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 penalised on the 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 depends on the station you tag on at and whether you’re travelling during peak or off-peak times.

If you tag on at Wellington Station and forget to tag off at your destination, the default fare will be a fixed fare of $15.33  for adults. Off-peak discounts and concessions will apply where relevant. The default fare for the Accessible Concession will be $5.62 from this station.

If you tag on at any station other than Wellington Station and forget to tag off at your destination, the default fare will be the full Snapper fare for the longest trip that could be made from where you tagged on. Off-peak discounts and concessions will apply.

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