NS is launching Flex – finally no longer charging the OV chip card
The NS has today – finally! – the already announced NS Flex was introduced. This is a way to travel with public transport without having to put your advance balance on your OV chip card. Flex works throughout public transport, ie bus, train, metro and even the public transport bicycle. If you do not have a subscription yet, this costs 10 euros and then there are not enough monthly costs. You will then receive an invoice from the NS at the end of the month for the trips you have made and you can then pay them.
It is strange that Flex has a monthly fee (of one or two euros extra) if you add it to an existing subscription of the NS such as Dal Vrij or Weekend Voordeel. That is somewhat compensated by the fact that everything is hung on Flex now and that you can therefore choose to easily suspend or adjust your subscription for a month. In addition, the NS has also added a new subscription that they call Weekend Benefit and where you can travel with a 40 percent discount on weekends for 2 euros per month.
Easy conversion
If you want to switch from an existing subscription, the NS makes it easy via the NS app. That existing subscription will immediately be stopped in the event of a switch. You will then be refunded the remaining monthly amount and the balance that is still on your OV chip card will be deducted from your next Flex invoice. Then you only have to go to the ticket machine once to activate Flex and then you are off.
After that, a lot can be arranged via the NS app, and with Flex the NS promises that it will be a lot easier to give yourself a 1st class upgrade for example. That can then even be up to 15 minutes after you leave. You can also set a limit for your monthly amount so that you get an alert when you have reached a certain amount of costs.
There are still a number of subscriptions that do not yet cooperate with Flex, although the NS promises that they will also be made suitable. This then concerns Traject and Kids free, Bus, Tram Metro Free, Intercity direct Always Surcharge Free and with age discount. That is still there, but the rest of the travelers can finally forget the endless charging. That there is not always an amount on your OV chip card that you can not do anything with is a nice bonus.