Bee Card
Bee Card is a pre-paid smartcard used throughout the Bay of Plenty (and other participating regions) to pay for your journey.
Simply tag on when you board the bus by holding your card against the card reader and wait for the beep and green light before taking a seat.
When you reach your destination, you do the same to tag off. The cost of the fare and the card balance will be displayed on the card reader when you tag off.
Getting a Bee Card and setting it up
Bee Cards cost $5 each. A minimum top-up of $5 dollars also applies - with the exception of SuperGold holders.
Three ways to get your Bee Card
- Order a card online at beecard.co.nz and have it posted to you (this could take up to 10 working days).
- Ask your bus driver for a Bee Card and register the card online at beecard.co.nzopen_in_new NB: you will not be able to use the card until after it’s finished processing which happens at the bus depot at the end of the day.
- Visit a Bay of Plenty Regional Council office at:
• 5 Quay Street, Whakatāne
• Level 2, Corner Fenton and Pukaki Streets, Rotorua
• Regional House, 1 Elizabeth Street, Tauranga
Your Bee Card will be issued on the spot and you’ll be able to use it right away.
Setting it up
1. Create a Bee Card account
If you haven’t already, pop online to beecard.co.nz and create a Bee Card account. You’ll need this to register and activate your card. You can also visit one of our Regional Council offices for help to do this.
Registering your card means you can
- Top up online
- Set up an auto top up so you always have money on your card
- Load child, student, tertiary, Community Connect or SuperGold Card concessions
- View your transactions and journey history
- Link other people's cards to your account -- so that you can top up cards for family members
Cancel lost or stolen cards, and transfer any balance to a replacement card.
2. Activate your card
You can do this at beecard.co.nz , where you’ll need to login (or set up an account if you haven’t already) and enter the three digit security code on the back of the card.
3. Load your concession information on it
If you are a student, Senior or have another concession you are eligible for, you will need to load this onto your Bee Card.
This means that when you tag on and off the bus, you’ll automatically be charged the correct, discounted fare. Concessions available may vary between regions. You can only have one concession loaded on a Bee Card.
4. Top up your Bee Card
You’ll need to ‘top up’ your Bee Card before you can use it, so that you can pay for your trip.
Top up online at beecard.co.nz. Sign in to your account and follow the prompts to top up.
Note that even if you normally travel for free, it’s a good idea to keep a small balance on your card in case you forget to tag off and get charged a default fare. If your card goes into negative balance you won’t be able to tag back on until you top up again.
Online transactions generally go through the system within 12 hours and show on your Bee Card when you next tag on. In the meantime, your money is sitting under pending transactions in your online account.
If you top up your card at a Regional Council office, your money is loaded on to your card straight away.
You can also ask your driver to top up the card for you on the bus (cash only, no credit or eftpos available), however these top ups can take up to 12 hours to be applied to your card, as the bus needs to finish its route, and return to the depot for the information to be loaded into the system.
Auto top ups
If you want to avoid the hassle of remembering to top up yourself, you can set up your card to auto top up. This means when your card balance reaches a limit you set, it will automatically use the details you have provided to top your card up by an amount you choose. Read more about auto top ups .
Querying your Bee Card account
If you have any questions about your Bee card account, please contact the Bay of Plenty Regional Council on 0800 884 880.
Connecting multiple cards to one account
You can have more than one Bee Card attached to an account. This means the whole family, even extended family, can be associated to the one account, however each card does require its own credit - you cannot share money between cards.
This is a great way for bus users who do not have Internet access to be able to obtain a Bee card or for parents to keep their children’s Bee Cards topped up.
Are there different Bee cards for an adult and child?
No. The Bee card for an adult looks exactly the same as the Bee Card for a child. However, if a card is loaded with a concession e.g. child or Super Gold it can only be used by this individual. Therefore every passenger should have their own Bee Card loaded with any concession that they are eligible for, and it’s a good idea to name children’s cards so they don’t get mixed up.
You can pay for other people on your card by asking the driver.
Loading a Daysaver pass onto your Bee Card
You can also use your Bee Card to purchase a Daysaver pass. This will allow you to pay one fare, and make multiple trips that day. Please request this from the bus driver as you board. You will need to have enough credit preloaded onto your card before you can purchase this, or you can pay the driver cash.