Hacker News Reader

Comment by ghaff | Hacker News Reader

>the Netherlands is very much debit card oriented

I was told that and then I basically used nothing but my contactless credit card over the course of a week. But I was admittedly mostly in central Amsterdam and doing tourist stuff and restaurants.

View on HN

This has changed quite substantially over the last five+ years. It certainly used to be the case that using certain cards that were very common in the rest of Europe (particularly credit cards, but also things like visa debit) required jumping through hoops in the Netherlands, and often weren't accepted.

A Dutch friend, who knows the industry a little, said that the Dutch banks had gone their own way with payment systems in the past. This heritage had taken some time to unwind. (I guess he was talking about things like Chipknip?)

Another Amsterdam local advised just getting a pay as you go chip card for public transit. He said that they were in the process of implementing just accepting contactless credit/debit cards directly but it was a bit hit or miss whether that was accepted in general.

For example, the largest supermarket chain (Albert Heijn) usually won't take credit cards, with the exception of certain cities and contexts (train stations) where there are more foreigners.

Canada is the same I can't recall the last time I used cash or coins, perhaps two decades? It's tap debit or now more frequently my phone using Google Wallet.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com