For those that don’t live around DC but visit occasionally from the surrounding states, we don’t need passes which are overpriced compared other metro areas. The store value pre-set options have not been updated to reflect changes in fares. Why would anyone need to add $4? Evenings and weekend rates are $2.50 so if you’re going to have a minimum preset, make it $5. However, I think you need to give the option to put exact wha you want to add, including cents similar to adding value at the machine in the stations. I don’t want to put more on my card than I need because my visits to DC are infrequent. Give us more flexibility with stored value. Thanks.

There’s not much to say except that other reviewers who have noted problems are all correct. This feels like an app that was developed by people who knew they’d never have to use it… maybe bc they don’t have smartphones? Idk- it’s very unintuitive. Tapping on a SmarTrip card on the Home Screen doesn’t open info on the card- you have to go to the bottom and open a different view to see info on your cards. (??)I gave up trying to add a favorite route or station. It says I should be able to, but there doesn’t appear to be a mechanism to do so on the screen. Searching for one to add kind of works, but then there’s no icon or swipe or text or anything to let you actually add them to favorites, so that’s pretty pointless. Trying to set up auto reload was a fail oat nightmare that other users have already captured. If it doesn’t work (for whatever reason), then take the option off the app. I get more up-to-date info from twitter/x than I do from the trip tools. A pulled-in feed of the #wmatasucks tag might be more helpful than the tools that are present. Honestly, while the app looks very pretty and looks like it should do things, it only does some of what you want sometimes, and it never does it as well as any other tools- whether it’s a physical card, Google maps, or twitter/x. So why bother.

The response from their customer service:Thank you for contacting SmarTrip. When customers have pending products on their SmarTrip card, they must tap their card or mobile device 2 to 4 hours after the purchase was made at a SmarTrip target, such as fare vending machines or fare gates. You can also tap the card on the bus fare boxes to load the funds, but it may take up to 3 days of travel. Funds that are pending do expire if the card is not tapped or used within 30 days. If you have any additional questions or need more information, please let us know.

I’d love to be able to give a thorough review but I couldn’t activate a new account. Checked my spam folder, waited hours, had the activation email resent a dozen times, nothing. Is it because I created an account after business hours? Is there an employee who manually sends these account activation emails? If you can’t set up a decent system for account activation, then maybe don’t make it a requirement.