Transaction declined: why don’t my bank cards work in the Netherlands?

Check Transfer Wise. You can get a debit card with a chip, which you can use everywhere and you won’t be charged when changing valuta as well!

If you would like to or need to use a Mastercard for your daily shopping, then Jumbo is te chain to go to.

I refused to open a Dutch bank account (no real reason, I’m just stubborn like that) so I ended up opening an account with N26. They gave me a free MasterCard and free maestro that works everywhere, and didn’t have to do any paperwork or go anywhere so no complaints there. The only downside is that they don’t have iDeal :/

I live up the north of the Netherlands and both MasterCard Debit and Visa Debit cards are refused in many, many, many, many shops and restaurants. Your best to get a Mastro Debit card for making payments in the Netherlands.

Open a N26 bank account. Just download their android app from the playstore.

Opening the account only takes about 5 minutes in the app, enter your details and take a photograph of your passport/ID.

There are no monthly fees to open the basic account, it’s totally free.

You will receive a N26 MasterCard Debit card in a few days in the post, they say 14 days but in my experience it only took 3 days.

Once you transfer at least €101 into your new account the app will then give you the option to order a free Mastro card which they will post to your address.

Mastro cards work in 99% of shops and restaurants in the Netherlands.

Originally hailing from the Netherlands, now living in Australia. This Maestro dependance has always annoyed me when I return home to the NL. It is also extremely hard to explain to the Dutchies that a Visa or MasterCard is not a creditcard per definition.

Just returned from another visit to province South Holland including Rotterdam where neither my visa debit or my MasterCard credit card were accepted in any of the shops or restaurants or clothing stores which is a bit tricky when you want to spend more than your daily cash withdrawal limit will allow or you are somewhere far from an ATM of an evening. You really just assume being in an EU country that the same general cards are accepted,
Really really disappointing and backward for such an advanced nation. Especially when I have been able to use my visa debit in countries like Morocco, Kenya France Croatia Spain etc. Using excuses like the Dutch don’t like Debt is just silly.

Well the answers and information doesn’t cover my problem,
Of drawing a little cash from a ING Bank in NL from Lloyds Bank UK.
As i have been withdrawing cash at the same Banks from & to for over 2 years every month as its my OAP Pension with only one other time it has stopped giving out at my Branch of ING cashpoint machine and it said I must contact my Lloyds Bank as you cannot withdraw that amount of 220.00 Euros,
But it turned out it was ING’S fault being the weekend much activity going on in Town,
It turned the ING’S cashpoint had run out of notes (or cover from a human to refill it )
So no need to contact my Lloyds at all so,
The ING machine lied and blamed Lloyds,
and I have to say ING’S cashpoint machines at my own local one that I have an account in to are the worst cashpoint machines in 9 Countries I visited I have used inside and out @ my Branch all 4 machines are the slowest ever used creaking and groaning taking your card in the slot and out + notes and everything else it’s asked to do,
Infact I would say these machines should be in a museum & the queue an all 4 during the day and at night with 2 outside can be over 10 deep so many eyes can see what those are doing at the machines to so not ideal for anyone except a naughty person as their everywhere in every Country,
and myself and many others I am sure would have seen on TV to of criminals up to no good at cashpoints..

Reasons for iDeal and Maestro versus creditcards are also the fabulous way the Dutch payment/banking system works. For both parties.

The shopkeeper immediately gets its money with no holds and far less costs than with a credit card. No chance for the customer to easily ‘challenge’ the charge of his creditcard.

For the customer the bankaccount balance is immediately updated. So no surprises later.

17,5 million Dutch people are happy with that system. Should they really change it for that million tourists a year? Why don’t they change their daily amount to draft each day from an ATM? Most problem solved right?

BTW, every hotel and car rental accepts a credit card. Most (expensive) restaurants as well.
All shops at the airport do.
Exclusive shops (fashion, jeweler) as well.

Oh, the other way around doesn’t work either. My Maestro debet card doesn’t work in the USA or Canada. Had to get a creditcard to pay a hotel or rent a car overthere.

Think we should blame Mastercard who owns the creditcard division as well as Maestro (according to the article above)

As a seasoned traveler, I’ve certainly been annoyed with this in the Netherlands, and to a lower extent, Germany and Denmark. I liken it to the European practice of businesses offloading standard overhead charges to the end customer (ie. Charging to use the toilets, per-minute charges when calling customer service telephone hotlines, and insisting on cash/debit payments to avoid Visa/MasterCard interchange fees). Unfortunately, Dutch merchants’ reluctance to pay a 0.3% swipe fee ends up costing foreign visitors 2.5% or 3% foreign transaction markups to their bank, in addition to a $3 to $5 cash withdrawal charge, as no Dutch bank has joined the Global ATM Alliance (Scotiabank, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Deutchebank, Westpac) allowing their members to withdraw cash abroad without fees. Elsewhere where Visa/MC is readily accepted, you can just use a credit card with 0% foreign transaction fees to cover all your expenses, while keeping the rewards, extended warranty, and purchase protection benefits your home credit card may offer. And don’t even get me started on the foreign cash exchange kiosks in Amsterdam charging 7 or 8% off the spot rate and having the audacity to claim “no commission”!

As far as I know, in the Europe region the Dual Message System is always used with all Mastercard and Maestro cards. In general, Maestro transactions can – in any case – be made over the Dual Message System as well as Mastercard transactions can also be Single Message.

The terminals in question are simply not programmed to accept Mastercard cards in general. With EMV that can be implemented via a list of EMV applications the terminal will accept which have well-known IDs (i. e. A0000000043060 for Maestro or A0000000041010 for Mastercard). With MagStripe processing that can be done by looking at the first few digits of the card number which identify the card as “Maestro”, “Mastercard”, “Visa” or something else. By using a list of ranges of card numbers it is also possible to tell whether a card is “Credit” or “Debit” provided that list is kept up-to-date. With guaranteed online authorizations that destinction is becoming less relevant in my opinion, because it does not matter whether a card is “Debit” or “Credit” at the backend as long as the merchant gets a guarantee directly from the issuer at the time of the authorization at the POS that the authorized amount will indeed be transferred to her/his account.

some of the info in this article is blatantly wrong and out of date. for at least ten years or more, all debit and credit transactions at EFTPOS in the Netherlands as well as all cards issued in the Netherlands including Maestro and V-Pay [more on that one later] have been dual-msg.

Then for the dominance of Maestro, it is true it’s very cheap for banks ans shops alike, but not so cheap as advertised, actually Mastercard Netherlands company is keeping it artificially low for merchants and banks so as to make creditcard transactions and creditcards in general seem prohibitively more expensive, which they aren’t. In recent years due to rules and regulations, mainly from the EU, to straighten out the varying fees across Europe, creditcard acceptance has become much more affordable for merchants then 10 years ago.

But still we have a Maestro dominance. I suspect some kind of cartel. But can’t prove this. Mostly it is because of miscommunication by the banks/MC, either intended or not intended to keep shops locked in on Maestro and V-Pay only acceptance and to keep fictitiously high creditcard charges on the minds of shopkeepers.

Which brings me to V-Pay, V-Pay is the rival debitcard scheme from Visa Europr, which was launched some years ago in the European market, and for The Netherlands^, Belgium*, Germany**, Italy, Spain, Danmark*** specifically to compete with and temper the dominance of Maestro, safe to say, they have not really succeeded at that, only a handful of banks issue V-pay cards at all, and some banks only to a segment of users while continuing to issue Maestro alongside.

Which brings me to debitcards:
Yes, it’s true, most locations do not, I repeat DO NOT, accept your vanilla Visa Debit or Debit Mastercard, which again, I ascribe to being caused by the misconception in Dutch users and shopkeepers eyes, and possibly suspected intentional misinformation being spread by banks and such, that that always is or must be, a creditcard. Which of course it isn’t. And it shouldn’t be not in the least of which since for many many years European and local Dutch rules have assured that for most debitcards in existence the fee is the same as for Maestro/V-Pay cards. However, here we come to the free market, and there are many many companies offering till and EFTPOS systems. These companies actually like the markup on creditcard fees and like to bundle it with the major debitcard brands, hence why for most shops it’s very hard to only accept Visa Debit and Debit Mastercard alongside Maestro/V-Pay. Which they could totally do, but this is not know by most shops, hence they will most likely only accept your debit card if they also accept creditcards. Ignorance for the most part i think. As EU rules spcifically allow a shop to start accepting debitcards without the need to also accept credit. But this is not really know.

For online I can be succinct: Credit and Debitcards have been and still are accepted for years and years by all major shops. At least I haven’t run into any wabshop, large and small, in the last 10 years or so that didn’t also accept creditcards and paypal and such. That has really been common for many many years.

Notes/asterixs:

Only a very very few number of banks for the asterix marked countries issue V-Pay, if they do at all, the following remarks apply:

*also competing with the national Bancontact scheme, though nowadays most cards in Belgium are either cobranded with Maestro or sometimes V-Pay. Which would compete again against the opposite card company. (visa vs mc).
**same as above, but the local card scheme is called Girocard. Some are co-branded, but most in circulation have not yet been replaced and are not.
***same again, but local scheme is Dankort. Not known by me if those are co-branded. But I believe so.

^Supposedly SNS have switched to V-pay completely, but reports on that are sketchy at best. As for ING, they issue V-Pay (physically) alongside Maestro but then activate a virtual Maestro debit card for any user wishing to use Apple Pay, regardless of that users existing debitcard brand. So to sum-up a V-Pay card owner at ING would get a virtual Maestro card when attempting to activate Apple Pay. Even though Apple already supports V-Pay for use with and in Apple Pay including for online (webshop) transactions). Where as a Maestro owner would gat another standalone virtual Maestro card in Apple Pay. Other banks in the Netherlands offering Apple Pay do so mostly based on the existing physical cars of customers.

oh i forgot to add the following, V-Pay is accepted and has been accepted at points of sale of physical shops, bars, atms, restaurants etc, for many many years, even though the number of issued cards in the Netherlands of the V-Pay brand, remains ridiculously low compared to the amount of issued Maestro or even Mastercard Credit or Visa Creditcards.

Part of the issue is the Dutch fanaticism, or their delight in ‘cutting off their nose to spite their face’.
In Haarlem there is a Big Market every Saturday and one on the stalls sells wonderful cakes. On many occasions I’ve seen Tourists trying to buy €30~€40 worth of cakes only to be told ‘Oh we don’t take foreign cards, but their is a Bureau de Change back at the train station’

I have jokingly suggested they get a card terminal that takes foreign cards but get told ‘but I’d have to pay 3% on every transaction’! They then admitted they make 50% profit on every sale too 🙂

Any normal retailer would see the obvious solution, but here they turn away at least 10-15 customers on every Saturday, madness.

There’s a weird corollary to this which is that Dutch debit cards can’t be used online except through iDeal.

Want to buy something from a retailer over the border in Germany or Belgium? Go to the website, select product, go to checkout, enter your card nu– wait, where’s my 16-digit card number? Dutch debit cards don’t have them.

Of course you can use a credit card if you have one, or in my case a UK debit card (with conversion fee!) but it’s hard to see how firewalling your national payment system isn’t a protectionist measure at odds with the Single Market.

The Netherlands is one of a few third world coutures (along with North Korea and Iran) that don’t accept credit cards. Such a shame!

Your suggestion to open an account at a Dutch bank is impossible. You can not open an account without an address in the Netherlands. The Banks will close your account if you already had one. My Dutch bank (ING) threw me out years ago because of that. When I am in NL I have to rely on cash, and pay the ATM fees.

I am living in NL, I do have a local bank account and don’t have issues to pay w iDeal or in the shops, BUT I have the only one card from NL bank which is debit card, but sometimes I need to buy stuff in other European countries or sites which do not support NL MasterCard and it’s account number…. What do you advise in such situation? Example: went to France last summer – had to buy train ticket back to NL online and was not able to use Dutch debit card((( Credit cards are expensive at ABN AMRO and not very often needed, but will appreciate digital virtual normal VISA card… where to get that? Thanks!

Opening a bank account is almost impossible in The Netherlands if you don’t live there. Because of all the fraud over the last year the banks have restricted the rules to open up an bank account. You need to have a Dutch address, live or work there…. Needless to say that getting a ‘betaalkaart” (bank card) is almost impossible.

I’m a Dutch national living in the UK and I’ve always been flabbergasted to learn each time I’ve come back that my Visa Debit card is still not accepted in most stores. This seems extremely backwards to me, especially from a nation that is always said to have such an ‘entrepreneurial spirit’! Especially now, when you’re supposed to use your card rather than ‘dirty covid money’ there’s still no change in this situation. Maybe they should try to pop their heads out of their a**es and step into the 21nd century. If the Dutch National Bank wants to switch to a completely digital Euro ( another wretched ploy thought up by the Dutch Government) they’d better get their act together otherwise ‘those stupid tourists’ will go elsewhere and not bother with this ridiculous backward system anymore!

For all the complaining from foreigners, I would like to state that the system works really well for Dutch citizens. It’s extremely resillient to fraud, and iDEAL is very seamless, fast and easy. It works well without issues and fraud. It can be a bit annoying for foreigners I’m sure, but in return you get a country where paying in a digital way (either card or online) is so fast, easy and safe, the uptake is extremely high.

That system really sucks – pls join the 21st century. Incredibly inconvenient and dumb.

We recently visited Amsterdam. One day our Mastercards and Visas worked at a Albert Heijn shop, the next day they didn’t work at a different Heijn shop. When we arrived to Schipol Airport we could buy train tickets to Amsterdam Zuid but when we tried to buy train tickets from the Amsterdam Zuid railway station to Schipol Airport our cards didn’t work. Luckily we happened to have enough coins. Scary.

A modern country with prehistoric ideas about debit cards. What a pity! I’m sorry but this country is not prepared for tourists and occasional residents. Is not nice when you can’t pay even if you have 3 or 4 different cards an money in your bank account. They are sending a clear message. Don’t come here, your money is not welcome here!

Fortunately, Mastercard are phasing out Maestro and so from now on, more and more Dutch stores will accept Visa & Mastercard Debit cards. As no new Maestro cards will be issued after mid 2023, by that time, all card terminals will have to be able to accept standard debit cards.

https://www.betaalvereniging.nl/betaalproducten-en-diensten/pinnen/project-dca/

WOW
Deal in flowers and we’ll aware of how the Dutch can be!!!

But hey you did it again managed to beat me as had 2 debit cards and still refused

When will I Ever learn with your country
Shame on me!!

One point: to have stupid rules is one thing and communicating is another. If they know they have strange rules they should have a clear info. I saw info ” only pin cards accepted” or ” no credit cards accepted” but it should be instead ” no cards other than maestro accepted” . Are they really so stupid not to realize that or they have a fun to create problems for foreigners?

The best restaurants in Amsterdam (McDonalds, Dunkin) do take normal western payments, so that’s some good news. Get with the program, people!

Watch out UK travellers! Just been refused our Visa Debit card and our Post Office traveller card for the above reasons n the Albert Heij store. A very embarrassing experience on our first day of holidays for a big food shop with tired, grumpy children (and wife and husband) so had to get some cash out instead. We used the PO card to withdraw cash but they wouldn’t accept the card itself. Bizarre – and this wasn’t explained anywhere!

If you need a Dutch bank account (IBAN) with a possibility to use iDEAL as well as a Mastercard Debit card (and possibly a Maestro if you select one), you can try bunq – it’s a fully on-line mobile bank that seems to be in the 21st century, contrary (as it appears) to the rest of the Dutch digital payments ecosystem.

Another option that I can recommend is N26 – a very similar German bank that also offers Mastercard Debit and Maestro cards. If you are Dutch (or maybe have a Dutch address) you can even open an account with N26 that allows you to use iDEAL.

Both these banks open accounts immediately or overnight and work on monthly membership basis with the lowest fees in the range of 3-5 EUR/month, so even if the free membership plans are not enough for your needs you can open a paid account for a miniscule fee.

One limitation I know of is that N26 does not open accounts to non-European customers. I’m not sure about bunq but would suspect likewise.
Another doubt I would have is with regard to UK citizens – I’m not sure how both these banks treat them post-Brexit.

They all talk about dutch paople do not like debts. Who likes it by the way. It’s simply not true. I red just yesterday on dutch newspaper that the average dutch students debt is around 20.000 Euro…. And they do not like debts. The are simply radical and thick headed in this payment thing. Luckily Maestro is going to shut down in July 2023 and they will have to comply with international first world rules.

And the parking on streets , squares in dutch cities is a nightmare. All the payment box accept only maestro and v-pay and most of them do not accept coins. I ask myself if they really want to kick out the few turism they get in other cities than Amsterdam, Utrecht Rotterdam. You cannot simply pay, so you end up getting a fine or go somewhere else. Just incredible.

learnt the hard way in an AH XL, put all the food on the conveyor and the girl scanned it all said the total. I tapped my apple pay and it was declined they only accept PIN or cash. thankfully i had the cash but the transaction had to be done at another till. Very odd – never had this problem at Jumbo. The lady in AH said that quite a few of their stores don’t take cash either, so i said thtas a great way to alienate a large amount of potential customers.

All Albert Heijn shops now accepts some US cards. I used a Mastercard, both credit card and debit card and they work. The staff at the store are not aware and claim they don’t accept Visa or MC… however, a Dutch MC credit card is rejected.

Very pleased to report that in 2023, this problem seems to be resolved in most places. For the first time in like 15 years, I have been able to pay with Visa/Mastercard every single venue during my stay in NL. The Maestro debacle had been a pet peeve for ages.

At a little village in the NL, AH didn’t take my American Visa, but took my Apple Pay. The trouble we are finding is that many places only take a PIN card only and no cash. Makes it very hard for travelers here. I’m hoping that they start taking our credit cards!

Last visit to the netherlands was a pain when refusing our credit cards at some place. In addition, the commission when you pay with our debit cards is especially at low sums very high. if you get a ticket for the metro, you pay the same amount as commission to the bank. So paying with credit cards means no commission. so I hope they moved on a bit when we visit the netherlands again in april, we dont like cash and want to keep an eye on our spending, which is easiest when you check the card app. If you want our money we are more than willing to spend, take credit cards.

We wanted to buy stuff like at albert hejin as we usually to during our trips, we ended up with 5€ instead of 150-250€ for food as we do in italy. we dont care anymore. either you move from the middle age of paying or we just spend our money elsewhere and they are very happy about that.

We will be visiting the Netherlands next week and have already experienced major frustration. Got up at 4 a.m. us time to purchase tickets with a history introduction. These tickets were sold out by 4:30 a.m. our time!! Spent hours trying to find out including screaming at credit union!! I feel bad but this is a once in a lifetime trip! Rejected VISA and Master Card. Late in evening, a friend let me charge tickets without introductory history. Opened American Express in order to purchase other tickets. Hope this isn’t what visiting Netherlands will be like when we get there😞

Been here in Amsterdam this week and no prob with payments. My boyfriend uses mastercard credit card everywhere while I use my revolut card. So far everything is smooth. Only amex is not accepted and of course cash is not accepted anywhere.

June 2023. Had visa declined many places around Amsterdam, especially prevalent outside the center of Amsterdam.
I was caught off guard by this, and double checked that there was no mention of this in the travel guide I bought (RS)

Now I’m worried. I have booked a holiday to The Netherlands and will stay in an Airbnb. Now I’m confused how I’m going to buy groceries and pay at restaurants. I live in South Africa and have a Mastercard credit card and debit card. Don’t they want tourist’s money?

In Landsmeer Jan 3 2024 Albert Heijn still does not accept international Visa or Mastercard debit. Have cash at the ready.

hey I’m an American Citizen you should be able to take my Visa Bank card. I just want Maestro not give you my life.

I have been in Amsterdam (and towns that are 1 hour train ride from Amsterdam) for about a week. I have exclusively used a visa credit card for everything from a small coffee shop to every restaurant I have been to. No problems whatsoever. I am seeing many signs in the windows that say “no cash, cards only”. No concerns at all about paying for everything I need with a credit card.

My bank is Gulf Bank from Kuwait, I can open their website, their application, do anything I want when I login into my account back home or any country in the world except in Amsterdam and Germany from almost one year until today.I arrived Amsterdam May 17,2024 again I cannot open their website or their application. They keep loading loading with no luck. I talked with my bank and told them about this issue. They told me it’s been blocked and I need to download VPN fir I can access the website/application. I did but no luck, same will not open. If someone from government or incharger of blocking websites or any,could you please tell me why I cannot access my bank website or their application for I know what to tell them if they make any excuses? PLEASE. The funny thing is I have an account with another bank back home, I have no problem with it I can open their website, login into my account or use their application. Gulf Bank website is e-gulfbank.com

I visited Velserbroek a few weeks ago, and in a row of 3 supermarkets, 2 accepted my Mastercard (issued in the UK by Sainsburys) and 1 did not. It would also not accept my starling card which I used last year without issue. The starling had no issues on public transport. I hadn’t realised this was a Mastercard until I was there this time, and would usually use this as its a no-fee card.

Part of this current inflation is businesses covering the expense of credit cards… every time you use a card to pay, it costs the store to process your payment. This article does not mention the credit/debit card cure, not that many years ago we all used cash, everyone accepts cash and it costs everyone nothing to pay with cash. Credit cards were designed, not for convenience, but to allow you to purchase an item you could not afford in the first place, but now it will cost you more with interest added. Cash keeps you from buying things you can not afford, and probably don’t really need.