The distinction between debit and credit card is not really what is at play here, but rather, whether Visa or MasterCard is accepted. A Visa credit card or a US Visa debit are both Visa, so if a place doesn't accept Visa it won't accept either, but if it does accept Visa (increasingly the norm) then both credit and debit work. It's just that in Netherlands none of the debit cards are Visa/Mastercard so people might be mistakenly attributing the card acceptance as being about a debit/crédit distinction.