What is a penalty/default fare?

Snapper uses a ‘tag on, tag off’ system to work out the best value fare for your journey.

Failure to tag off results in the default fare being charged to the Snapper card.

Any default/penalty fare will come off your Snapper balance the next time you tag on a bus or rail journey. If you do not have enough balance on your card to cover the default/penalty fare, you will be unable to tag on until your card is topped up with sufficient credit.

On bus

The default/penalty fare is calculated as if you had travelled to the end of that route. This is specified by Metlink and can be viewed in their terms and conditions. 
Free passes will still incur default fares if you forget to tag off. 

For bus trips, Snapper issues automatic refunds of penalties where a customer has tried to tag off the bus but has not been able to for reasons outside of their control (i.e., due to a system or driver fault), so you don’t need to worry about getting in touch with us to request a refund.

If you think you’ve been unfairly penalized on bus but have not received your refund in 2 working days, just use this web form to get in touch with us, and we’ll happily look into it for you.

On rail

The default/penalty fare will depend on which Station you tag on at. 

The amount charged will be a Snapper fare for the longest possible travel from the tag-on station to a maximum of $11 for adults, $5.50 for passengers with Child, Accessible and Community Connect concessions, and $8.25 for passengers with a Tertiary concession.  

If you think you’ve been unfairly penalized, just use this web form to get in touch with us, and we’ll happily look into it for you.