Purchasing, deactivating, rescheduling and cancelling travel products

Whether or not we will process your personal information depends on which travel product you have purchased.

You have several options for travelling with NS. You can choose to use a personal OV-chipkaart, an anonymous OV-chipkaart, an e-ticket, or a single-use ticket. If you choose to use a personal OV-chipkaart or an e-ticket, you will have to provide personal data such as your contact information, date of birth and banking information.

We will also need a passport photo for your OV-chipkaart, which lets us identify you when you're travelling with us. All information required to issue the OV-chipkaart is registered by us and by Trans Link Systems B.V. (hereinafter: "Translink"). With your consent, we will store your passport photo for a duplicate OV-chipkaart or a future card/carrier.

The OV-chipkaart contains an ID chip. This chip contains an electronic wallet with your balance and an 'OV-module.' The OV-module contains the information concerning your last 10 travel transactions, your last two top-up transactions, your travel product(s), any permissions, such as automatic top-up, and your date of birth.

Do you have or have you requested an NS-Business Card from NS Zakelijk? In that case, we will use your business details if possible. We may obtain this information from your employer.

We don't need any personal information if you wish to purchase an anonymous OV-chipkaart. If you want to stop using your anonymous OV-chipkaart and wish us to refund your current balance, we will use the necessary personal information, such as your contact details and your account number. In that case, you must provide the information yourself.

If you use the Samenreiskorting combined travel discount, we will process your name, the last four numbers of the season ticket holder's OV-chipkaart, and the travel companions. If you travel with a student travel product, we will not process the season ticket holder's name.

We do not process any personal data if you purchase a disposable ticket.

We use your personal data to deliver, deactivate or block travel products, including season tickets, travelling on balance or account, e-tickets, and for delivering travel product carriers, such as the OV-chipkaart. During the ordering process, we check whether the OV-chipkaart on which you want to order a product is still valid, and whether there are any conflicting products on the OV-chipkaart that may prevent you travelling on the NS product or on another carrier's product. 

To purchase an NS Flex season ticket, you have to provide us with your phone number. NS may use your phone number if you fail to pay an invoice or miss a payment deadline. In that case, NS or one of its partners (Concentrix Nederland or BOS Incasso) may reach out to you by phone. To perform the credit check, your surname, initials, address, date of birth and country of birth are passed on to Economic Data Resources B.V.  (hereinafter: EDR). They need this information to properly verify your identity. As agreed by NS and EDR, this information will not be used to enrich EDR's database.

The basis for the processing is: entering into and executing an agreement

We need the data requested for OV-chipkaarten or personal e-tickets in order to enter into an agreement with you and to execute said agreement. If you do not provide this data, or if you are unwilling to do so, you cannot purchase an OV-chipkaart or  a personal e-ticket. In that case, you can opt for an anonymous OV-chipkaart. When you purchase a season ticket from NS, we will first check if there are any unpaid debts associated with the data you provide. If any payments are in arrears, NS retains the right to cancel your season ticket or refuse to offer a new season ticket.

If you use the Samenreiskorting combined travel discount, the season ticket holder's details will be linked to the travel companions' tickets. Your data will be processed to check the ticket validity and to prevent unsafe situations aboard the train if possible. If you use the Samenreiskorting with a student travel product, then you automatically grant permission for us to check the validity of the student travel product by contacting the DUO. NS will receive a reply indicating only that the product is valid. We will ask for your consent for this, and if you do not consent, then you cannot take advantage of the Samenreiskorting.  This will not affect your ability to travel with the student travel product, and this is the most transparent way for us to process this data. NS also has a clear and legitimate interest in obtaining this data. 

The basis for data processing is: legitimate interest

Some products allow you to travel on account. In this situation, we are offering you credit that you will have to pay back at a later point in time. Because we want to minimise financial risk and consider it important that purchasing this type of products does not leave you with any financial problems, such as debt, we have a credit check performed by EDR before entering into the agreement. All new customers have to undergo a credit check as part of the ordering process. For existing NS customers, we check whether you are in arrears based on the information provided by you, as this would preclude NS from accepting you as a customer for this type of season ticket.

NS needs to do the above in order to determine whether it can offer you the season ticket in question. If you are not yet an NS customer and do not agree to a credit check, we cannot offer you the NS Flex season ticket. You will be able to use other NS travel products. If the result of the acceptance process, including the credit check, is positive, you can complete the ordering process and finalise your preferred travel product on account.

If the acceptance process, including the credit check, reveals that offering this travel product would put you or NS at increased risk, we will not be able to offer you a travel product on account. You will still be able to travel with one of the many other travel products offered by NS. EDR advises NS based on several criteria, such as whether you have an outstanding debt with an collection agency. EDR examines these criteria to arrive at advice as to whether you pose a potential credit risk. NS has no insight into the results of the credit check and we do not store these results. 

EDR is the data processor responsible for performing the credit check on behalf of NS and NS therefore has no knowledge of the rationale for the advice given. To find out more about EDR's advice, please contact EDR and submit an online access request. If the information used for the credit check was incorrect, you have the right to have the information corrected. To do so, please submit a Change Request and explain why your information should be corrected in as much detail as possible.

If you have any questions about the credit check, please contact NS Customer Service. If you disagree with our decision on the basis of the result of the credit check performed by EDR or any other information, you can inform us of your position, contest the decision, or request that the decision be reassessed by an employee. To do so, please submit a request to NS Customer Service. 

In order for the OV-chipkaart to work nationwide, to process transactions with your OV-chipkaart and to facilitate revenue sharing between the public transport companies ("transport operators"), NS shares your transaction data and product data with the issuer of the OV-chipkaart: Translink. NS, the other Carriers and Translink are jointly responsible for processing personal data relating to the core processes of the OV-chipkaart system. These core processes include purchasing the OV-chipkaart, topping up the OV-chipkaart, purchasing products, travelling, and service. We have entered into a partnership agreement in which the division of roles and responsibilities and other arrangements pertaining to these core processes have been laid down. This agreement also identifies which data must be processed to ensure that the OV-chipkaart system can run effectively and efficiently and who needs said data. For more information, go to www.ov-chipkaart.nl/privacy. Alternatively, you can reach out to the Data Protection Officer of either organisation:

For NS: fg@ns.nl, for Translink: fg@translink.nl

If you wish to exercise your rights under the GDPR, please notify NS, Translink Customer Service or Translink's Data Protection Officer, see contact details above.

For personalised digital tickets, we do not share your data with Translink. NS is responsible for processing this personal data itself. More information about the processing of personal data for international tickets.

If a credit check is required for a certain product, we will pass your data on to EDR. EDR is a credit information agency that verifies personal data and provides credit information reports and risk profiles. We use these reports and risk profiles, along with the information provided by you, as part of our acceptance process to prevent you from entering into irresponsible financial obligations, as well as enabling us to minimise financial risk. NS has made agreements with EDR about the processing of personal data, including the security of personal data. With regard to credit information and its advice, EDR is responsible for processing the personal data in question. For more information about how EDR processes your personal data, please read EDR's privacy statement. The privacy statement also explains how you can exercise your rights, including the right of access, the right to rectification, the right to object and the right to erasure.

If you fail to meet your payment obligations, we will share your contact details with BOS Incasso to collect the outstanding amount. We will also share your payment details with third parties to facilitate iDeal or credit card payments and to combat fraud.

Finally, we subcontract IT services to third parties. These third parties process the data solely for our own internal use, and for no other purpose. We have made agreements about the processing of personal data with these parties, pertaining to how this information is secured and stored, for instance. 

We are authorised to provide your personal data to parties outside the European Economic Community under certain circumstances. In that event, we will take suitable measures with these parties, for example by agreeing to the standard provisions required by the European Commission.

Customer data, with the exception of transaction details, is deleted 48 months after the last time you had contact with NS. We will delete your NS account at your request, as explained on this page. You can also use your NS account for other services.

If you use the Samenreiskorting combined travel discount, your data will be processed for the period in which the code is valid, up to a maximum of 3 days. This period may be extended by the period between the purchase of the e-ticket and the actual travel date shown on the ticket. E-tickets can be purchased up to one month in advance. After this period, NS will store how often you used the Samenreiskorting for a maximum of 18 months. The link between the person offering the Samenreiskorting and the recipient will be deleted after the Samenreiskorting validity period. The reply from DUO stating whether a student travel product is valid will be deleted immediately after receipt of the reply by NS.

If the result of the EDR credit check is not positive, NS will not store any data and will delete any and all data provided by you after the order is terminated. EDR does not use the personal data received from NS in the context of the credit check to enrich its own database.