Reading54

Here is my other train question while traveling in the Netherlands.
I'll travel by train from Rotterdam Centraal to Schiphol Airport on the last day of my trip.
I read that I may buy the ticket (12.30Euro) along with the ICD supplement (2.40Euro) from a machine.
However, I read that the machine does not take bills, and only takes credit cards with pin. My US-bank issued credit card has a chip, but no pin.

Your advice please. Thanks in advance.

michelhuebeli

If you ask your bank for a PIN you'll get one, but realize that US credit cards, when used with PIN (as opposed to signature), incur a finance charge from the moment of the transaction.

What you want is a debit card with chip and pin, where your checking account is being charged. Even then, with US-issued cards it's a crap shoot whether they'll be accepted or not. We have a ways to go...

Make and take the time to go to a ticket window if your first attempt is not successful.

greg

Even the ticket counters with staffs don't accept CC without PIN. What a ticket counter enables you is to use cash. Allow enough time to queue up if necessary or pre-buy tickets at different time/place when you are not time crunched. Ticket is not valid until you validate the ticket just before you get on a train using a validation stamp machine.

StCirq

No,it won't work if you don't have a chip and pin debit card. Stand in line and pay cash or get a true chip and pin card. Get in line plenty of time in advance.

Reading54

Thanks everyone for your quick responses.

I should be able to find non-crunched time to pre-purchase the ticket a few days prior while staying in a smaller town.

OTOH, if I were to purchase the ticket online as a print-at-home eTicket, will I be required to change this eTicket into a real ticket at a train station machine?

hetismij2

I don't think you can buy an e-ticket without a Dutch card, because of the payment system used.

It will cost you slightly more at a ticket counter.
Many stations have only machines now, so you need to buy your ticket at a large station. The NS site will tell you which stations still have a ticket counter.

Reading54

Wow, NS does not make it easy for foreign tourists, does it?

Does Delft rail station have manned ticket counter?

Also, this web page below, "How to Buy Dutch Train Tickets" from AmsterdamTips dot com, states that Single-use tickets can only be purchased on-the-day of travel. Is that true?
http://www.amsterdamtips.com/tips/tr...etherlands.php

menachem

Ticket counters at Rotterdam are well staffed and not too busy. Of course, you can't cut it too close. Also, when you buy your ticket, make sure to also buy the ICD supplement.

And yes, everything that you read is correct.

Also, if you use a credit card: Visa/Mastercard, no AmEx.

>>OTOH, if I were to purchase the ticket online as a print-at-home eTicket, will I be required to change this eTicket into a real ticket at a train station machine?<<

I think you can only pay with iDeal, which requires that you have a Dutch bank account. If you're able to buy an e ticket, you can print it out and use the QR code to scan yourself past the entry gates. You can also load it into the NS Reisplanner app. It is not allowed to load the PDF in your phone and show that to the train steward. You can scan yourself in that way, but it either needs to be printed on paper or be loaded into the Reisplanner app. Don't ask me why, it doesn't make sense, since your name and date of birth needs to be on it, so they could check it against your ID, but that's the Dutch Railways for you. Almost no institution is so universally hated in the Netherlands, except from the Tax Service.

And yes, it's a crap system.

theatrelover

I was not able to find the information regarding which stations still have ticket counters. Do you know if Deflt still has a manned ticket counter? We will be staying in Delft for a few days and will need to travel by train for a number of day trips.

Andrew

Get some Euro coins - that's how I bought my tickets last year, with coins from the machines at the Delft train station. Even if you have a chip and PIN credit card that will work in the machines (I do), there's a small surcharge to use it - at least in the machines.

Don't recall if there are still manned ticket counters or not at Delft.

menachem

I checked on ns.nl: ticket machines only, there's no staffed counter at Delft.

So coins are your best bet
However. There's a limit to the number of coins a machine will accept in one transaction. So get a bag full of 2 euro coins.

I wish all this were easier, but it isn't. Sorry.

menachem

PS. I do think that getting a chip and pin Visa or MasterCard would make things easier.

theatrelover

Thank you all so much for the information. I tried checking the NS website but couldn't find that information. We have chip cards but our bank said they would give us a PIN but the PIN would only work for ATMs and not for ticket machines etc. We are so far behind here in the US on this. I will bring an extra small bag and collect lots of 2E coins.

Reading54

Thank you menachem and everyone who has responded.

I called my credit card banks and learned that my credit cards have already been issued with pin numbers, only that I did not bother to save the issuing statements or memorize the randomly assigned numbers.

So I went online and set a credit card pin to a number which I can easily memorize, and hope it will work when I need it. Or I'll have to hoard a lot of Euro coins to buy train tickets, or queue up at a train station counter.

tom_mn

Using your PIN with your chip and sign card may work even if your local bank says it won't (they are not reliable on this kind of topic, have they ever left the country?). Can you buy tickets online?

Reading54

Yes, I can pre-purchase train ticket from www.Trainline.eu, but it comes without the ICD supplement (Rotterdam Centraal --> Schiphol Airport). So I'll have to purchase the supplement at the Rotterdam Centraal anyway.

menachem

Uhm, I hope I'm pointing out what's already obvious to you: Rotterdam - Schiphol by ICD doesn't call at Delft.

Reading54

I know. I am staying a few days in Delft before making my way to a cruise, and then ending back in Rotterdam, that is where I need to head to Schiphol Airport from.

Christina

<<If you ask your bank for a PIN you'll get one, but realize that US credit cards, when used with PIN (as opposed to signature), incur a finance charge from the moment of the transaction. >>

THis is not accurate. First, you can get PINs for any US credit card I know of, but that PIN is only good for ATM use, not for purchases. So you won't be able to use that PIN for a purchase anyway. And if you were, you would NOT be charged finance charges from the point of transaction. Purchases pay finance charges when the bill is late. Now if you use that PIN to get cash from an ATM, yes, there will be interest charges from date of cash withdrawal, but that was never the question being discussed in this post, as far as I can see. The issue was buying something, specifically rail tickets.

If a US credit card is designated chip and signature only, you will not be able to use it with a PIN to buy something. If you do have a US card with chip and PIN technology (few, some Barclaycards do), you do not incur an interest charge for buying something from the date of purchase. Barclaycard charges 3 pct foreign transaction fee, anyway, so it's not such a great card but it does have chip and PIN on some.

Andrew

I really don't think a PIN used for ATM withdrawals is going to work for purchases - don't count on it. I'd bet against it.

There are some American credit unions that offer chip and PIN cards. Andrews Federal Credit Union (no relation) offers a Visa with no annual fee, no foreign transaction fee that works as a chip and PIN at machines - but it requires a signature when a human being is involved in the transaction (e.g. an agent at the train station). My own credit union recently switched its customers to true chip and PIN Mastercards. That card worked for me last year at an NS ticket machine at Schiphol, when my chip no PIN Chase Visa did not.

Actually, on my trip to Europe last year, my Chase chip no PIN card worked at numerous machines (Russia, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) without a PIN. The NS machines in the Netherlands were the only machines where I had trouble. Coins worked fine, once I knew to get some.