Metro Changes Default Top-Up Amount on SmarTrip Cards to $10

If you’ve reloaded your SmarTrip with a debit or credit card recently, you may have noticed that fare machines automatically add $10 less than they used to.

In an effort to get rid of paper farecards by January, Metro is retrofitting all its fare equipment. In the process, it decided to change the default pay setting to $10, down from $20.

Metro gathered data that showed $10 was a more accurate estimate of what riders want to add on to their cards when they go to fill up—many customers were reducing the $20 option.

“We decided that a $10 default was better for our customers,” a Metro spokesperson says. “It will help move the lines faster at the fare vending machines if it’s more along the lines of what customers would like to put on their cards.”

Metro’s website has a list of all the stations where machines are retrofitted with the changed pay setting. It has about 20 percent of stations left to finish and hopes to finish the project by next month.

Jackson Knapp

Assistant Editor