I basically use cash wherever possible, otherwise by debit card, iDeal (almost all Dutch webshops accept it), SEPA and as a last resort PayPal, even though I despise that company.

I feel bad for everyone who has to use credit cards. While you do get cashback, some form of insurance and possible some rewards for using them, you as a consumer basically have to pay for it due to stores increasing prices due to the high transaction costs (I believe about 3% of the transaction, but It’ll likely be different for everything else).

Compare that to the Netherlands, where as far as I’m aware, stores have for debit cards a flat transaction fee of about €0,15 per transaction and a monthly fee. Although that obviously differs from payment provider to payment providers, a store for which I work has a monthly fee plus one for closing a shift.

Anyways, due to the cheaper costs of accepting debit cards almost every store accepts them, while credit cards mostly aren’t accepted in physical stores. It seems like most Dutch web shops do accept them, but most people here don’t have credit cards at all. I assume they are mainly for people who buy outside of the Netherlands.

This is also the reason why I have PayPal. It sucks, but it sucks less for me than a credit card and is widely accepted.