Octopus for Tourists 4+

Only worked for a day! Then started having problems to enter and exit. It seems like the gates do not recognize Octopus card in Apple Pay! Ask to use HK Octopus card to enter/exit. The customer service have have cleared some things and ask to try again. The first try still doesn't work. Back to the second time to clear it then work to enter. But next day has the same problems. So I canceled the Octopus app and back to the physical card.

i know lots of reviews have common experiences in app failure, but it’s working well for me after a day in HK so far, and i appreciate the convenience of use for both public transit and purchases in most places. before travel, i linked my credit card to the app and added a couple hundred HKD. i also added the card to my Apple Wallet before travel. and now that i’m here, it’s been working for me no problem. also no issues adding more funds as needed. i did experience concerns from the bank about the foreign transactions before i left, but it wasn’t a big deal to clear up and notify them of my travel.

First of all, after transferring the card from the physical card to Apple Wallet, I did not receive the HKD50 deposit refund at all. Customer service is absolutely useless in providing a solution as well.

Additionally, I have noticed that from time to time, the MTR gate fails to recognize the Octopus express transit payment and instead conflicts with the Visa payment, when it happens, you'll be THAT person clogging up the gate with a long queue behind you giving you the dirty look, I would advise tourist to simply keep to using the physical card to avoid this headache.

Last but not least, you can no longer top up with cash if you use the Apple wallet version, since you can't insert the card into the top up machine. This tourist app charge a higher conversion rate.