded on the HOP Card, but you can still purchase monthly passes from the usual retailers. Click here to read more about monthly passes.
If you travel on a designated transfer route and transfer from one bus to another you will need to tag-on and tag-off each bus as you board and disembark. The HOP system will recognise your journey as a transfer and will calculate and deduct the transfer fare from e-money.
Please note 10-trip passes cannot be used on transfer routes.
The cost of a transfer ticket, the routes on which transfers are permitted and the locations at which transfers are permitted remain the same.
10 Trip cannot be used for more or fewer stages than it was originally loaded for. If you over-travel using a 10-Trip pass (for example, travel 3 stages on a 2 stage 10-Trip), an ‘extension fare’ is charged to cover the cost of your actual journey.
Extension fares are deducted from e-money. If you do not have any e-money loaded, you will then have an IOU amount on your card.
If the number of stages you travel varies, e-money offers the most flexible option.
City LINK Fares
HOP cardholders travel for free on the City LINK if using a HOP card. You will need to tag on and off, but you will be able to do so even with a zero balance. However, you won't be able to tag on if you have an IOU amount.
Multiple tag-ons (with two or more passengers tagging on with one HOP card) will not be allowed. If you wish to pay for another passenger's fare you will need to tell the driver.