[ericyan]

Yeah, the catch is "if a merchant accepts..."

I live in the Netherlands and biggest supermarket chain here, Albert Heijn, is strictly Mastro-only. This is not a problem for the locals, but you will find angry reviews left by tourists on pretty much every ah branch in Amsterdam on Google Maps.

[gambiting]

Sure, and in theory that should be the prime example of "free market" at work - merchant doesn't want to accept visa/mastercard? They will lose customers then, if that's acceptable to them then that's their choice.

[ericyan]

This would make sense if (and only if) all other things are equal. In reality it is slightly more complicated than that.

The second-largest chain, Jumbo, will happily accept my AMEX credit card. In many cases, the groceries are even (slightly) cheaper there. That's why it has been my preferred place to do the groceries for years. But I find my self goes to ah much more often than Jumbo recently, simply because I moved and there is one right across the street.

[caf]

Same if they pass on the card costs to the customers though - card user doesn't want to pay the true cost of using their card, they can choose to shop elsewhere.

[Blackstone4]

I was there the other week and they refused my work Amex but accepted my personal MasterCard credit card. Not sure your statement is accurate.

[ericyan]

As a general rule, ah (and bol.com) do not accept credit cards (or debit cards that need to go through the credit card network). This can be independently verified on Google Maps if you look for those 1-star reviews.

There are a small handful ah branches (see below) in tourist spots that does accept credit cards. In all other places, you should see posters apparently made by the staff that puts red crosses on Visa, MasterCard and AMEX logos near the entrance and/or the checkout kassa.

From https://www.ah.nl/klantenservice/onze-winkels/zelfscannen-en... (in Dutch):

> In sommige winkels kan je met je creditcard of buitenlandse pre-paid debetkaart betalen: de winkels op Schiphol, veel stationswinkels, de winkel achter het paleis op de Dam in Amsterdam en de winkel aan de Weteringschans in Amsterdam. Bij alle andere winkels kan dit niet.

[rescbr]

Once I had an interesting experience at AH when I used my combined debit/credit card.

It wasn't a branch that accepted credit cards (it was full of crossed off card logos), the clerk saw my foreign card with Mastercard logo and said that wouldn't work but I insisted by showing it had a Maestro logo on the back. Reluctantly they said OK, go ahead and for everyone's surprise, it worked.

The transaction ended showing up on my credit card statement, and to this day I really don't know what happened. I know that international withdrawals (that should use Maestro network) appear on my checking account. Who knows...

[ericyan]

If I have to guess, it probably have something to do with the the migration to MasterCard Debit from Maestro.

[KptMarchewa]

That doesn't make sense with 0.3% EU costs.

[kuschku]

It does make sense because Girocard and some variations of Maestro only charge 0.125%

[andrewshadura]

Well, Maestro is going away next year or so, so not for long.

[KptMarchewa]

Are foreigners only 0.175% clients?