Comment by cf498 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by cf498 | Hacker News Reader

I was really shocked when i experienced the same issue in the Netherlands.

I went there for a conference and only had to go straight to Amsterdam central, to science park and to my hotel in almere central.

I had to exit Amsterdam central station by scanning in the QR code of my paper ticket. The alarm at that station was ringing constantly because of all the foreign tourists who had no idea what to do.

Outside I had to go to the foreign help desk which was nice enough to give me some kind of tourist paper ticket, which i do have to say, i have no idea how it worked. Hopefully it was a rfid chip in the ticket, otherwise i triggered every last scanner by just pushing it on top and walked out. And every last person was heavily annoyed by all the retarded tourists. It did not help, that apparently the Netherlands do not bother to put up English signs.

I luckily could pay in cash for the toilet in central station, but that was really it when it comes to cash. I luckily could use my VISA for a train station locker, but i could not buy a bottle of water, as the machine at main station only took some kind of wireless card. The same applied to every supermarket but one near my hotel.

I stood in 3 ordinary supermarkets and wanted to buy a simple bottle of water. Thankfully one of the cashiers in the supermarket at science park was nice enough to pay for a bottle of water for me in exchange for cash.

How every nice the Netherlands are, it is a modern Dystopia.

The Netherlands, just as most other countries within the EU do not rely much on the AmEx/Visa/Mastercard payment network, but on V-Pay (VISA) or Maestro (Mastercard).

Those are direct debit transactions which cannot be reversed unlike CC transactions. The advantage for shops is, that the costs are lower than for CCs. In general, Europe isn't used to paying ordinary everyday items with a credit card, which is why grocery shops simply don't accept them.

Landing in the US for a very short trip I didn’t want to draw cash out (and have to store the notes for the next trip or change them back to local currency), and so I couldn’t tip people that needed to be tipped. Then I tried drawing cash from an ATM and couldn’t anyway.

I mean, everyone has a story about how they were disadvantaged by a particular system.

Had a similar experience while on holiday. Should have done research as I found out 90% of card readers only accept Maestro cards and reject Visa.

What a shit show

> The same applied to every supermarket but one near my hotel.

I've been able to pay everywhere I've been to in the Netherlands with a normal European debit card with chip + pin (Maestro I think)

I gave them my Visa and V-Pay card, and only one of the patrol stations took it.

Everyone else willing to take my non Netherland card were places who would also take cash, like mcdonalds.

There seemed to have been a certain kind of regional card which i did not have.

edit: dont take me wrong, i should have looked up the local payment procedure before going there, I was just extremely surprised as this happened to me directly across the border inside the EU.

V-Pay should be accepted by any shop in NL. I am not sure where the issue comes from, as there is no card, specific to the region.

In NL maestro/v-pay cards are accepted 100% of the time, because those cards are issued by all banks there.

I tried it, maybe it was the language barrier but I had shops who simply send me away. I had a longer conversation with the cashier in the SPAR shop on the science center campus about it who told me my v-pay card was the wrong one and cash was not an option. It worked out in the big shopping center in Almere where people also took cash.

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