Might have the chance to book a week abroad so looking at Holland for a change, but some reviews of campsites mention that Visa and MasterCard are not readily accepted. Just wondered what people's experience of this is? We only usually take a small amount of cash, and only withdraw the least amount possible, because we have a specific credit card for using abroad that doesn't incur charges on purchase transactions.
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As Jaiash says supermarkets can be an issue. Generally found that petrol stations, especially big chains, accept them no problem. One thing to watch on campsites is that they sometimes charge extra for accepting credit cards. Read something elsewhere that in Germany they are moving over to VPay , which I assume is Visa Pay for debit cards whether that will alter the acceptance of our Visa Delta cards in supermarkets its a bit early to tell.
Lidl accept UK cards but the other superkts & most shops do not. All manned fuel stations, motorway or in town take them no probs ime. Cheapest diesel is at unmanned card only stations. Avia take UK cards, Tango take Maestro debit cards only.
Large campsites will take UK cards, smaller campsites may not. As pointed out, plenty of atm's in towns so just keep enough cash to cover yourself. Also keep change for parking as it's pay parking in most town centres & places of interest/recreation. Parking machines are gradually going over to card only though but I've not tried one of those.
If you want to use the trains you can only pay with preloaded chipkaart. See Dutch rail website for info in English.
Don't forget to leave a review of the French and other European campsites you have visited!
I generally find that apart from for fuel, UK Credit and Debit cards cannot be relied upon in the Netherlands for anything, apart from for making cash withdrawals from ATMs.
Agree with the above. Apart from fuel, we assume that we will need to use cash, which we get from an ATM, using a fee free debit card. If we do get to use a credit card, we count it as a bonus.
Hi b4 we leave Aus we get a travel Visa from the bank, loaded with euros. Never had a prob in Netherlands and have been there 5 times and this August were going back to see the missus,s family. We have a couple times in France at the supermarket had to go to the atm and get cash to pay for the groceries because they didnt take foreign cards. Also none of the petrol stations(24hr) ones dont take our cc either as well as those bloody tollways in France. We always have a stash of cash in the camper just in case.
Presume the reference is to Australian credit cards not working in France? UK credit cards are accepted in France no probs for supermarkets, 24hr card pumps & at toll booths.
Was going to get prepaid just for cash not making direct payments. I know France is ok for UK credit cards, never had a problem. Had a bit of trouble with prepaid in the past which is why we generally only use it for taking cash out of ATMs now.
We have had problems in the Netherlands with Visa particularly in shops. Apparently the issue is the amount the shopkeeper is charged for the transaction. In some towns there appears to be a "local" credit card system but of course as visitors we don't have access.
Here in France never had any problems at supermarkets, garages or motorway tolls.
Just to agree with others here - supermarkets declined our Halifax Clarity card. All fuel including automated fill ups were fine. We stopped at Camping Koningshoff and they took it no problem.