Bank cards in the Netherlands: debit, credit and the end of Maestro

Dutch shops run on debit cards. In 2025 people in the Netherlands paid 5.83 billion times with a debit card, a phone or a watch at the till, against 30 million times with a credit card. At the same time the card itself is changing: the Maestro and V PAY cards that Dutch banks issued for years are being replaced.

Maestro and V PAY are being replaced

In 2021 Mastercard announced that from 1 July 2023 banks would begin replacing expired or lost Maestro cards and that no new Maestro cards would be issued in Europe after that date. Dutch banks started issuing Visa Debit and Debit Mastercard in 2023, and Mastercard and Visa are phasing out the Maestro and V PAY brands.

The old cards had two limits that matter to newcomers: you cannot pay online with a Maestro or V PAY card, and they often did not work in shops outside Europe. The new debit cards can be used online, in and outside the Netherlands. The reverse problem existed too: foreign customers and customers of banks such as bunq often had a Debit Mastercard or Visa Debit, and could not pay with it in many Dutch shops.

Which card each bank now issues

The banks name the new card on their own pages. ING issues Visa Debit and Debit Mastercard, which replace Maestro and V PAY. ABN AMRO is sending all clients a new debit card because the Maestro brand is being withdrawn. ASN Bank, which now also serves SNS and RegioBank customers, is replacing Maestro, V PAY and Debit Mastercard with Visa Debit.

Triodos has chosen the Visa debit card and Knab issues a Debit Mastercard. According to the Consumentenbond, updated in May 2025, all Triodos and Knab customers already had the new card by then, while ING and ASN Bank, which issued both Maestro and V PAY, are stopping with both.

Credit cards are the exception at the till

A credit card can be refused. European rules let shops accept only debit cards from European customers and credit cards only from customers outside Europe, so with a European credit card you cannot count on paying in every shop. The central bank and the payments association call the role of credit cards at the Dutch till limited.

The figures show how limited. The table uses the payment counts that the Dutch payments association publishes on its facts and figures page.

Credit cards made up 0.4 percent of payments at the till in 2025, cash 17 percent, and cash payments fell from 1.38 billion to 1.20 billion in a year.

Most payments are contactless

Of all debit payments in 2025, 95 percent were contactless, with a card, a phone or a watch. The share made without a physical card, by phone or watch, was 47 percent, a figure the association corrected after first reporting it higher.

For a newcomer this means one practical thing: most payments in the Netherlands are made with a Dutch debit card or a phone wallet linked to one. How to get the account behind it is in our guide to opening a Dutch bank account, and the cities themselves are on our city pages.