Ticketless Prepay – Terms and Conditions
Season tickets and tickets purchased in advance
1. Introduction
If you wish to buy a season ticket (e.g. a monthly ticket) or a ticket for future travel, you can now link that ticket to the payment card you use to purchase that ticket and use the Tap On Tap Off system to travel, for your ease and convenience. We call this “Ticketless Prepay”, and your payment card acts as your travel token.
These Terms & Conditions apply to all Ticketless Prepay products and form part of the Conditions of Carriage.
In these terms and conditions, the following words have these meanings:
o Card: a contactless EMV smart payment card or used for travel
o Prepay Ticket: a season ticket or advance travel product linked to the Card.
o Tap On / Tap Off: presenting the Card at boarding and alighting to record a journey.
o Ticketless Prepay: payment system where the Card functions as the authority to travel where a valid linked product exists.
o Portal: online system for ticket purchase, card linking and journey history.
o PAYG: ‘pay as you go’ fare calculation system based on number of Tap Ons and Tap Offs, with daily and/or weekly capping, depending on product type.
o Missed Tap-Off : a journey where the customer taps on but not off
2. When can you use Ticketless Prepay?
Ticketless Prepay is suitable for adult season ticket customers.
It is not a suitable system for child tickets, group purchases, promotional discounted tickets requiring driver interaction.
3. Nature of the Product
The Card does not store funds. It identifies your account and linked tickets, and acts as your authority to travel when presented to a reader on boarding and alighting a bus. A Prepay Ticket must be linked before travel.
4. Purchasing and Linking Tickets
Prepay Tickets must be purchased in advance through our Ticketless Prepay Portal. At the time of purchase, you can nominate a Card to be linked to your ticket in your customer account. Please allow up to 15 minutes for your Prepay Ticket to show as active across all systems. Tickets expire 12 months from purchase if unactivated.
5. Ticket Activation and Validity
Prepay Tickets activate on first Tap On. Only the nominated and linked card may be used. If the customer overrides past the ticket zone boundary, this will trigger PAYG fares.
Unactivated tickets will remain valid for 12 months from the date of purchase unless a shorter validity is specified (e.g. season tickets). Once activated a ticket will be valid for travel for its stated duration.
Unused or unactivated tickets will expire at the end of their validity period. No refunds will be given for expired tickets.
Annual products will have a fixed start date set at the time of purchase.
6. Tap Requirements
Customers must tap on and tap off using the same nominated and linked physical Card.
A green light or audible tone confirms the tap. A journey is only considered complete when both taps (Tap On and Tap Off) have been successfully recorded. (Tap out readers are also available in some cases towards the rear doors of buses when disembarking.)
7. Missed Taps
What if I don’t Tap On?
You will be treated as having no valid ticket and may be refused travel or charged a penalty fare.
What if I don’t Tap Off?
On each occasion, a capped single fare (if applicable) or full end-of-route fare is charged. If this happens more than once, daily fare capping applies.
I’m a season ticket holder – but I haven’t tapped?
A missed tap may result in PAYG charges.
What if I fail to tap on more than one occasion
Repeated failures to Tap On or Tap Off may result in account blocks, suspension of access, or a requirement to contact Customer Services.
8. PAYG fare calculation and capping
Using the same Card throughout the day ensures correct capping.
Fares will not exceed the published daily/weekly caps.
9. Subscriptions
A subscription allows you to automatically purchase the same pre selected ticket each month using your nominated card.
When you set up a subscription, payment will be taken immediately using the nominated card or tokenised card.
Subsequent payments will then be taken automatically on the same calendar date each month.
After each successful payment, the ticket will be delivered instantly to your card, ready to activate on the day you choose to begin travel.
You must ensure your nominated card remains valid, active, and correctly linked to your account to avoid disruption. If payment fails (e.g., expired card, insufficient funds, card replacement), we may retry payment. If payment cannot be taken, the subscription may be paused or cancelled. Subscription tickets follow the same rules on refunds, validity, tapping requirements, and misuse as all other Ticketless Prepay products. By setting up a subscription, you authorise Ticketless Prepay to take recurring monthly payments until you cancel through the Portal
10. Lost, Stolen or Replaced Cards
If your Card is lost or stolen, you must unlink it from your account as soon as possible. We cannot prevent any misuse of a lost Card on our buses until it has been unlinked.
Customers must update their Ticketless Prepay online account to link a new Card, before travelling with a new or replaced Card. On expiry of a Card, for a new Card to be associated with an account, it must be replaced by the original issuer.
Valid tickets can be transferred to a new Card but may take up to 24 hours for the system to update.
11. Inspections and Revenue Protection
Customers must present the nominated Card upon request by our drivers, inspectors and officials. Failure to do so may be treated as travelling without a valid ticket.
12. Customer Responsibilities
To use the ToTo system, Customers must:
o maintain an active Card
o tap correctly on and off on each journey
o use the same Card each time
o update Card details promptly
13. Refunds, Disputes and Customer Services
The Company is not liable for:
o failure to tap correctly
o use of an incorrect, expired, or damaged card
o system delays outside our control
o standard fares or PAYG fares being charged resulting from user error.
If you have any disputes or queries regarding use of the Ticketless Prepay system, please contact our customer service team on 01752 662271 or [email protected]
14. Changes to Terms
The Company reserves the right to update these Terms & Conditions from time to time. Changes to the Terms and Conditions will be published on the Company’s website. Continued use of the system constitutes acceptance of any such revised terms.