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Hello everyone,

 

I recently moved to Germany (near the border) and I’m planning a weekend trip to the Netherlands to go to a concert and visit a friend. This is my travel plan:

 

  • Leave from Venlo to Tilburg (where the concert is) on Friday 29/09 at 16:30
  • After the concert, leave from Tilburg to Delft, where my friend lives
  • On Saturday and Sunday go to Den Haag and Rotterdam
  • Leave from Rotterdam to Venlo on Sunday afternoon

Considering that I pay full price for all of these tickets, it would cost me around 72 euros. I have seen on the website that there are some discount subscriptions, such as the Weekend Voordeel and Weekend Vrij. My questions are:
 

  1. Can I subscribe to either of those not being a resident of The Netherlands?
  2. Since I only need it for 3 days, can I cancel them after I’m done using it?
  3. My trip starts in September and ends in October. Would I need to buy 2 months or does it count a month from the date I choose to start my subscription?

 

Thank you so much for your help in advance.

:)

HI there raylancloss and welcome to our Community!

Good thing you’re asking about this 🙂. From what I see, the Weekend Vrij subscription could be a match for you, as only the costs for the trips from Tilburg to Delft and from Delft to Venlo will be more than what Weekend Vrij costs. Your Friday afternoon trip will not be discounted in any way, however, as it is in the peak hours.

To answer your questions:

  1. You can, but in order to be able to order you either need to have a Dutch bank account that supports iDeal OR you need to already have a personal OV-chipkaart and be able to call to our customer service. In that case, any IBAN number that supports SEPA debits suffices.
  2. You can't, unfortunately. The minimum duration of said subscription is one month. After the first month you can change or cancel it and no longer have any costs. Without the change, the subscription will continue, but you can change it per day.
  3. The minimum duration is one month from the date it starts, these don't necessarily have to be calender months.

Given the fact that your first trip to Tilburg will be full price in any way, problem one could be solved by having your friend order the subscription for you. If they take the OV-chipkaart with them to Tilburg, you can then use the subscription for all subsequent journeys. That solves the Dutch address and might solve the Dutch IBAN number issues 🙂.

For Venlo to Tilburg, you can use any contactless bank/credit card to check in. See https://ovpay.nl/en

HI there raylancloss and welcome to our Community!

Good thing you’re asking about this 🙂. From what I see, the Weekend Vrij subscription could be a match for you, as only the costs for the trips from Tilburg to Delft and from Delft to Venlo will be more than what Weekend Vrij costs. Your Friday afternoon trip will not be discounted in any way, however, as it is in the peak hours.

To answer your questions:

  1. You can, but in order to be able to order you either need to have a Dutch bank account that supports iDeal OR you need to already have a personal OV-chipkaart and be able to call to our customer service. In that case, any IBAN number that supports SEPA debits suffices.
  2. You can't, unfortunately. The minimum duration of said subscription is one month. After the first month you can change or cancel it and no longer have any costs. Without the change, the subscription will continue, but you can change it per day.
  3. The minimum duration is one month from the date it starts, these don't necessarily have to be calender months.

Given the fact that your first trip to Tilburg will be full price in any way, problem one could be solved by having your friend order the subscription for you. If they take the OV-chipkaart with them to Tilburg, you can then use the subscription for all subsequent journeys. That solves the Dutch address and might solve the Dutch IBAN number issues 🙂.

Thank you so much for your response, Tomas! :)

 

So from what I understood I need to have an OV-chipkaart and I can’t have it shipped to me outside of the Netherlands, right? There’s no option for a digital card?

 

Also, for point number 2, I can cancel it after the first month - ok, but will I be charged another month then?

 

Thank you!

 

So from what I understood I need to have an OV-chipkaart and I can’t have it shipped to me outside of the Netherlands, right? There’s no option for a digital card?

Subscriptions always have to be loaded onto a physical personal OV-chipcard. This card can be ordered together with the subscription, but only if payment is made with iDEAL (Dutch payment method), and the card is shipped to an address in the Netherlands.

You can order a personal OV-chipcard and have it shippped to Germany here, but only if you can pay with PayPal (or iDEAL). Once you've received the card, you can then contact NS customer service to arrange the subscription, as Tomas said.

 

I can cancel it after the first month - ok, but will I be charged another month then?

Not if you cancel it the first day of the second month, i.e. if your subscription starts on 29 September, you should cancel on 29 October. It's not a big issue if you cancel a few days later; you will then be charged for the second month, but will reimbursed for all days that month that you won't have the subscription any more.

@raylancloss have your friend from Delft order an ov-chipcard in your name (photo needed) with Weekend Vrij for you.

From the Tilburg 013 concert onwards, you will be free to go anywhere (by train) for a month for € 34,95

Too bad Weekend Vrij was half off for a while..

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