Can I use my apple phone wallet which contains VISA and Mastercard credit cards to pay for the metro or buses in Paris? If so, do I just hold it up to a reader at the entrance to the metro?
10-24: Thanks to all who replied! Now we need to decide where to stay....
sherryjb, here is a recent post that may help you.
No, it's not possible to pay directly with a card (credit or debit), whether it's a physical card or a digital one on your phone (Apple Pay, Google Wallet, etc.).
You need a pass of some sort, either a physical one or a digital one on your phone, to which you then load the correct tickets for your ride.
Sherry, if you have an Apple Phone, all you have to do is go into Wallet, at the top right hand corner click on the + sign. It will be a menu called "Add to Wallet". Scroll down to Transit Card and click on it. Scroll through the menu to France and click on Navigo. It will create a digital Navigo card and walk you through adding money to it. It worked well for me.
Thank you for this tip on the Wallet.. I followed the steps and added France and the Navigo card. I had downloaded the Bonjour RATP and IDF Mobilites apps..looks like I won't need these apps anymore.
I used a physical Navigo card a couple weeks ago (you buy one from a staff person in a metro station for 2 euros). Once you have the card, you can reload it at machines in the stations. I prefer a physical card so that I don’t have to have my expensive phone out in crowded areas. Losing a card would be a lot less of a problem than losing my phone! However, I know many people like using their phone for this kind of purpose.
Keep in mind that you don’t actually load MONEY onto either type of card, you load TICKETS. This is an important distinction because the metro costs €2.5 and buses cost €2 - the tickets are loaded onto your card separately. I found this out the hard way when I boarded a bus and only had metro tickets on my card. The bus would not accept my payment.
Even if you use a digital card, you may find the Boujour RATP useful. You can plan routes on it, look up schedules, etc. If you have a physical card, it will scan it and tell you where you’ve used it and how many tickets you still have loaded.
Navigo Easy cards are available in the ticket machines. No staff person necessary.
100% you can. If you go into your apple wallet you can add "Navigo" and use that to buy tickets. Its not as easy as London or NYC, but its better than managing paper tickets.
Giuliano,
I believe the OP was asking if he could directly use his debit card or credit card (on his apple phone wallet, without a Navigo card), like a charge direct to his account. No, he must have a Navigo card on his phone. That can be loaded from his credit or debit card.
I pull out one of my Navigo Easy cards, hold it to the reader when using the bus (which more often than the Metro) and the Metro, very convenient. I carry 3 of them, one in reserve and the other two loaded up for constant use.
It seems to be a source of frustration for many who try to use their watches and phones to load the cards on and then pay at the readers in the Metro and on buses.
I saw quite a few people having trouble last month in Paris.
It’s so easy to just buy a Navigo Easy card and load on as many tickets as you will need.
Get two, one for bus tickets, one for Metro tickets , if you plan on using both.
Top up as you go.
They don’t all have staffed service desks, but I’ve never met a Metro station without a ticket machine.
SJ, may I ask why you get two when one NE will hold both bus and métro tickets? Is there some advantage I'm not aware of?
The only reason to have two would be if you go to the airport fairly often -- reserve one for airport tickets since they can't be loaded on a card with metro tickets.
I actually ended up with three last month!
Two were given to me by a friend at home who had been there earlier in the year, but because I was going from CDG via the RERB I had to buy another one that was blank, as the first two each had a couple of tickets left on them.
I kept forgetting which had what on it, and thought if people are forgetful then two cards might be useful.
One for buses, one for metro.
Not really necessary if you only plan a couple of trips here and there, but I love hopping on and off buses and trains and going out to more remote parts of the city frequently, which I did.
I also reactivated my old N. Decouverte card for my last 6 days at the end of my trip, as it was Monday to Sunday.
We are all different in the way we travel.
I just recently came back from France where I did the Paris and Heart of France tour, and spent time on my own in Paris. I arrived a couple days before the tour, and had downloaded the RATP app prior to arriving just to get familiar with it. I followed Daisy’s advise and set up a digital card in Apple wallet to purchase tickets. This worked great. When I joined the tour we were all given a physical Navigo card with 10 tickets on it. I had an issue with the physical card, though, as did another tour member. The first time the card worked fine, but when myself and another tour member were returning to the hotel, she got through the fare gate, but I didn’t. At first I thought it was the gate so I tried the next one, and then realized the card wasn’t being refused, it wasn’t registering at all. So, my tour mate stood on one side of the gate while I frantically bought a fare on my digital card to get me through the gate. I gave the card back to our tour guide, and he investigated, and discovered the card had somehow been de-magnetized. Another tour member had the same issue. So, it was fortunate that I also had the digital card set up. At least I didn’t get stuck inside a station and be unable to get out in the case of a station where one has to tap to get out.
Another odd thing happened on the day I arrived. When I went to buy a ticket for the RER B train from the airport, there was some kind of technical glitch and all the machines were down. Staff were standing there just telling everyone to go get on the train, but get off at Gare du Nord and buy a ticket. This made no sense to me as I was going further than that so why should I drag my luggage up to the ticket machines and back down again. So, I had the digital card set up already, and just bought my ticket that way and carried on.
The physical card worked fine for the rest of my Paris stay after the tour, but it might be a good idea to have the digital card, also.
Once I had the Navigo app loaded on my phone, it was very easy to get through the entrance gates. My phone is an Android. Google Wallet does not, so far as I know, have the easy way to secure Navigo that Apple Wallet provides, so I'm a little jealous of the iPhone crowd on this one.
