OV chip card: top up

The OV chip card is for sale via www.ov-chipkaart.nl or at stations, tobacconists and supermarkets. If you would first like to know more about buying an OV chip card, read the article ‘The OV chip card’.

Do you have a personal OV chip card? Then you can use ‘My OV-chipkaart’. This gives you additional options, such as checking online how much money has been put on the card and what has been debited. You can read more about this in the article ‘My OV chip card’.

You can top up your OV chip card at a machine in a shop, at an NS station or online. In the video below we show you how to top up your OV chip card at a machine in a store. Below you will find information on how to do this online.

Via the website www.ov-chipkaart.nl you can order a balance for your anonymous or personal OV-chipkaart. You can choose whether you want to top up your travel balance automatically or once. We explain how you can order one-time online balance. You indicate how much you want to top up and pay this amount via iDEAL. Then you put the amount on your card via a pick-up machine nearby. Not familiar with iDEAL? Read the article ‘iDEAL’ first.

• Go to the www.ov-chipkaart.nl.
• Click on the right under ‘Directly arrange’ Order balance.
• Enter the number on your OV chip card in the text bar under ‘Card number’. Put all the numbers together without spaces.
• Under ‘Amount’, click on the bar with the text ‘€ 10.00’. Here you can indicate how much balance you want to put on your card.
• You can buy ten, twenty, thirty, forty or fifty euros in travel balance. We click € 20 balance. This is the minimum amount for traveling by train if you do not have a card with Voordeeluren. For the bus, tram and metro you need at least four euros on your card.
• Enter your email address under ‘Email address’.
• Put a tick in front of I agree with the order conditions (pdf).
• click on Pay.

You are now going to pay via iDEAL. Please note that the web address always starts with ‘https’. This means you have a secure connection.

• Select your own bank behind ‘Your bank’.
• click on Further.
• The iDEAL payment window of your own bank will appear. Follow the instructions on the screen.

After the payment has been completed, you will see a confirmation of your payment on the OV-chipkaart website. You can read here what options you have to cancel your order and you will see that a confirmation of the purchase is sent to the specified e-mail address.

The balance that you have just purchased must still be put on the card at a so-called pick-up point. You can find a collection point near you as follows:

• Go to the website www.ov-chipkaart.nl.
• Click at the top Menu.
• click on Service and contact > Service point finder.
• Enter an address near you in the field under ‘Street name and number, zip code or city’, so that you can top up your balance nearby. You can fill in the field in three ways:

• 1. your zip code without spaces;
  2. street name, house number and place name;
  3. the place name.
• Then click under ‘Service type’ on All services.
• Click on the option Pick up order.
• click on To search.

You will now see an overview of the places in your area where you can put the balance on your card. These are on a map and you can click on the locations below the map.

Click on a location below the map to see the possibilities at that location. You can read how to put your balance on the card on the spot in a PDF file. You can open this by clicking on the link Download the instruction brochure (pdf). Then read the instructions under ‘Pick up the order from the webshop’.

Would you like to know more about purchasing and using the OV chip card? Then follow the course ‘Dealing with the OV chip card’ on our website and click Log in to start course to begin. This course is only available to members.