How a nol card top-up works
The short version: three fields and a payment. The long version, including what happens on our side and why your card needs one tap, is below.
The flow
What you do
-
Copy the number from the card
The long printed number on the back of the card is the only identifier we need. Enter digits only; the field groups them in fours so you can read them back against the card without squinting.
-
Pick the amount
Four common amounts are one tap away, or type any value between AED 10 and AED 500. The service fee and the total are recalculated as you type, so there is no surprise on the payment page.
-
Pay on the secure page
Confirm the summary and you are handed to the payment provider. Pay with a debit or credit card, Apple Pay or Google Pay. Your bank card details are entered there, never here.
Behind the scenes
What happens after you press pay
The payment provider authorises the charge and tells us the result. On a yes, your top-up is registered against the card number you entered and a reference code is generated — that code is your handle on the transaction for as long as it exists.
The receipt email goes out at the same time. If you never see it, check the spam folder before you assume something broke: receipts from an unfamiliar sender are a favourite target of overzealous filters.
From there, the credit sits queued against your card number waiting for the card to show up somewhere it can be written to.
- Payment authorised — usually within two seconds
- Top-up registered against your card number
- Reference code generated and shown on screen
- Receipt emailed to the address you gave us
- Credit queued, waiting for your next tap
Why your card needs one tap
A transport card has no internet connection. It cannot be told about a payment made on a website; it has to be physically written to by a reader. That reader is any gate, validator or meter in the network.
So the last step of an online top-up always happens offline: you tap. The reader recognises that credit is waiting, writes it to the card and shows you the new balance. It takes as long as a normal tap, and you do not have to do anything differently.
If the first tap after a top-up still shows the old balance, tap once more. The write happens on one of the first taps, not necessarily the very first one, depending on where you tap.
How long each part takes
- Filling in the form: about ten seconds, less once you have done it before.
- Payment authorisation: one to three seconds in normal conditions.
- Credit queued on our side: immediately after authorisation.
- Visible on the card: at your next tap on any reader in the network.
If something does not go to plan
Most problems fall into one of three buckets, and all three have a quick answer.
- The payment failed
- Nothing was charged and no credit was queued. Start again — a declined authorisation is usually a bank-side check rather than a problem with the details you entered.
- The payment went through but no receipt arrived
- The top-up exists. Check spam, then send us the email address you used and we will resend the receipt.
- You mistyped the card number
- Contact us immediately with your reference code. If the credit has not been claimed by a tap yet, we can normally redirect it.
Whatever the situation, the reference code shown after payment is the fastest way to get an answer. Quote it in your first message and there is no back-and-forth.
That is the whole process
It reads longer than it takes. Try it — the form is one click away.
Top up now