Contactless in Berlin

Not as a ticket — nothing in Berlin lets you tap a bank card and ride on it — but your card is how you pay for a ticket, and on a bus it is the only thing that works.

There is no reader to tap on the U-Bahn, the S-Bahn, a tram, a regional train or a ferry, and no gates either. Berlin runs on proof of payment: you buy a ticket, stamp it in one of the orange Entwerter boxes if it is paper, and show it when an inspector asks. A bank card is a way of paying for that ticket and never the ticket itself.

Where the card does pay, it is worth knowing which machine reads a tap. On board a BVG bus the small card machine beside the driver takes a contactless card or a phone wallet and nothing else — BVG's own phrase is Nur kontaktlose Kartenzahlung, contactless card payment only — so no coins, no notes, and no card pushed into a slot for a PIN. BVG's stationary machines at stations and its Kundenzentren, the customer centres, take a tap as well, alongside coins and cards. On board a tram the machine takes coins and nothing else. S-Bahn Berlin is the one to arrive prepared for: its ticket page lists cards taken in the slot with a PIN — Mastercard, Visa, Girocard, Maestro and V Pay — while its own news announcement says a ticket can now be bought at those machines without cash and without entering a PIN. The two S-Bahn pages do not say the same thing, so go to an S-Bahn machine knowing your PIN and treat a tap that works as a bonus.

So carry one tappable card for the bus, and buy your tram and U-Bahn tickets at a BVG station machine, a BVG customer centre or in the BVG app before you board.

No. There is no reader on a U-Bahn platform that takes a bank card as a fare and no gate to open with one. Berlin is a proof-of-payment city: you carry a ticket and show it when an inspector asks, and a card is only ever how you bought it.

Buying it is easy enough on the platform. BVG's stationary ticket machines take a contactless tap, a card with a PIN and coins, and banknotes at some of them; a BVG Kundenzentrum, one of its customer centres, takes all of those without qualification; and the BVG Ticket-App sells the same tickets against Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal or a credit card. A paper ticket then has to be stamped in the orange Entwerter on the platform before you go down to the train — buying it is not validating it — while an app ticket is live from the moment you buy it.

Travelling on an unstamped or missing ticket is a €60 penalty, and an inspector will not be interested in the money having left your bank. Buy at the machine, stamp it beside the machine, then take the train.

Not as a ticket — a Berlin bus has no fare reader that turns a tapped bank card into a fare, so you cannot tap your way aboard. But as a way of paying it is the only thing that works. The driver sells you the ticket, and BVG's rule for paying for it is Nur kontaktlose Kartenzahlung — contactless card payment only. Hold a card or a phone wallet to the small card machine beside the driver. Coins, notes and a card pushed into a slot for a PIN are all refused.

What you get is the ordinary ticket: the same zones at the same price, with nothing added for buying it on board, and the usual 120 minutes of onward travel on it.

If your card will not tap, buy before you board. A stationary machine at a station takes coins, and a BVG Kundenzentrum — one of its customer centres — takes coins and notes; that ticket is valid on the bus, and you stamp it in the Entwerter box inside the vehicle as you get on, or show it to the driver on routes where everyone boards at the front door. Travelling with nothing valid is a €60 penalty. Otherwise it is simple: get on at the front, tap the card machine, take the ticket.