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 information 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 TransLink Systems B.V.

The OV-chipkaart contains a chip-ID. This chip contains an electronic wallet with your balance and an 'OV-module'. The OV-module contains the information of 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 did you request 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.

If you purchase an international train ticket, all information required to issue the ticket is registered by BeNe Rail International (an international collaboration between the NS and Belgische Spoorwegen) and by us.

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

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

We use your personal information to deliver, deactivate or block travel products, including season tickets, travelling on balance or credit and 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 do not do so on time. In that case, NS or one of its partners (Webhelp 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 Focum. They need this information to properly verify your identity. As agreed by NS and Focum, this information will not be used to enrich Focum's database.

Data may be processed after an agreement is made and executed

We need the information requested for personal OV-chipkaarten or personal international tickets to enter into an agreement with you and to execute said agreement. If you do not provide this information, or if you are unwilling to do so, you cannot purchase a personal OV-chipkaart or international ticket. In that case, you can opt for an anonymous OV-chipkaart. If you enter into a travel on balance agreement with us, we will check whether you have any outstanding invoices with us. You will not be able to take out a new season ticket until you have paid all outstanding invoices.

The principle for data processing is: justified interest

Some products let you 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 Focum 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.

The credit check is an essential part of the ordering process, if we are to enter into an agreement in which we provide you with credit. If you are not an existing NS customer and do not agree to the credit check, you will not be able to purchase an NS Flex season ticket. If the result of the credit check is positive, you can complete the ordering process and finalise your preferred travel product on account.

If the outcome of the credit check is negative, your request will be rejected automatically and you will not be able to purchase a travel product on account. You will still be able to travel with one of the many other travel products offered by NS. This decision is made automatically by our partner Focum, based on various predefined criteria, such as whether you have a debt with a collection agency. Based on these criteria, Focum determines whether you pose a high non-payment risk. NS has no insight into the results of the credit check and we do not store these results. 

NS will therefore never know why your request was rejected. To find out more about the results of your credit check, please contact Focum 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. Please send an email to inzage@focum.nl to object to the result of the check and explain why your information should be corrected as fully as possible.

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

If you purchase a personalised travel product, we will pass on this information to TransLink. TransLink is responsible for producing and issuing OV-chipkaarten, ensuring that they work properly, and processing the transactions made with the OV-chipkaart. TransLink is also responsible for processing personal information for the OV-chipkaart. For more information, please see ov-chipkaart.nl

We will also share information with third parties if this is required to guarantee proper national coverage of the OV-chipkaart. A limited amount of functional information may be shared with TransLink and other public transport companies.

If you purchase an international train ticket, your information will be registered by BeNe Rail International (an international collaboration between the NS and Belgische Spoorwegen) and by us to produce, issue, and guarantee the proper functioning of the ticket.

We will also pass your information on to the appropriate carrier, such as Eurostar or Thalys, to complete your booking. We have made agreements about the processing of personal information with these parties, pertaining to how this information is secured and stored, for instance.

If a credit check is required for a certain product, we will pass your information on to Focum. Focum is a business information agency that collects information about people. Combined with the information provided by you, this information allows us to prevent you from entering into financial obligations that you cannot bear, as well as enabling us to minimise financial risk. With regard to the personal information Focum receives from NS, Focum is an information processor. NS has made agreements with Focum about the processing of personal information, including the security of personal information. With regard to its database, the credit information bureau, and the automatic credit checks, Focum is responsible for processing the personal information in question based on the code of conduct of the NVH. Please go to Focum's website to find out more about the information processed by Focum. 

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.

We also use IT services provided by third parties. These third parties process our information solely for our own internal use, and for no other purpose. We have made agreements about the processing of personal information with these parties, pertaining to how this information is secured and stored, for instance.
Do you have or did you request an NS-Business Card from NS Zakelijk? In that case, we will share some details of your travel history with your employer, depending on the type of season ticket taken out by your employer, e.g. a Trein Vrij or OV Vrij season ticket. If your employer has taken out a Trein Vrij season ticket for you, our invoices will also show your travel history on other forms of public transport (e.g. bus, tram and metro) and the fares paid, as these trips are not covered by the travel product purchased by your employer. Your employer will also be able to see whether you changed your travel class or used door-to-door services (e.g. taxi or OV-fiets). We pass on this information to your employer so that they can pass on the costs to you and/or request corrections (e.g. if you forgot to check out).

We are authorised to provide your personal information 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, are 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 the result of Focum's credit check is negative, NS will not store any data and will delete any and all data provided by you after the order is terminated. Focum may not use the personal data it receives from NS to perform the credit check to enrich its own database. For more information about the personal data for which Focum is responsible, please visit the Focum website.