Credit cards in the Netherlands

Particularly in the States, everyone has a bunch of credit cards.

In the Netherlands, credit cards are still pretty rare and unlike in the UK, Dutch bank cards cannot be used as a debit card online. They don’t have the 16 numbers and the other digits that you need to be able to use it online the way you would use a credit card.

Instead, the Dutch have an online payment system called iDEAL. Granted, many sites also use systems like Mollie.

What this means is that you cannot use a Dutch bank card to pay for example your fee for trustedhousesitters. That said, such things change all the time, of course.

The Dutch banks are currently undertaking a second attempt to get the iDEAL system adopted in other countries.

In my opinion, the Dutch have an annoying and naive (overly optimistic) tendency to assume that in other countries, everything works the exact same way as in the Netherlands except that people speak a different language there.

Of course, many online banks offer a virtual or physical credit card.

At some Aldi stores, you can purchase prepaid Paysafe credit cards at the checkout. There are other stores where you can buy them and you can also arrange them online. Prepaid credit cards may help limit your financial risk, should you get scammed.