In this video I'm going to tell you about how much money you need on your SmarTrip card to ride the Washington DC
Metro and how to load it up.
HELLO! Welcome to Trip Hacks DC, my name is Rob. I'm a tour guide here in the nation's capital. Ifyou're coming to Washington DC
and you're looking for the best tips, tricks, and hacks for exploring the city, make sure to subscribe to this channel and hit the bell
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And if you're interested in signing up for a Trip Hacks DC tour, head on over to TripHacksDC.com
afterwards, to see the tours that I offer. If you're new to this channel I actually have several other Metro videos
and I will leave a link to my Metro video playlist in the video description. If you have any questions about using Metro during your
trip, leave a comment on this video and I will try to help you out, otherwise,
let's get started... One question that I get asked a lot is "how much money should I load onto my SmarTrip card?" In my
previous video on the dos and don'ts of Metro, I
suggested buying a SmarTrip card with the $8 default value and topping it up as needed; however if you're coming to DC and you
know you're gonna be staying for a while, or riding the Metro a lot, it might make sense to add more money at the beginning.
Unlike in other cities, our Metro does not use flat fares. What you will pay
depends on how far you travel and whether you're riding during peak time around rush hour or not. For a typical visitor who is staying downtown
and using Metro to get to the major sites,
I would budget $2.50 per ride on average. $2.50
is a good starting point.
For some people it might be too much; for other people it might not be enough. So if you want to get really precise about
it you can actually use the Metro website to find out exactly what the fare is going to be
between two stations. So once you're on
www.wmata.com you're going to find the page for the station where you're starting your trip from. Scroll down a little and then click or tap
"Metrorail Fares" then from the drop-down box select the
station that you want to travel to. In this example if I wanted to travel from Capitol South to Arlington Cemetery
station I would know that it costs $2.50 during peak hours
and $2.20 during off-peak hours.
So if you're a really super organized planner you can look up all of the fares for the trips that you plan to take and
then use a calculator or a spreadsheet to
total them up. Now the next question that I get asked all of the time is
"should I buy an unlimited ride pass?" and my answer to this is almost always
NO
Psychologically we humans love unlimited stuff. The reason is because after you've paid that original amount
everything after that feels free - even though it really isn't. In my experience, most visitors to Washington DC
will not use Metro enough to make an unlimited ride pass worth it. Plus
they're generally confusing and even if they do save you some money,
chances are that that amount is going to be pretty minimal. So since you're not going to be using a pass,
let's say that you loaded your SmarTrip up with $8 like I suggested, but now you're running low,
what do you do?
Topping up your SmarTrip is super simple. Find a fare machine in any station and
start by tapping your SmarTrip up against the target. On the little screen it will tell you exactly
how much money you have on your SmarTrip card. If you have cash
it's as simple as just feeding it into the machine. If you want to pay with a credit card
you can use the up and down buttons to change the amount on the screen and then swipe your card to add it.
After you're done
you just tap your SmarTrip card against that target again to complete the transaction.
But let's say that you forgot to top-up your card and now you're taking a ride
but you don't have enough money on your SmarTrip to cover it. For example if you're taking that $2.50
Arlington Cemetery ride from the example earlier
but you only have
$2.00 on your SmarTrip card
when you go to exit, the fare gates actually won't let you out. What you're going to have to do is use one of the
Exitfare machines to add more money to your card. Now the big, huge annoyance about these Exitfare machines
is that in 2018 they are all cash only, so be mindful to either check your balance before you go into the system,
or carry some small bills with you. And lastly
let's say that you overestimated and overloaded your card
and now you have a balance that you didn't spend. Can you get a refund on your unused balance? The answer to this one is...
Maybe. On the wmata website it says that if you live outside of a 100 mile radius of Washington DC or Baltimore
you may be eligible for a refund on your balance and to contact SmarTrip customer support to discuss. Now,
I have never personally tried this because I obviously don't live a hundred miles or more away, and note that the words "may be
eligible" are quite vague, and
contact customer service "to discuss" is also rather vague, so whether this will actually work,
I have no idea, but if you have a large balance on your card, and you really want that money back
it's worth a try.
Alternatively there are some charities here in town that will accept a SmarTrip card with a balance on it.
They will use the balance to help the less fortunate get to job interviews, doctor's appointments, and that sort of thing, and I will leave
a link in the video description
to one of those charities if you have a smart trip card that you want to mail to them. And that's it!
Thank you for watching this video. If you found it helpful you can subscribe to this channel by clicking on the Trip Hacks DC logo
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that'll take you over to TripHacksDC.com where you can see the tours that I offer. Enjoy your trip!