Wave by OCTA

Orange County Transportation Authority

About this app

The Wave by OCTA app makes riding OC Bus easier, faster, and smarter. With Wave, your payments are automatically capped, so you’ll never overpay, and you’ll always get the best fare. No more pre-paying for a daily or monthly pass, just load value and pay as you go. New features include card management, allowing you to add value to your Wave cards directly in the mobile app or at participating retailers using cash; real-time bus information so you can plan your trip; and apply your reduced fare status to your Wave card.

Why the Wave app makes riding easier:
1. Pay as you ride. No need to pay upfront for passes.
2. Daily and monthly fares are automatically capped, so you always pay less.
3. Get a free virtual card; no need to purchase a separate Wave card.
4. Set up autopay to reload value when your balance is low.
5. Load value with cash at participating retailers.
6. Real-time reloads and account management.
7. Manages up to 8 reusable Wave cards in your account.
8. Virtual card displays a large QR code for quicker boarding.
9. Wave cards include a free two-hour transfer for paid rides.
10. Connects to the Transit App for trip planning.

To get started, download Wave by OCTA to register your account. Create a virtual Wave card or link your physical card. Add funds and you’re ready to ride. It’s that simple.

Ratings and reviews

I'm definitely not a fan, the octa app was much easier to use plus I didn't have to save my card info on another sire that could be vulnerable to attscks, I could use my Google wallet. minimum buy option is $5 so if you need just a single ride, you're still paying $5, basically forcing you to spend more then you need, and of course you can't get a refund once the money is on there site. a program designed to gain revenue by you over spending.

So far, so good. A significant improvement over the old app. Update: people don't seem to be aware of how passes work in the new system. Now, there's fare-capping, which limits your daily and monthly fare totals to the price of the daily and monthly pass, respectively. This means you get the pass savings automatically once you spend enough. I'm not a paid promoter, just thought some of the criticism here was unfairly incomplete. Still no problems here.

They went through the trouble of making this app easy and quick to use, but then also programmed it to log out every other use. Signing back in to use it can take up to 2-3 minutes, very awkward when boarding, makes this a time consuming & annoying app