General Conditions
These terms and conditions apply to customers creating and using a ScotRail Smartcard with Smart Plus.
Creating and using your account is deemed acceptance of these terms and conditions.The most up to date terms and conditions will always be available at scotrail.co.uk.
Nothing in these terms and conditions affects your statutory rights.
Smart Plus is only available with a ScotRail Adult Smartcard & can only be used by the customer whose name the Smartcard bears.
We reserve the right to suspend, withdraw, amend, or terminate operation of Smart Plus at any time.
Registering
You can create a Smart Plus account at www.scotrail.co.uk/myscotrail. You must already have a MyScotRail account and have an active ScotRail smartcard.
As part of setting up your account we will link a current ScotRail Smartcard and take an initial payment, currently £5. You will then need to activate your Smart Plus product by tapping your Smartcard on a platform validator or gate at a ScotRail station.
To add a payment card to your account you will need to enter full payment card details either as part of setting up your account or when subsequently topping up your account. You may add multiple payment cards to your account, however you must nominate one of these as the default payment source.
We use an approved encrypted secure payment mechanism to ensure your debit/credit card details are safe. We accept American Express, Maestro, Mastercard, Visa and Visa Electron payment cards.
All credit/debit card payments are subject to authorisation by your card issuer.
Your credit/debit card must be registered to a UK address.
Our system checks that the nominated debit/credit card is a valid payment card (i.e. hasn't expired or been stopped).
You will be asked whether you want to be contacted by ScotRail or its partners. You can change your preferences at any time by signing into your account.
ScotRail’s privacy policy can be found here .
Travelling
Use of Smart Plus is subject to National Rail Conditions of Travel, available here .
The ScotRail Smartcard must be presented to a reader before boarding a train service, at the end of each journey, and when requested by a ScotRail member of staff. If your card is not presented i.e. “tapped” correctly, ScotRail reserves the right to apply the maximum single fare for the Smart Plus area which is currently £6.80.
Customer taps (origin; destination; time of day) will be analysed and converted into the best value product for each journey made.
Smart Plus can be used on ScotRail services only.
Only journeys entirely within the Smart Plus area will be eligible for use with the Smart Plus account. Any journey, or part of a journey, outwith the Smart Plus area requires a valid ticket to be held.
The Smart Plus Area.
Smart Plus will recognise any pre-purchased un-expired ScotRail smart tickets (including singles, returns seasons) and not charge customers if they make exactly the same journey as covered by those tickets. Smart Plus will also allow pre-purchased un-expired ScotRail smart season tickets to be used for part of a journey where this journey overlaps with that taken using Smart Plus. For clarity, this means that just the remaining part of the journey not covered by the smart season ticket will be charged to the account.
Split ticketing is not supported, i.e. the Smart Plus scheme will use the fare from the origin to destination station to apply charges.
Your Account
You can see your Smart Plus balance.
You can top up your Smart Plus credit or switch to Auto Top Up.
You can manage your Auto top-up settings (See section 5 for more information).
You can view your journey history for 13 months.
You can manually complete a journey where you have forgotten to do so when travelling. You can complete up to 3 incomplete journeys on a rolling 28 days basis. The system will, where possible, automatically complete journeys for you where taps have been missed, up to a maximum of 10 times per rolling 28 days.
You can update your personal details, account and notification settings.
You can apply for a refund of any Smart Plus balance. When you do this your Smartcard will be blocked for Smart Plus travel. Refunds will be processed once all journeys have been recorded and all fares deducted.
You can report your Smartcard as lost, stolen, damaged or failed by calling our team on 0344 811 0141. If your Smartcard is lost or stolen it will continue to operate as normal until you report it to us. You should therefore report any loss or theft as soon as possible. You won't be liable for any journeys made from the time you report it as lost or stolen and we have verified your details to the time when it is blocked.
You can apply for a Delay Repay as per scheme terms and conditions . Your refund will be paid in the form of credit to your Smart Plus account.
Any refunds will be paid in the form of credit to your Smart Plus account. You can view an itemised statement of such credits, along with your current credit balance, when you sign into your account. Only when your account is closed will payment be made in a form other than credit.
It is permitted to withdraw some funds from an account with a positive balance and keep the account open. A voucher for the requested amount will only be issued after all journeys have been processed. This voucher can be redeemed at any ScotRail ticket office.
No interest will be paid to you on the credit balance held on your account.
An account cannot be closed if it has a negative balance. A customer must credit their account to the minimum required to create a positive balance, which is then refunded.
Auto Top-Up
You can set Auto Top-Up on your Smart Plus Account.
The payment for Auto Top-Up will be debited automatically overnight from your nominated debit/credit card whenever your Smart Plus credit falls below the threshold value. Your account will automatically by topped up to the value you have specified.
You may nominate up to 3 payment methods and these will be debited according to the priority set out in your account.
By selecting Auto Top-Up you give ScotRail authority to obtain payment from your nominated debit/credit card. You are responsible for ensuring that your nominated debit/credit card account information is accurate and up to date. Your nominated debit/credit card must be registered at the billing address and sufficient funds must be available whenever an Auto Top-Up is automatically initiated.
ScotRail accepts no responsibility for any charges that may apply if you have insufficient funds on your nominated debit/credit card or for any subsequent inconvenience if your debit/credit card details are out of date.
ScotRail shall not be obliged to enable your Smartcard until after your debit/credit card account has been successfully debited for any negative balance.
If your payment is not cleared by your bank and you do not have funds in your Smart Plus account, your card shall be blocked for Smart Plus travel.
We will send you an email each time a payment is taken from your account following an Auto Top-Up.
Payments will appear on your bank/credit card statement as Abellio ScotRail.
You may cancel, amend or update your Auto top-up settings at any time online via your account.
A failure to top up an account may create a negative balance, which in turn may mean the Smart Plus facility on a Smartcard being stopped.
We will contact you with updates about your Auto Top-Up instruction using the email address you used to create your account.
You are responsible for regularly checking for emails from us and to ensure our emails are not sent to a junk mail folder.
You are responsible if you don't update your credit/debit card details when they have changed. If your payment fails the Smart Plus facility on your Smartcard may be stopped.
We reserve the right to suspend, withdraw, amend, or terminate operation of the Auto top-up process at any time and we will use all reasonable endeavours to provide prior notification to you of such events.