If you don’t cancel your €49 NS unlimited summer train pass before it expires, brace yourself, because it’ll automatically renew at €127.95 a month.
According to Rover, the Dutch consumer organisation for public transport passengers, “subscriptions expiring after August 1 will be automatically renewed at more than double the rate”.
The organisation expects “a financial blow” for customers who haven’t read the deal’s fine print, and calls on the NS to provide travellers with more information.
Here’s what’s going on.
From €49 to €127.95 in a mere month
The Nederland Dal Vrij summer deal has been a genuine hit, with more than a quarter of a million people snapping up unlimited off-peak travel for €49 a month.
That bargain price was funded by a €118 million contribution from the government, meant to keep trains affordable while fuel prices soared.
However, there’s one glaring catch for customers: the deal officially runs until August 31, but any subscription that ends on or after August 1 quietly rolls over into a full-price NS Flex Dal Vrij subscription… at a whopping €127.95 a month.
Consumer rights organisations point out “double standards”
Needless to say, Rover director Daan Zieren isn’t impressed by how NS has handled the issue, and he’s called out a bit of a double standard.
“Existing customers who have been travelling faithfully during off-peak hours for years with a regular Dal Vrij subscription were not automatically switched by NS to the cheaper rate of €49,” he points out. “But conversely, NS will soon be able to automatically switch travellers to the more expensive variant. That is applying double standards.”
He’s also keen to stress this isn’t some commercial NS offer, but a government scheme with millions set aside to make train travel cheaper.
“It is a government initiative in which millions have been allocated to make train travel more affordable,” Zieren says. “It is ironic that travellers are now being exposed to the risk of unintended expenses.”
So, how can you avoid an unexpected full-price fare?
The good news is that you’re in control, as long as you act in time.
Check your renewal date and cancel or downgrade before it flips to full price. If you like hassle-free direct debits, you can switch your subscription to NS Flex Basis for €0 a month, or move to a different NS product.
NS does say on its own subscription page that it warns you before the switch, and that over-65s renew at a lower €59.95. Still, Rover wants NS to go all out with reminders, whether that’s personal emails, app notifications, or anything else that gets the message across.
Did you grab the €49 summer pass, and are you planning to switch to a different subscription? Share your experience in the comments below.
I read the terms and seems NS is trying to weasle their way into scamming its customers honestly. If you subscribed in June you’d get 2 months. I subscribed at the 27th of June but they already billed me on the 29th for €19 and then the 10th of July for the correct €49 but both already had the deal applied in the invoice. For one: The first invoice is literally only 2 days after switching over from Flex Basic to the subscription that’s already scummy and they billed me next on the 10th despite it not even being a month. It even says in my account that the subscription started on the 27th. So I have to cancel now if I want to avoid extra costs which also means the subscription and ability to travel stops immediately. So I hadn’t even had 2 months! But only 1! And NS definitely didn’t notify me.
Really scummy from the NS if you ask me and I hope the government will reprimand the NS about their VERY confusing invoice tactics and maybe give people who had to cancel 1 extra month or something. I’m 26 and relatively good with navigating subscriptions and fine print. It’s already confusing for me but imagine if some people who aren’t as good with that like maybe elderly who used it to visit far living (grand)children or something, they’re suddenly going to have to pay the full price because NS can’t get their subscriptions details conveyed in a clear manner. Should honestly be illegal.