Is Buying an OV-chipkaart Worth It?

For those that are unfamiliar, an OV-chipkaart is a reloadable transit card that is used exclusively in the Netherlands. It's very similar to the metro card you'll find in New York or the Oyster Card used in London. Almost everyone in the Netherlands has one. But do you really need it?

For the places you can't get to by bike, you have to resort to taking a bus or train (or sometimes the tram, like in Amsterdam). And that's where the OV-chipkaart comes in. You have to have at least €7.50 preloaded onto your card to use the bus systems and at least €20 preloaded to take any trains.

When you get to a station or bus stop, you have to check-in before boarding. Similarly, you have to check-out before leaving. This way, the transit authority is able to accurately measure how much to charge you based on the distance you've travelled between checkpoints. If you're wondering where the hell to check-in/-out, there are small machines set up within train stations and busses that you can press your OV-chipkaart against to register your location. If you're new to the process and are worried that you'll do something wrong, just watch your fellow passengers to see what they do. It's really a simple and fast system.

However, there are, of course, some flaws to this system. For instance, the check-in/-out machines can be very easy to miss if you're in a hurry and they're low-security. Unlike the London and New York systems that have gates at every station blocking you from entering/leaving until you've swiped through, the Dutch kiosks are sometimes placed loosely throughout train stations and within busses.

If you forget to swipe out, you'll be charged for the longest distance that you could have ridden. For instance, let's say you check-in to a train that is going ten stops but you get off after only five stops without checking out. You'll be charged for the full ten stops that the train would've made. To remedy this, you have to call the transit authority and provide them with proof of where you got off so that they can charge you accurately.

However, some will just decide not to check in or out at all. And that's not hard to do. Because there's often little to no security monitoring that everyone swipes through the machines, it's really quite easy to get away with saving a few bucks and not paying at all. And many stations don't have blockades keeping people from entering the terminals without checking in. I am ashamed (but not really) to say that I have done this on a few occasions. And by “a few occasions,” I mean I spent seven months in Maastricht and only ever tapped in once for a local train ride. But, in my defense, I only ride the train for three minutes to get from my apartment to school and back, so to pay €2 for a round-trip ticket seems silly. It's a bad habit, sure, but maybe also very cost effective? That’s how I’m choosing to see it.

However, when taking longer train trips from, let’s say, Maastricht to Amsterdam (about a 2.5 hour ride), you really have to tap in and out. During those longer commutes, there are transit workers that rotate through the train cars checking everyone’s cards to be sure they checked in. If you’re caught after having purposefully not done so, you can probably rely on the old “I’m American, I’m new here” trick, but it’s a 50-50 shot that it will actually work and you’ll be exempt from a fee.

It's not as easy to do so on a bus, so I wouldn't recommend trying to cheat the system there - you'll likely get caught and fined. A lot of times, the driver will watch each individual that enters the bus and wait for them to check in before moving on to the next stop.

So, back to the question of whether you need an OV-chipkaart or not. The short answer is no, not if you are sticking to quick, local commutes by train. And by quick, I mean less than five minutes. If, however, you plan to take longer rides (5 minutes or more) or use the bus as your primary mode of transportation, you should definitely have one and make sure you check in and out with every use. For those lucky bastards that can get anywhere they need to go by bike alone, just peddle away while the rest of us try to figure out how to milk the Dutch transit system for all it’s worth.