prestocard.ca Reviews 

my presto card got hacked. someone tried to take 80.00 from my bank acct, information stored in my presto acct.to top up my presto card and when they couldn't do that they simply took the balance on my card and transferred it to their card. it will now take 7 days for them to investigate. my question is if this is a safe place to put your transportation budget why will it take 7 days to track my money. I am told they have a lot of cases to investigate that's why it will take 7 days. I no longer trust the presto card it is too easy to hack. Money put on the card can vanish in a second and if i had had 80.00 in my bank it would have been goon too. it will now take a week to track and it may not be returned to me it should not take 7 days to track money in a well run system if you get a presto card DO NOT REGISTER IT DO NOT GIVE THEIR SYSTEM ANY OF YOUR INFORMATION it is not safe in the presto system

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

Back in May when trying to renew my community pass for OC Transpo, there was an issue and Presto I guess removed Community passes, they did add them back later on and I was told by 3 of their staff I would be getting a refund as I had to pay full price for an Adult Pass. Originally I was told to wait 7 weeks for the refund, I waited 7 weeks nothing happened. I wrote to customer service by their live chat, describe the issue and the staff member just replied with "Why are you wanting a refund?" We went back and forth and she said they will email me within 24 hours. Of course that didn't happen so I had to email them again, they then replied giving me 2 options. Either e-transfer me my refund or refund my account. They even said during the 7 weeks they sent the refund but it was rejected? And they didn't bother to tell me that before? I asked for option 1, and of course they never did that. So I asked for option 2 if it's easier for them, and they NEVER did that. This is horrible customer service. Just refund the customer it is not rocket science.

I was a visiter to Toronto and used a presto card to do a few trips in a day. because of construction I 'tapped' when I should not have and were double charged. I called customer service and they said they would address it and I never received any response. terrible customer service and system. very confusing.

All of my transit money for the month was debited from my bank account but never made it onto my card. I have spent two weeks calling Presto on my lunch break (never without a 20+ minute wait before getting through). They told me the transaction is pending, and to talk to my bank, who sent me back to them. We are 16 days into this month and I can not access the transit money I allocated for the month. I hate this system, but we have no other choice.

Useless company - 70 minutes to wait to talk to them about charging money to cards I don’t have! Corrupt govt lets this awful company run transit payment. They should be closed down

I was charged for a GO transit service in MIDTOWN TORONTO, when going from my place to eglinton station (a distance of 500 mts) and I took BUS ROUTE 103. I did not know that TTC route 103 is now considered GO. Trying to contact Presto live chat agent or something else has been impossible.

I have a Transit Pass. I just recently uploaded the card withth a Transit pass. I felt there was no information withthe customer serivce rep about how to renew a transit pass while have a digital card. No mention ofo any real consquences with a Transit card. I was told once the upload of your physical card goes digital, one cannot reverse the process. So if your uploding your card to a digital card goos luck having to renew your bus pass. I felt there was no clear informaiton by cusotmer service staff. I did not find the pricess easy, nevermind waiting for close to an hour for service.
I am too frustrated withthis process,better to keep a physical card inorder to renew a transit pass. Forget dealing with Presto on the phone. It is too long to o wait for a decent answer.

On March 28th at 12:30PM, I was taken to the GO station by a MiWay bus. I get charged $12.62 for “tap off not detected”… but I never took the GO. So how am I getting charged for a service that wasn’t provided? If this is an actual thing, which it shouldn’t be because that doesn’t make any sense, I wasn’t aware.

I’ve tried calling, no pick up, just the waiting time constantly increasing over and over again. I’ve tried live chat “60 second wait time” is says. That’s a lie. No one responds. I’ve sent two inquiries by form, never received a confirmation email like their website mentions.

Ultimately, just a complete waste of time trying to contact them. Better hope you don’t have any issues with PRESTO because you won’t be able to resolve it.

Ever.

On March 23, 2026 I get an email saying that Presto hasn't received my monthly payment (I am on a 12 month contract for the TTC monthly pass) and if I don't update my payment details they will cancel my 12 month contract for my TTC monthly pass!

So I call Presto and after an hour on hold I get a rep on the phone and she tells me that this email was sent out in error to lots of people including myself. So I tell the rep that this kind of misinformation is putting me in panic mode!
Anyhow today is March 24th and Presto still hasn't sent out an email update advising that they screwed up bigtime and to disregard yesterday's email that was sent out in error.

Sure mistakes can happen, HOWEVER PRESTO MGMT NEEDS TO TAKE OWNERSHIP OF THEIR MISTAKES IN A TIMELY MANNER WHICH HASN'T BEEN DONE REGARDING THIS ISSUE!

PRESTO MGMT NEEDS TO IMPROVE BIG TIME SO THEY ARE GETTING A VERY LOW SCORE FROM ME ON THIS REVIEW!

Incredibly poor customer service. Tried to transfer a balance from a damaged card to a new card. Spent an unreasonable amount of hours on the computer and the phone and sofar have had no luck getting this done. What a waste of MY PRECIOUS TIME!

You cannot download the app unless you are from Canada. I spend 4 or more months a year in Toronto but cannot download the app. Tried talking to agent on chat and waited 45 mins with no answer. Tried calling and was told to login to app. Useless!!

as i woke up on friday i check my phone and there is an email there from presto saying my card was reported lost and stolen and i called tried to get answers and 1 says i didnt pay my january pass to someone transfered it to now its banned

what did i do next i went to oc transpo rideu woman there helped me and we thought we had it and today i was checking on it and again it's transferred. You didnt pay so after 3 people and a chat i tried to fix this with this one person and nothing same old bs saying u didnt pay u pay i fix u and im not i have proof that i did and well long story short wait yippie im on disability and i need that pass to go out to doctors and dentist and now im sol they gave me 10 bucks what a crock 10 one bus there one bus back and they are worse than freedom mobile yes they are u ask for a higher up nope and if i would of called back same old bs again they cant get there story straight everything is the customer's fault, and good luck ever seeing it go back to the new card :) u suck so much that u wonder why oc transpo is in deep trouble as of late !!!

I took a Go train from Niagara Falls to Union station. Tapped on at Niagara Falls and tapped off at Union station. However, the system considered the tap at Union station another tap on rather than tap off. So I got charged 2 times max fares. Service representatives were hard to communicate with and not willing to help.

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!

If i could give 0 *, I would. Either when i had the physical card or presto Wallet, the cards worked 50% of the time. Customer service takes hours of phone calls and the promised of a call back from a supervisor. I have senior rate,and I have to pay regular fee because the card doesn't work. No resolution, answered all their question about if i did the right things (NFC,unlock, app updates etc): it just stopped working and i know many of my friends had similar issues. The more you call,the more you get different answers: what should I do to just pay my fare? Timer to change provider. It's been quite a headache

Bought Presto GO ticket online without signing in — now the app won’t let me access them unless I log in, and there’s no way to link the tickets I already paid for. Why is this even allowed?

They’ve got two PRESTO apps that don’t connect to each other. Total mess. And once you hit “activate,” that’s it, there's a 5 minute timer that you can't even stop. Tickets are non-refundable even if you haven’t used them. Just awful design all around.

Feels like they didn’t test this on real humans at all. Save yourself the headache and just do ticket stuff the old school way. Presto has not evolved to the point where they can do the online methods properly.

Too many ways to sign in to load card.
And now, have gone to PW verification.
and will be asking for a new PW everytime.

behaviour modification ( sign in methods) and ads.

Please, SIMPLIFY. I only want to pay for a ride on public transport. Not opening a bank account !!

Also, pls stop advertising Shoppers to load. Have been to 3 different Shoppers and none would load.

Bus tickets are by far better than this system.
Here's why...

1. Almost anytime you want a new presto card you have to pay $6. That is $6 just to own for a piece of plastic. A piece of plastic at the Rec Room Gaming center is half that price.

2. When you load funds on a presto card, you're trusting them to hang onto your money until you use it on participating transit services, but what if there's a technical glitch that wipes out your balance and you can't prove your existing balance otherwise?

3. Increased chance of frustration for the mentally disabled. With regular bus tickets, all a person has to do is insert the ticket into the machine and the river sees it and the person is good to go. No balance checks, no wireless communications needed, and no frustrations over technical glitches power outages or insufficient funds

4. What if the power goes out everywhere? Imagine that... then what... How do the bus companies get compensated when people board with presto during a power outage?

5. This is a tool of control because many transit systems charge a lower fare if one uses a presto card to pay for fare. In the past, one could pay a lower fare using lower-priced bus tickets specifically for that bus system, not managed by a large company.

6. If you buy several bus tickets and keep many at home then take only 2 for your trip and you lose one, then you lost out on less money. whereas with presto, if you take your loaded presto card and you lose the card without bowing down and giving them all your information (to register the card), then you lost all of the money still available on it.

7. Proof of payment is sad. Why? because the only way one can check for proof of payment when paying by presto is to use a card reader. (again... what if there's a power outage? would the transit service go to a halt until power is restored?). At least if tickets were purchased, that can be used as proof of payment and no technology is required to see them.

I just wish this system wasn't a requirement for reduced fares.

Since the transition of User Name to email, the app has been glitchy. I have not been able to access my Presto card online or on the app. And what's worst, the Presto Card customer service is TERRIBLE. I have had to call SIX (6) times to try and resolve my situation. And each time I have been given a time to expect the issue to be resolved and it SIMPLY DOES NOT GET DONE. And each time I have called, I have been given a different excuse EACH TIME. I have complained, asked my ticket(s) be escalated to management and still nothing has been fixed. It's been an entire month for something that should have been easily fixed by their back office! Also, customer service did not provide any solutions or compensation to me as a customer for such an inconvenience. I've actually had to call myself and try to provide NEW solutions. They failed at those, too. Why not provide me with a new card, free of charge, so I can transfer my funds from my old card to a new one, create a new account so I can access what I need to online or on the app?!? But, wait that's MY idea and not one offered by them. Still waiting to see if anything will happen at all. TERRIBLE COMPANY. LACK OF PROCESSESS IN PLACE to actually help. USELESS.