I drive a lot. I run a lot of errands around the greater Toronto area with my car. It's how I get to and from work. Taking public transit between Markham and Mississauga would take me at least a couple of hours, I'd reckon. I visit Union Station several times a year. It's mainly because I cut through it to get to Scotiabank Arena. It's not because I take the subway or GO train to get there. The last time I commuted for work on public transportation was in 2010. The last time I took the TTC anywhere was likely to the Canadian National Exhibition (The Ex) in 2011. I've been driving everywhere ever since. Roughly two years ago, I decided to get a Presto card. I got one at a vending machine at Union Station. I ended up loading my card with $5. I recall telling a friend about it. She laughed and said that I'd probably never use it. I felt the opposite. I knew that I would. That opportunity occurred last Thursday when I snapped my TTC ridership drought. I was heading down to see Taylor Swift at Rogers Centre. A lot of the downtown core was blocked off. It was advised that if you were going to the show, to take public transit or park as close as you could to the venue. I ended up doing a hybrid of driving and taking the TTC. I parked in a lot in Chinatown (Spadina and Dundas). I met my friend and his sister at Dragon City for a bite to eat. We all took the Spadina 510D bus down and walked over to Rogers Centre. It was the best plan and decision. I downloaded the Presto app on my phone. I loaded $10. My $5 was still there, but adult fare is $3.30 when you use your Presto card, so I needed the reload. What I don't like about the app is checking your card balance. If you want to know your balance immediately, you place your card on the back of the phone while your Presto app is up and you are supposed to magically get your balance. I find this feature ridiculous. I have a MagSafe case with a compatible PopSocket. Checking my balance would require ripping off either my PopSocket or even my entire case, and risking demagnetizing the strip on my Presto card or dropping my phone. Why can't things be simple? You open a bank app on your phone and see your account balance. Why not here, Presto? It's the main reason why I took a star off my review. I opted not to do this check. The alternative was to tap any Presto sensor and my balance would appear in the app. I did when I boarded the bus heading down to Rogers Centre and used my card to pay the fare. You have the option of having a physical Presto card, or converting it to a barcode in either Apple or Android wallet. This conversion feature doesn't work if you use public transit in Ottawa. Keep your physical card. The caveat is that if you elect to convert your physical Presto card to your phone's wallet, the former won't work afterwards and you can't reverse your decision. I travel a lot by plane. As cool as it is to have your boarding pass on your phone, I always elect to get a paper boarding pass. If your phone dies, you can't board your plane. However, if you have a boarding pass, you don't have to worry about your phone's battery life to show your digital boarding pass. I feel the same way about having your Presto card as part of your wallet. If your phone dies, you can't get to where you need to go on public transit. However, if you have your physical card, you're good. I like that my physical card was recognized seamlessly when I boarded the Spadina bus a couple of times. A woman ahead of me had some difficulties scanning her Presto card on her phone. You can opt to reload your card if the balance falls below a certain amount. Since I don't commute that often, it's not worth setting it up. I'm good loading it up when I feel the need to. When you use your Presto card, you get a five-cent discount. It may not seem like much. If you do commute regularly, these savings add up. Although I do miss tickets and tokens, it's so much easier using a Presto card to pay for my commute. The Presto scanner also takes credit cards, but you won't get that nickel discount. It was nice to finally christen my Presto card. I had a decent experience using it. How you load money on your card through the app and see the balance needs work. The process is more complicated than it should be. Keep it simple, Presto. Folks will love you more if you do. (455) read more

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I use Presto frequently to commute. I made a mistake one day and forgot to tap my Presto on my commute home and was charged $200. I admit that I made a mistake. I always tap and I got unlucky that the day I made a mistake I got a hefty fine. My review is because the penalty is high considering the system does nothing to prevent mistakes. I was distracted, had no bad intentions, and was charged $200 even though I easily pay more than 99% of the time I commute The person handing out the ticket was kind which I appreciated read more

TTC keeps charging my card even when the reader shows "Free Transfer." My trip history and deducted amounts don't match, and the transactions don't even appear in the app. The response is always "Sorry" or "There was a system issue." Interesting how these "system issues" always seem to charge passengers, but never work in their favour. TTC needs to fix this transparency and billing issue! read more

I tried multiple times funding my newly registered Presto card online with a small remaining amount of a virtual credit card over a month ago. No success with their online account funding feature at all EVEN AFTER I DID EVERYTHING RIGHT ACCORDING TO THEIR RULES!!! Finally I called Presto about 2 weeks ago. After much annoying & quite intimidating verification process, the agent simply told me that there was nothing that he could do after I gave him detailed explanation of what I wanted to do, why & my repeated attempt failures online. I insisted to speak with a supervisor. This agent did the ''call back'' request very reluctantly. He showed even more resistance when I asked for a case/reference number of some sort. Eventually, he gave me an ''ID '' number *******5552 & told me a supervisor would call me in ''2-3 business days''. No call whatsoever I received from Presto for over 2 weeks!! No wonder I always feel this Presto card thing is not something for me since its launching decades ago. My gut feeling has been again so right about this uncaring, no help for even a simple issue, quite arrogant & indifferent as far as I am concerned. Another increasing bigger & much more bulky & inefficient government related institution of our mega city! read more

J'ai perdu ma carte avec 50$ de credit dessus. Pas capable de me faire rembourser ou transféré le solde sur la nouvelle cate dans le wallet. Service à la clientèle catastrophique qui ne connaissent pas leur produit (probablement centre d'appelle en Inde). Pas capable d'avoir du service en français. J'ai perdu mon argent et pour le 5c de rabais que ça donne dans le bus, ça ne vaut pas la peine. read more

I had to update your app last night [July 8th] as it refused to work without it but I can't even sign in to load my card and I rely on it to get to work. I have no money on my card and I can't even put any on it. Going onto your webpage didn't solve anything either. Even before this, the app was incredibly annoying to deal with, now it's just impossible. Congratulations for breaking something that wasn't broken in the first place. read more

PRESTO ripped me off for $13.33 on Saturday. I exited Dundas West Subway and headed to Bloor GO to take UP Express. Before I tapped, I had $17.10 on my PRESTO card. When I got off at Weston station, I went to tap off and the machine said insufficient funds. After phoning PRESTO and GO, I learned that I had been charged for a missed tap off from 2024 and a missed tap off from Saturday. I never missed tapping off. What likely happened was this: It is damn near impossible to figure out which machine to tap on at UP Express as all of the machines look identical. Apparently they used to have signs posted listing which machine to use. However, in their infinite stupidity, those signs were removed. I now flatly refuse to tap at GO/UP Express stations until signs are reposted clearing up the confusion. I should add that I will not ever see a refund as I have received the royal runaround from both PRESTO and UP Express. read more

If I was capable of leaving a -1 star I would. Please pay attention when you are using Presto. They charged me for my 2023 December and 2024 December pass as usual, and have also been making me pay the regular adult fare on top of it for over a month. Their technical side has taken over one month and has only recently gotten back to me now. Please be wary as they may take double your money and they are quite careless and take their time 'correcting issues'. Also please beware that they will go back on their word. I've been guaranteed approximately 4+ times that the situation would be resolved in a matter of days. This was not the case. Please keep a watchful eye and understand that their practices when it comes to customers is not completely kind, urgent, or ethical. read more

2 years in a row NOTHING BUT TROUBLE! They ripped me of for an adult bus pass worth 112..00 and 20.00 in cash all from one card. I was told to purchase another presto card and TALKING TO CUSTOMER SERVICE They canceled my card with products on it and then said to log in and transfer my bus pass and my 20.00 onto the new card. I was not able to do that because they cancelled my first card. So I lost both products adult pass password $112 plus $20 in cash. They refused to refund. And now today my daughter was told she has -1 dollar on her Presto card after $50 cash was put on it. Several days ago. DEFINITELY DO NOT USE PRESTO read more

Awful customer support, can't talk to live agents, app steals money from you without loading presto card. When it works its great, when issues arise you're in for a long phone call with a never ending repeating automatic menu. read more

My goodness, when will the TTC ever learn. (That was a rhetorical question). I have used subway/transit cards in Shanghai, Japan, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Seoul ... and it is seamless. These "turnstiles" appear to be manufactured from cheap materials (no surprise they are frequently "out of service"). Also, why did I not get my 5 cents' change when I put in a $20 to update my card? It is MY MONEY! I suppose it is better than those dinosaur "tokens" that one had to use in the past, but ... well ... the TTC has a looooooong way to go before it can call itself a "world class transit system". Just sayin', just venting. read more

I adopted presto early on when it was rolled out in Brampton and Mississauga. Now, I stay within the TTC system most of the time, so presto at its current state is not useful for me as it does not support monthly passes like other systems. I don't know if TTC has a thing where after x amount of rides, it's free for the rest of the month, but I haven't heard anyone say anything. However, when I go to the surrounding area, having a presto card is convenient. I just load up $20 for the trip and then no need to worry about how much each system charges (or rather, would prefer not to think about it). TTC had planned to phase out passes and tokens at the beginning of the year, but of course that never happened due to "delays", so I still get to observe things while I show that unlimited VIP pass. My experience with presto on TTC has been pretty mixed. I don't know if it's cause I have an old card, but none of these top up machines inside the TTC recognize it. The ones at YRT and Mississauga don't have an issue checking my balance, so I'm not sure what's going on. Is it just a way to make me fork out $6 for a new card? I managed to remember both my username and password for the online card manager so I could just stick with that, but if I suddenly need to load money.... In any case, I am indifferent to presto. If TTC scraps passes without implementing an alternative for presto (that works properly 100% of the time) then it would be annoying. I'd expect that everytime their machines don't work, they would allow admission without cash payment. Perhaps this will send a signal to management to get things done properly. One thing that may be of concern is their "Daily Cap" feature listed on their website: https://www.ttc.ca/Fares_and_passes/PRESTO/PRESTO_fast_facts.jsp . Sometimes I use my pass 4-8 times a day just because I can, and it would be an inconvenience if I were unable to. Will have to see what this daily cap is when they provide more info. read more

Presto! card - Presto card from 2011. Brampton transit offered a free cardholder along with it. - Public Transportation Near Me - Toronto, Ontario

Don't get the deals or free rides after a certain amount for the year. Your card can go in negative for no reason as they steal money and lie to us. read more

I had been using my Presto! card for a few months now and everything seems to work fine. I love that I don't need to try to buy my ticket from the ticketing machine every time I need to get on the GO bus or train. Especially when it is freezing cold or rainy and I am running late! And the fact I saved 10% every trip. I still don't understand why it takes 24 hours for my loaded credit to show on my account even when I made the transaction directly at one of the ticket counters at Union Station. Hopefully their technology would improve over the years and it is about time there is a stored value card for public transport. read more

Presto! card - Public Transportation Near Me - Toronto, Ontario

I work in st Catharines but live in Niagara Falls. I loaded $30 on my Presto card today Sept 21@3:54pm. I loaded it at the Niagara Falls bus terminal with the help of the go transit rep working there. She loaded$30 on the card as proven by my receipt. I had 0.44 on the card prior to loading it The dishonest Presto card people stole $20 off my card for no reason and left me a balance of $9.75. It's been a week since I contacted them about the issue and they still have not fixed it yet read more

worst customer service in this planet why don't you guys train your staff properly. its been 3 to 4 time they hung up on me. whats that?? read more

Hey Govind, this is actually the page where people hate on the Presto card! Welcome! Yes, this card/company/system is a PIECE OF SHIT. Such a convoluted, fucked up process to even activate and register. You must tap the card within the first 24 hours of registering? Gotta make the special trip out to a fare station if you're not using transit that day I guess. If your using GO Train, good luck! There are literally two tap machines...per station. Let's create that bottleneck when everyone wants to tap off at the same time. Guess they're really hard up on that budget there huh? And most stations only have ONE fare machine lmaoooo Compared to other transit systems, the P in presto stands for "pathetic". This is a fact. read more

Loaded $20 in cash at presto machine kiosk at subway. Kiosk did not issue any receipt, and the app/website doesnt recognize the funds right away - have to wait 24 hours for email system to catch up. If something goes wrong, I have no proof I paid. This is very poor system design. read more

I lost my card and ordered a new one. Fine. ... but then, I added my new presto card per the activation instructions without realizing that I the "Transfer to new card" feature was designed to only work on UNREGISTERED/UNACTIVATED cards. Who even designed this? Now, despite talking with customer service (30 minutes on hold), I still ended up being stuck with two Presto cards (not including the one I lost). (One of which is stuck with like $40 on it because I registered it too quickly and another that is properly linked to my passes.) The worst part is that (the rep that helped me understanding and awesome!) the rep tried her best but still couldn't get my old balance transferred to my new one. It's not her fault -- it's the fault of the "geniuses" who designed this system years ago. Metrolinx claims that Presto is comparable with the Octopus and Oyster card. However, in it's current state (24 hour loads, no Apple Pay, etc.), I'd be surprised if anyone were to compliment this system. I'd give Presto zero stars if I could. Not recommended. read more

This is a thoroughly awful experience. This just makes me want to fare evade, because why not? There's a lot wrong with Presto. Terrible user experience online. I accidentally cancelled a card. Call, there's no way you can reverse it, buy a new card. Bought a new card, go online to transfer the balance via the link on the correct card information. This brings me to a new screen where they've pre-selected the options for you. I don't read, I assume it's correct because I click in via a link on the right card. Turns out, it pre-selects your primary card. This makes no sense. You either pre-select nothing and make your users select, or you pre-select the right things. Doesn't make sense, awful user experience. I call, nothing they can do, I order a replacement card. Wait two weeks, card doesn't come. Get an email to tell me to buy a new card. Buy a new card at Shopper's. Call, somehow it takes 24 hours for this card to activate. Oh, also turns out I accidentally cancelled a card that had a 12-month pass preloaded onto it. Tap on after 4 hours. It charged $3.10 that Presto refuses to refund because it takes up to 24 hours for the pass to transfer over. Then don't say it takes 4 to 24 hours on your website. The customer service lady was rude and condescending about this. Three weeks later, still no solution. Fare evading it is. read more

this presto card system is garbage, nothing works yet asking everyone pay for their mistakes. My advice is never leave any balance on your card, cuz they will take them away citing system error and no refund for you. Presto, your apology doesn't mean nothing, give MY MONEY back to me. stop stealing people's hard earned $$. I had to load twice money into the card for it to show up, so as a result I had $25 balance on the card. In June, I loaded a TTC pass on my presto and the website processed the transaction. Today is July 5th, and it is telling me I have zero balance in my card. I phoned presto yet to find out the transaction in fact didn't go through and now I have to load the pass again and they will not refund my money back to me. why??? why do i have to pay for your system failure??? Also, when I loaded extra money into the card because your system couldn't reflect the balance after 1 week, and there was no way to withdraw the balance on your card. why?? why do you lock in people's money??? Presto, get your shit together, seriously, stop wasting tax and stop stealing people's money! read more

Presto is so user-unfriendly. The system seems totally archaic and unhelpful. Two years ago, my purse was stolen. I cancelled my Presto card. At that time I wasn't using the bus and had no plans to in the near future, so a few months later I decided to have the $20 remaining in my account refunded to my credit card, which was still connected to my presto account. Presto refused to refund me, saying I had to buy a new card, activate and register it, so I could cancel it and send it in, with a paper form, to get a refund (less a cancellation fee.) Fast forward, I'm now starting to take the bus again, so I bought a new card, registered it, and started to use it. A few days later, I got an email from Presto saying my service was cancelled, as I had forgotten to update my credit card information. But instead of just going online and updating my credit card info, I have to go through a series of steps totaling 72+ hours, as follows: After 24 hours of receiving the email, tap the PRESTO card on any device. Wait another 24 hours after then, and then log in to prestocard.ca and input new credit card info, Wait another 24 hours after THAT, then I can use the card to take the bus. read more

What a garbage system and a garbage company. My card failed to tap today and i was told to purchase a new one, so i did and i loaded it up with with money so i can get home, only to find out that if i add this card to my account i will lose what money i loaded onto to it because i have a balance in my presto account and the money does not merge, you just lose what you loaded onto your second card. If this company wasn't government mandated it would be out of business. read more

If I could give -10 stars, I would. The presto card system is literally the worst system to buy bus fares. First off, the funds don't even load on your card immediately. You have to wait at least a few hours to 24hours to use the card. Like what?? If you need to take the bus ASAP and don't have any funds, you need to take out money and make change. Second, the transfer/registration part is a MESS. You can't transfer funds to a card that's already registered. I just bought a new card 2 weeks ago, I had to transfer funds to it but couldn't because it was ReGiStErEd.... Presto, get your shit together. thanks read more

I would give zero stars if I could. If your trip takes longer than 3 hours (which is completely plausible if you live in Barrie and your train is delayed), you are charged a missed tap-off, even if you do in fact tap off. I was then charged this extra amount for a second time when I tapped my card the next day. When I called I was told it would take 5 days for Presto to investigate my situation. The gentleman on the phone wasn't sure if this missed charge would continue to pop up on my account, so I was hesitant to tap-on and borrowed my husband's card instead. I called a second time to clarify that Presto was indeed looking into this, and the woman was incredibly rude to me. She was completely baffled as to why my trip took longer than 3 hours, insinuating that this was somehow my fault. She gave me so much attitude and inferred that I was stupid to not understand how their system works. If an investigation is completed on your account, you will not receive an e-mail confirming that anything is being done. It is embarrassing that users have to deal with this confusion and expense just to get to work on a daily basis. read more

Presto is the worst. I load my presto card every month in the machines that they have in subway stations. On july 31st I did it to get a monthly pass for August. I never received the pass. I called, they made a case. It supposes it would take 30 days to get the money back but I have not received the money yet. I called after 30 days and they said that they were waiting for the Finance approval and that it would take 5 business day, that was 3 weeks ago. Each time I call they say the same that they have not received the approval. I have worked in Customer Services many years and that customer service is the worst I have seen. They have so many things to improve but it seems that they do not care. Presto if you are going to obligate us to get the Presto card you should at less to improve the customer service. read more

It charges me twice for a 30 min trip I called customer service 3 times. They acknowledged the issue but they couldn't reimburse me the extra charge!! What a joke? read more

Slow for changes, systems always down, not user friendly... Why have a screen on the TTC machines to just show a giant green tick? Why not show details like your remaining balance, your fare charged charge for entry, if this is a valid transfer ride within 2 hours etc. read more

Just started using Presto because TTC got rid of token entrance at my subway entrance. I cannot believe that I had to pay $6 for ugly looking plastic. Why are we paying for infrastructure of business that has monopoly status? The online registration process was so bad too. The card does not even say which number is your verification number on your card. Can't believe there is no app and I have to carry this card. Why is TTC getting into a card system that is clearly not modern? I think Presto needs major upgrades to be on par with today technologies. I can't believe that Presto has been around for years already and they cannot get things right. Hire some UX analysts and improve your services. Such a disappointment. Shame on you TTC for giving all the money anto this nonsense business. Update: I now have been using this ugly card for a few months and it's even worse than I initially felt. I lost the card and they cannot cancel the card for 24 hours and I'm liable for all the transactions! Your card balance can go into negative not because they are trying to be nice but because they don't have the system to monitor the transactions real time. Also the auto rebalance does not happen real time when the balance goes down. What a garbage system that we are forced to pay for. I'm sure there a lot of corruption related to this business. read more

I wish could give the ZERO that presto card deserves! Lost a card with a balance on it... it's not possible to transfer that balance to an existing card so I paid $5.00 to have a new card sent out. That's robbery in itself... but how annoying that it's so cumbersome and time consuming. Card arrived - needs to be activated... also annoying. That was completed online... but won't take effect immediately. 4 days later and the card reader says card is not activated. I called and agent was less than helpful. He said card is active in the system so must be a faulty reader. He directed me to use a vendor... which is where I got the error. Just call us back if you get it at another station. The worst! read more

BOTTOM LINE: I suppose it's better than nothing, but compared to other smart card systems from "world class cities", it's pretty abysmal. Oh, and their online complaint form won't allow you to use basic punctuation, like say, a comma. EPIC FAIL. *SIGH* Where to begin? The Presto system disappoints on so many levels, from its conception (see this G&M article: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/toronto/system-builder-of-presto-fare-card-had-poor-track-record/article6551526/) to its coverage and to its execution, but this review will focus on its present-day user experience. Let's start off with the good: 1. When it works, it's pretty seamless. You tap on, you tap off. You can set a predetermined trip to save you from tapping off (if you do this, however, it's not entirely intuitive how you "correct" for this should you get off at a different station) 2. The auto-reload feature is a great function. You can link it to your credit card, which means you'll never run out of funds, or have to line up at a counter or a machine. HOWEVER, to do this though, you'll need to register your card, which will bring about one of the most frustrating issues down the line (see below point 2). 3. If you ever lose a card, it's easy to report it online. Now, let's talk about many of its shortcomings - some are mere annoyances, while others are just mind-numbingly frustrating. And let's not forget, these have been ongoing issues since this system was officially released in 2009 (after 2 years of testing) - THAT'S 7 FRIGGIN' YEARS!!! 1. Everything you do seems to require you to wait 24 friggin' hours before it starts working. 2. The TTC readers (vs the GO readers) are utter rubbish! They can't detect your card even through your wallet, which means you'll have to take your card every time - so much for saving time! And they don't show your balance or time left on your transfer. 2. While not initially obvious, a really frustrating feature, or lack thereof, revolves around its card registration process. You'd think that an online account management system and a card system with individual PINs would give you quite a bit of flexibility, especially if you have or need to register several cards, but you'd be very, very wrong. And it's this lack of flexibility that is inconceivable with such a setup, and its mindnumbing how rigid the interface is. Because of this, the only solution often REQUIRES you to purchase a new card. For example, you want to transfer a card from one account to another (e.g., give a card to a family member or friend)? Can't do it, since you can't unregister a card. Ever. Let's say you have 2 cards and you lose one of them. You want to transfer the remaining balance to one of your other card? Can't do it since you can't transfer balances onto cards that are already registered! This problem obviously compounds itself if you have multiple lost cards you want to consolidate onto one card. As you can imagine, this has led to a lot of user grief with lost cards who mistakenly registered their replacement card first before transferring funds from their old card. From a user interface perspective, this is such a dumb design decision. People shouldn't be punished for doing things "out of order" when it comes to card management, especially when it's all electronic anyway. I can assure that the warning on the website isn't the clearest either. And, once you've transferred your old balance to your new card, guess how long you'll need to wait? You got it, 24 hours again. Also, thanks Presto for giving out the wrong advice on this: https://twitter.com/prestocard/status/580830931549745153 3. Customer service EPIC FAIL! First, they don't even have a customer service office with real people to talk to. Their online complaint form WON'T ACCEPT COMMAS OR APOSTROPHES!!! WTF?! You mean I have to retype my whole complaint without basic punctuation? Their offline customer service manager will call you back, leave you a voice mail that doesn't address your initial complaint, and then redirect you to their toll-free number! 4. If you don't use the auto reload feature and/or you don't trust Presto in keeping your financial information safe, the options you're left with are very inefficient or even impractical. You can logon online and then wait...24 hours before it's added. So then you have to find either a Presto counter or a machine - both of which are exceedingly rare to find and/or are in low numbers. Case in point, at the Union TTC station, there is no counter and only two, TWO! recharging stations. Union GO station isn't any better. Hope you brought a book to read while you wait in line! Of course, YMMV depending on which station you're at. 5. There's still no app for managing your account or adding funds to your account. Seriously?! Users have been requesting this for years. Sure, you can logon to the website with your phone, but I'm not sure how many people would do that. read more

Laughably bad. If, in 2018, your product takes 24 hours to process online funds or 24 hours to deactivate (in the case of theft/a lost card) then your product simply isn't ready to go to market. Virtually every other mainstream service in the world can do the above in under 1-2 hours at the absolute most. Not only should this not be the backbone of Toronto transit, it shouldn't even be in use yet at all. Could be a fantastic service in 5-10 years. Horrible as of right now. read more

I'm sure the Presto card works better for the GO transit system than it does for TTC. But I can only comment on the latter. Can you believe, that I got one when it first came out, and waited until it finally installed a machine nearby at St. George Station. I still haven't used it yet, and it probably is eating away at my wasted $20. In order for me to use it, I had to travel down to Union Station to activate it. I don't go there often, so abou a few months after I got the card, I finally made it down there. Don't confuse the Activation Machines with the machines that go an take your money. They seemingly simliar. When I activated it, it says that card error and I had to call them. So I called, and they said that it's because it was too long since they gave it to me it wasn't working. Okay, so she says that I can try again. I tried again for the next 5 mins and it still said the same thing. I was standing in Union Station like a fool wondering what the hell was going on. I called them, and they said, it was activated on the system end - but the MACHINE was giving me a different message. There was apparently some lag. Fine so i left. The next time I tried to use the card (probably at least more than a month after), it was STILL inactive. I went to Union again (at my convenience) and the same thing was happening. It's awfully frustrating. The same frustrations happened to AT when he first used it. It allowed him to OVER PAY (with a minus balance) and didn't indicate it to him. When we went to reload the card, the online system didn't allow him to reload on to a negative balance! The solution was to go to Union Station and have them do it in person, then go online and reload. Maybe it's all better now, but seems to me a failed process. It's like the TTC doesn't want these cards being used at all, but it was a great way to integrate modern payment system (we are one of the few archaic systems that still useds token/tickets). Instead they *ucked it up. If this card became more mainstream, I bet more people would take the subway, or be inclined to, instead of being reminded that each ride costs $3.00 read more

I'm gonna keep it simple The pesto card system is complete garbage. The pesto card system is extremely unreliable to the point that I've been left to walk to my destination countless times. I once was refused to ride the bus at 11:30 since my pending reload would not load to allow me to pay. I've since got my load and drained all the funds and have been paying in cash. The presto card is supposed to make public transportation easier, yet I'm guaranteed to get to my destination when I don't use my presto card. I personally hope it gets Shut down to be fixed, and I will still be very suspicious when they say it's fixed read more

I would not recommend this company to anyone, they are currently keeping over $150 of mine for over nine weeks after returning my Presto card. they had told me multiple times at different dates first that last week on the 21st it was processed and I would see a refund by today (March 1st 2021). when I called today I was told that my refund was just sent on the 26th and would be done within another three to five business days. if I do not see my money by this coming Friday I will be looking into a formal lawsuit for fraudulent activity and withholding my refund. read more

Pathetic! 36 hours passed since I added the card to my online account and another 24 hours after I tapped it on a Presto device (a Balance Checker) still getting the same message "Registration of your card is in progress. To complete your registration, tap your card against any PRESTO device within 30 days." Loaded $50 to my card using my credit card which was charged right away (can see the charge in my bank account), but got an email where it says it will take up to another 24 hours to process it! What gives? Customer service is not very helpful either. They just repeat, with a grumpy voice, whatever the message I see online. Initial signing up for an online account was another story. Did not get the "verify your email" message right away. So had the system sent another one, then first one came and clicked on that but that expired since I sent another one which came couple of minutes after. So went through this loop couple of times before I could verify my email address. Without verifying the email address, one can't re-login if logged out after creating the account. Why it takes so much time to send the account verification email only god knows. Do I have a choice to stay with my current monthly pass, not so much. The nearest entry to TTC near my condo have all the gates already converted to Presto. So I have to walk another half a km to the main entrance to use my monthly pass, which is not very nice during winter. One of my ex-bosses once said "Never release a product to the market unless you are sure you can support it. This will kill the product in its inauguration." I think this rule doesn't apply here, because we don't have an alternative. And whoever is the decision maker of releasing a premature product like "Presto" knows that very well. read more

No fare collector on duty. Nowhere to drop cash. And here was the result of trying to load my presto card - do not accept cash and credit/debit not available - soooooo my options are what?? When I bought the card two wks ago my printed receipt shows 56.00. BUT I chose to load 20.00 on the card. Credit card was charged 26.00 (20.00 loaded as I'd requested and 6.00 for the card). Why would the receipt show 56.00? I kept the receipt. Can't figure this out. And each time I tried to tap the card it said declined. I just bought a car. Apparently no other way for me to get around the city. Had no choice. What a bloody joke that system is. read more

Presto! card - Public Transportation Near Me - Toronto, Ontario

I've only used a Presto card for a few days now and I can say that I have a love/hate relationship with it. Although you can do many things online, there is such a huge time delay before those updates happen that it makes online transactions useless. Instead, go to a GO station and perform your transactions there. Pros: - Saves me $0.50 per trip to use Presto over buying tickets. - After 36 trips in a month, prices are drastically reduced. - After 41 trips in a month, trips are free. Cons: - Presto cards are sent out before they're available to use. It was 5 days before I could use mine. - Hit and miss with the customer service phone number. - It takes 24 hours before online reloads take effect. Come on... I can reload my Starbucks card online and immediately walk to a Starbucks store. Tips: - Perform any and all transactions at a GO station. They take effect immediately. - Make sure to set a default trip so that you don't have to tap off. read more

The system is Garbage! The Customer Service agents are terrible at their jobs. They dont give all the info necessary. I lost my Presto Card. I bought new one. I called the customer service. The first agent said you should not register it. Go back and get a new one. The first agent could say: also please ADD A NEW FUCKING BALANCE or FUCKING LOAD IT. He did not. I bought a new card (4 Dollars) and did not register it. The second agent said to me: Oh you should load the card. Now i need to go a different Shoppers Drug Mart. Paid another 4 $ + the 8$ (going and coming back from work for today)+ The monthly pass ( i already paid on the lost Presto Card)+ 8 $ (going to and coming back from work tomorrow) DEALING WITH PRESTO COMPANY IS PAIN! HOLY SHIT ! read more

A great piece of technology that I just want to be implemented a bit faster. I got one when I started bus commuting to school and now I use it every day for my commute to work. Here's three tips for using it: 1) register your card. This way you can get it replaced if you lose it or it gets stolen. 2) Set up a default trip. There's going to be one GO Train route you take more than any other. Set it up with your station as your default trip. That way you only need to tap on at the start of a leg & don't need to tap off. 3) set up auto reload. You don't need to think about it ever again. When your balance goes below a certain amount it will automatically reload. Boom. You're now an expert Presto user. You're welcome. read more