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hvv Prepaid Card

Load up your card and off you go!

It’s easy, fast and practical: the hvv Prepaid Card means that you can pay without cash on buses – without the hassle of logging in to the internet, showing a credit card or having a smartphone.

And this is how it works

Free of charge

The hvv Prepaid Card doesn’t cost you anything and can be loaded up in 5-euro steps. The maximum amount loadable on one card is  150 euros. 

Usable from the word go

The cashless payment card works without logging in. You don’t need to register any account or card data. 
Available every­where 

Available everywhere     You can get the hvv Prepaid Card everywhere in the Hamburg city area – either at U-Bahn stations (from the new HOCHBAHN ticket machines) or from our sales partners REWE, PENNY, toom, Wolsdorff, ARAL, JET, SHELL, AVIA, NORDOEL, bft, OIL! and team.


Please click on the picture to enlarge.
Logos von REWE, PENNY, toom, Wolsdorff, ARAL, NORDOEL, JET, SHELL, AVIA, bft, OIL!, team

Simple to charge

Simple to charge    You can top up your credit balance everywhere where you can get a hvv Prepaid Card (see above)

Choice of tickets

You can buy single, day, group and supplementary tickets on the bus with your hvv Prepaid Card.

Transfer­able

The hvv Prepaid Card is not individualized. That means you can pass it on, together with the credit balance on it, e.g. to your kids, your grandchildren or your visitors.  
Please click on the picture to enlarge.
Prepaid Card
hvv Prepaid Card: tag at our sales partners

Any questions? We have the answers.

Clients can use the hvv Prepaid Card to buy the main tickets, e.g. single, day, group and supplementary tickets. The 16 most frequently bought tickets are displayed on the PVS devices on the buses to select from: 

Single tickets

short journey
local journey
Hamburg AB
2 fare rings
3 fare rings 
4 fare rings
5 fare rings
6 fare rings

Single tickets child

Hamburg AB
2 fare rings
3–5 fare rings 
6 fare rings

Day tickets

9 am Day Ticket Hamburg AB
All Day Ticket Hamburg AB 

Group Tickets

Hamburg AB 

Supplementary ticketsas top-up to a season ticket 1-2 fare rings

Single tickets

local journey
1 zone
2 zones
2 fare rings
3 fare rings 
4 fare rings 
5 fare rings
Stadtverkehr

Single tickets child

2 fare rings
5 fare rings 

Day tickets

9 am Day Ticket 2 fare rings
9 am Day Ticket 3 fare rings
Day Ticket Child 2 fare rings

Group Tickets

2 fare rings
9 am Group Ticket 3 fare rings

Supplementary tickets
as top-up to a season ticket 

2 fare rings
3 fare rings

Our tip: You can buy several tickets for different persons one after another with a hvv Prepaid Card separately. 

  • at the new neuen, upright Hochbahn ticket machines (self-service terminals) and 
  • from the PVS (verification and sales system) devices on the Hochbahn, VHH, KViP and RMVB buses

N.B.: In future, it is planned to adapt the S-Bahn and regional train ticket machines of Metronom to take the hvv Prepaid Card as well.

Please hold your Prepaid Card about 1 cm away from the terminal and wait until a tick on the display confirms your successful purchase.  

Yes, if  you need it, our bus drivers will still help you when you want to buy a ticket.

  • Get on at the front of the bus
  • click "Fahrkarte kaufen" on the ticket device
  • hold your hvv Prepaid Card in front of the scanner underneath the display until the ticket selection list appears
  • select the ticket you want
  • confirm your purchase by holding the hvv Prepaid Card in front of the scanner again and close

Our tip: After you have held your hvv Prepaid Card against the card reader, the remaining credit balance on your card will be displayed.  

Yes, you can buy several tickets either for one person or for different persons one after another with a hvv Prepaid Card.

The hvv Prepaid Card is like cash. If you lose your Prepaid Card, then unfortunately you have lost the credit balance on it as well.

As with the Deutschlandticket, the Card will be checked electronically by the ticket inspector.

Repayment of the remaining credit balance on a hvv Prepaid Card is initially possible in the following hvv service centres:

  • Ahrensburg
  • Altona
  • Barmbek
  • Bergedorf
  • Billstedt
  • Blankenese
  • Dammtor
  • Elbgaustraße
  • Fuhlsbüttel
  • Harburg
  • Hamburg Hauptbahnhof
  • Johanniswall
  • Jungfernstieg
  • Neugraben
  • Pinneberg
  • Poppenbüttel
  • Wandsbek Markt
  • Wedel 

With the hvv Prepaid Card, unlike when you buy a ticket online from hvv, you don’t need to register a bank account (or a PayPal account) with us. A credit balance is loaded onto the Card at the beginning (=prepaid). That means that the Card and the credit balance on it are equivalent to cash.