The Netherlands

[GeoffL]

Now I know what the card problem is.

MasterCard Is the main provider, many, most? smaller shops, bars, snack bars and market traders do not accept both to save having to pay for the second machine and two membership fees. In tourist areas it is worth the extra cost. As far as I know all the Dutch banks are linked to MasterCard. ( My wife used to work for a Dutch bank. )
We used to have this problem a lot in many smaller places all over Europe.
If you possibly can then get one Visa AND a MasterCard.

... er, Clarity is Mastercard. We also have Visa debit cards that weren't accepted in two places that wouldn't accept our Clarity card. The problem seemed to be that our cards aren't Dutch.

 

[Glass man]

Yes that is possible we have Rabo Bank account, I've asked about this problem with cards and also been told it will all be perfect next year. I seem to remember hearing this before over many issues!
Visa is certainly not accepted as widely as MasterCard.
We keep the Dutch account in Euros as it only costs €0.80 a month. HSBC wanted £5.00 A month.

 

[Glass man]

I've enquired further, the shops are charged twice when you have a sterling card, once for use of the card and a second time for £ to € exchange so they don't want you to use a non Euro card!
It will only get worse with ******.
I wonder what it will be like next summer?

 

[Deleted member 74361]

I wonder how I would get on with an account in Euros with a bank in Poland.

Maybe because it is a Matercard Card, issued by ING Slaska (ING is Dutch) it would be OK.

But I carry cash anyway.

Are the rest of you too poor?

Geoff

 

[colinm]

I've enquired further, the shops are charged twice when you have a sterling card, once for use of the card and a second time for £ to € exchange so they don't want you to use a non Euro card!
It will only get worse with ******.
I wonder what it will be like next summer?

It's something which seems more of a problem in the Netherlands and Germany, we have Mastercard and Visa cards both are routinely rejected. I've been using Credit and Debit cards around the world for 40 years and I don't recall them not being accepted in any other country apart from when my bank mistakenly blocked them.