It's a big percentage surcharge for tickets to nearby places, such as Amsterdam CS. In addition, there's the annoyance of waiting in line and missing trains as you wait. And the agents aren't friendly to foreigners or efficient IME. They're not happy answering basic questions such as whether one saves money by purchasing a RT train ticket rather than two one ways for the trip.

The surcharge is a fixed amount, it is not a "percentage surcharge." In fact, it is 50 cents for domestic tickets. I would guess that some foreign credit cards or debit cards might charge even more than that assuming they could be used.

:rolleyes: That's exactly why MSPeconomist says that it is a "big percentage surcharge for tickets to nearby places", because 0,50€ on a 4€ ticket (for instance) is a pretty steep penalty - but not so much if your ticket costs 35€.

Fair enough.

However, as I've said before: if your key doesn't fit the lock, why not get the key fixed instead of complaining about the lock?

Sure, but it seems to me that it is fair comment to point out the parochial nature of systems that work pretty well for locals but not so well for foreigners, even if one understands why it is so and even if examples of parochialism exist in abundance elsewhere too.

I see it a bit differently: if something is improved, why stick with the older version? The reason the cards were changed here was not to exclude foreigners, but to improve a system (any idea how long it's been around? Decades, I would guess.) that was increasingly breaking down. I can still remember going to the supermarket to pay with my magnetic debit card and the cashier would have to wipe it with cloth several times to get it to work.

The point is not that these are two similar systems and one group has chosen for system A and the other for system B, but that one system supersedes the other.

This, however, is about more than just the (US-style) magnetic strip cards - certainly, the rest of Europe has had Chip & PIN credit cards for years, now. It was only relatively recently that NS machines accepted foreign Maestro cards at all, and there's only a handful in the country that accept anything other than Maestro or V-Pay (both of which have fairly limited uptake outside the low countries).

The OV-Chipkaart system is a good one, but the cards need to be bought in person, and loading them still causes problems for non-Dutch residents, who can't load them up online, or with an ongoing agreement.

While it may be expensive relative to the price of a ticket, paying the 50 cents to have an agent sell you a ticket shouldn't really be a hardship for anyone travelling here from far away. Yes, it is certainly less convenient than an OV-Chipkaart, but I think it is a reasonable solution.While this is all true, I think the greatest benefit of the card is mostly to local users - that is, people who will use it a lot. But, that there is so little thought given to foreigners is a valid point. The NS does many things very well, but others (such as a family Voordeelurenkaart, for example) not so good, unfortunately.

Let me throw this in here. I also have an interest in travel and whilst our company does not operate trains, we will pick you up from any airport in Colombia and deliver you to the city centre.

We will invoice you in either COP, USD, EUR, CHF or GBP. In countries where bank transfers are popular such as Germany and Austria (half of our customers) we will gladly receive your money into a local bank account. For all other countries, I promise you, we will take MC and Visa cards of all flavours, Amex, JCB and Discovery.

The answer to your question being, that it never makes sense to make it hard for people to give you their hard earned money. Call us slutty, but we want as many people's keys as possible to fit our lock. We want it to be a simple process for people to throw their money our way.

True. But the FRA machine will only take 5's or 10's, so having bills is not always going to work for the machines but you can still buy from attendant at the desk (in AMS or FRA).

The machines can only give change in coins. Paying a 5 EUR ticket with a 50 EUR bill would feel like winning at a slot machine and I'm sure machines that accepted large bills would be empty pretty soon.

Those are some big numbers of people who don't use PIN's. But the numbers are vastly larger when we are talking about dollars in fraud thanks to not using PIN's. The banks and vendors in Europe are not willing to open themselves up to that much fraud. So PIN's are and will remain mandatory in most places you visit here. That's simply not going to change. American's have been complaining about the ticket machines at Schiphol for over a decade now and not much has changed. Personally I just got a bank acct here and a local bank card so no worries for me. But casual visitors will have to allow for a few extra minutes in line to reach a human where you can use your PIN-less cards or Euro notes. And NS staffs an information desk pretty much full time where people can ask questions about trains. It's right in the middle of the hall. I always see a few people there throughout the day, but of course many thousands using the trains without the need for help.

Can I assume that your drivers are the ones who primarily collect the payments? Sort of like agents in a train station?

I can imagine that Columbia is not as big a tourist destination as are some European cities. As a result, far fewer tourists come there than, say, Amsterdam. That would explain why it is more important for you to offer extra services.

As you probably know, credit cards generally make money (a lot of it, it seems) by making the merchant pay a percentage of the sale to them. For that reason, credit cards are not very popular here. Some stores here offer payment in credit card, but then you need to pay several percentage points extra. According to a local bank report from 2009, 55 percent of Dutch people have credit cards, but use it mostly outside the country.

So, by offering credit cards, the companies here would have to share some of their income with Visa and Mastercard. Apparently, they've decided they'd rather make a small charge (50 cents for train tickets) rather than be forced to pay a far larger sum to the credit card companies. It seems a perfectly sensible solution to me.

Then add a surcharge on the machine to offset CC costs.

I'll be expecting my advisory day rate paid out now.

Now that I think about it, it was only for Mastercard. Visas were accepted without any surcharge. It was also mostly in stores and restaurants where a sign was posted at the cashier about the surcharge.

Nevertheless, it discouraged local people from using credit cards locally.