Usage is encouraged by offering cheaper fares than the cash ticket option, although there is an initial once-only fee to purchase the card.

It cannot be used to pay for travel on the Northern Explorer passenger train running between Auckland and Wellington or on inter-city bus services.

The AT HOP cards are based on near field communication (NFC) with DESFire with support of 3DES and AES, enabling 168–128 bit keys.

The council-controlled organisation confirmed Thales would be contracted with ongoing development of the system across the entirety of the region's transport network.

Snapper Services Ltd, a subsidiary of Infratil, made a joint bid with ANZ, New Zealand Post, Eyede, Unisys and Beca Group for the contract of developing Auckland's integrated ticketing system.

In response, the Auckland Regional Transport Authority called the Snapper announcement "premature"[10] citing the development of ARTA's integrated ticketing offering still in development with Thales and confirming that all public transport operators in Auckland, including NZ Bus, would be required to participate in ARTA's system.

In April 2011, AT announced the "HOP card", developed by Snapper,[12] with initial rollout on all NZ Bus services.

[17] The first dark blue 'AT HOP card' began rolling out on public transport, starting with the rail network on 28 October 2012.

[20] Spark (then Telecom) had trialed a 'virtual AT HOP card' on Android phones with NFC and intended it for release in late 2013.

The expectation is that in 2026, Auckland will implement Project NEXT (later renamed to National Ticketing Solution; branded as Motu Move), an open-loop account-based public transport payment system proposed for New Zealand.