Over 50,000 petition against expensive public transit cards

Travelers association Rover and consumers union Consumentenbond's petition against the high service costs on public transit cards is getting a lot of support from travelers. By 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, a week after the petition went online, a total of 50,390 people signed it. A study done by Rover showed that the Dutch public transit card is almost the most expensive of its kind in Europe. The 7.50 euros Dutch have to pay every five years to replace an expired card is well above most other European public transport cards. Dutch consumers also have to pay 11 euros to replace a defective card, even if the defect cannot be blamed on the consumer. All the other surveyed countries replace defective cards free of charge. Finally Dutch consumers have to pay 2.50 euros to recover balance from their cards. The two associations therefore set up this petition demanding that Dutch consumers be able to reclaim unused balance and replace an expired card every five years free of charge. Bart Combee, director of the Consumentenbond, is happy with the large number of signatories, but calls it "only the tip of the iceberg". "With this we can really shake a fist at the carriers. We assume that they take all these customers seriously."