If you travel with the student travel product from DUO, nothing changes for now. You simply keep travelling on your current OV-chipkaart. DUO itself says that switching to OVpay with the student travel product is not possible yet. Below you can read why that is, when it does change, and what to watch out for right now.
Why does your student travel product not work on the OV-pas yet?
The student travel product, like an NS season ticket, still sits on the chip of your OV-chipkaart itself. The OV-pas works through an online account. Before DUO and NS can move the student travel product over there, that whole process (applying, linking, collecting it at a machine, and stopping it at the end of your studies) has to be rebuilt for the new system. Until that is done, the product stays on the OV-chipkaart.
When does that change?
No concrete date is known. At the moment the only official message from DUO is that switching is not possible yet, and that you will get a notification once it is. You do not have to do or check anything yourself. As soon as it is your student travel product's turn, you will hear about it automatically, just as with other NS season tickets.
What stays the same for now?
Everything, apart from the announcement you will get at some point. Concretely that means:
- You still apply for your student travel product through DUO, and link it to your personal OV-chipkaart.
- You still collect the week or weekend season ticket at a collection machine at the station.
- You check in and out as you are used to, including during your free travel days.
Watch out: stopping it still goes through the machine for now
This is where many students lose money, so it deserves extra attention. Are you stopping your studies, graduating, or losing your right to student finance? Then you have to stop your student travel product yourself, and that does not happen automatically. You do that at a collection machine at the station or in a shop, no later than the tenth day of the month in which you no longer qualify. If you do not do it in time, DUO charges a hefty fine per half month, which doubles again after the first month.
Does this change along with the move to the OV-pas? That is not known yet. For now, do not count on being able to stop it online later. So keep an eye on your upcoming deregistration date yourself, whichever card you hold.
And your right to money back on a delay?
That stays exactly the same. With a delay of 30 minutes or more at your destination you get a fixed amount back with the student travel product, regardless of whether that runs through your OV-chipkaart or your OV-pas later on. Exactly how much that is, and how it differs from an NS season ticket with a single fare, is covered in our overview of money back per NS season ticket.
Want to know more about the whole switch from OV-chipkaart to OVpay, even without a student travel product? Then read our article on the switch to OVpay and the OV-pas. More official information about OVpay is available at Translink.
Your student travel product stays on your OV-chipkaart a while longer, but your right to money back on a delay does not change. Link your card at trein-vertraging.nl and we find and claim your delays automatically, even while you are still travelling on your old card. We find claims automatically, but if you switch to the OV-pas it does have to be linked separately. For the rest the process stays the same.