Just some history for ya (based on personal experience):

The Dutch and the British barely had internet in their homes in the late 90s and around 2000-01. So, back in the late 90s, the Easy Group (yes, EasyJet, EasyInternet etc.) came up with these internet cafe's where you could surf the internet while having a cup o' joe. Well, "topping up", then, was really just a term used for filling up one's cup with more coffee while they surfed. The US equivalent - "top off" or "refill" - is applicable here. It was then cleverly taken over to mean "topping up" your account as well (as in adding more credit to your account to surf for longer). The US equivalent - "topping off" or "refilling" - is NOT applicable here. "Reload", however, is.

When the Easy Group came to Amsterdam with these Easy Internet Cafes in grand scale, "tegoed opwaarderen" is what they used for many years as their translation for "topping up" your credit. "Topping up" your account was what you had to do if you were running out of surfing time.

Now that internet has gone residential, however, many of these cafés are out of business and are only surviving on a smaller scale due to tourists without computers or laptops who need internet access when they visit cities like Amsterdam. To curb costs, EasyInternet eliminated the need for on-site personnel completely by putting in these upright, bulky, 6-foot "opwaardeerautomaten" (or "betaalautomaten" as it might be referred to if it was the 1st ticket you were buying). This was a cheap, automated solution to let people "top up" the credit on his/her account.

Why didn't they start out doing this?

Well... actually, they did.

Back in 2001-02, these "opwaardeerautomaten" were in use, but the technology was not well refined and the systems were very problematic then. They were prone to long term breakdowns, they ate a lot of people's money, the Netherlands was switching over to the Euro so they had to change and update it to accept new currencies etc. etc. etc. So, there was still a need for on-site personnel to accept cash and manually punch in the codes on more reliable computer systems. When they finally got these "opwaardeerautomaten" working without error, this is when they rolled them out completely and got rid of all personnel related to issuing and "topping up" tickets.

The "café" appeal was also no longer novel once people were able to surf the web at high speeds at home or wireless in any cafe they wanted, so EasyInternet also got rid of all barristas and horeca personnel and added in snack machines & drink machines instead ("automatiek" ... NOT "automaat").

By this time, the term "opwaarderen" had already proliferated throughout the market as the equivalent translation of "to top up"

For example, "beltegoed opwaarderen" was integrated by KPN Telecom, Orange, and other mobile providers for adding call minutes to your pre-paid mobile. For this, you would go buy an "opwaardeerkaart" or "pasje" from a store, which could be used to "top up" your pre-paid account.

BUT... in Flanders, this is different, because they don't call it "beltegoed" and they don't refer to it as "opwaardering" . Rather, it is called "belwaarde" or "krediet" and Flemings refer to this "topping up" process as "herlading" (same concept, different naming... as in the US). For this, you go to a "bankautomaat" or "betaalautomaat" (usually any ATM machine or pre-paid card vending machine) to purchase additional call time directly from your bank account, debit card (bancontact), Proton chip, credit card etc. Otherwise, you go to any store and buy a "herlaadkaart" to "reload" your card, which is not really a card at all, but rather a receipt with some numbers to punch in after calling a certain number. You can do the same by SMS.

So there is some "topping up" going on here - which is a British market term from which "opwaarderen" was derived on the Dutch market. And there is some "reloading" here - which is an American market term from which "herladen" was derived in the Belgian market...FOR MOBILE PHONES!

This is the only reason that "opwaarderen" is associated with "reloading".

The concept here is the same, it's simply a matter of finding a term that is internationally appropriate in a variety of English-speaking cultures...

Whatever the case, I'm pretty certain that they are not referring to "betaalautomaten" as these little handheld "PIN machines" that you might see in a night shop, AlbertHeijn or the HEMA, for example, in order to pay for what you buy. Rather, I'm more inclined to believe they are referring to some type of upright kiosk as was used in these EasyInternet Cafes.


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Note added at 22 hrs (2010-06-19 14:48:35 GMT)
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If they mean the PIN machine, it would imply the use of a debit/credit card protected by a PIN number.

Do students have access to these modes of payment before the age of 18? They don't in the US, so I'm not sure what the banking standard is in NL/BE

And if it's about cards with Proton (BE)/Chipknip (NL) chips on them, they don't require a PIN code, so you couldn't label them PIN machines.

Therefore, I think in light of this additional context that you need to keep the term "payment" here, and I would suggest: "payment terminal" rather than "PIN machine"

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Note added at 22 hrs (2010-06-19 15:12:01 GMT)
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that's what a payment terminal is

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Note added at 22 hrs (2010-06-19 15:19:49 GMT)
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And libraries have those same kiosks installed... in Gent they do, at least... as an alternative for those who don't want to wait in line to check out their books from the desk clerk. But they accept cash in addition to the "chipped" cards. Payment terminals still require a person to intervene and control the transaction. This defeats the purpose of standalone automation. Perhaps I was assuming that this system needed to be completely automated without intervention by some type of payment clerk. Anyway, you should be well on your way with what you have here.