Table of contents
Payments at points-of-sale
The Dutch mostly pay with debit cards from Maestro, V PAY, Visa Debit or Debit Mastercard. These figures are about payments at points-of-sale with debit cards, credit cards and cash, including locations such as town hall tellers, public transport and vending machines.
Chip-and-pin vs. contactless
By the end of 2024 the share of contactless payments with debit cards and credit cards had increased to 94%, again up 3 percentage points from the previous year. Well over 4 in 10 contactless payments were made with smartphones and smartwatches (with built-in NFC-chip).
Reverse card payments
Reverse debit card payments (card refunds) are offered by Dutch shops that reimburse customers when they return recently made purchases. They are particularly popular in clothing and furniture stores. The average amount for a reverse debit card payment in 2024 was roughly €44.50, about €2 less than in 2023.
These reverse debit card payments are not the same as ‘card refunds’. Card refunds can only be made for the same card that was used to pay originally, without presenting the actual card. Reverse debit card payments can be made to any debit card and the card must be inserted or tapped at the payment terminal.
Giro-based payments
Please note: Figures on SEPA Credit Transfers are no longer available.
The figures for domestic giro-based payments – mostly credit transfers and direct debits – are from De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB, the Dutch national bank). Currently, over 40 million inter-bank SEPA transfers per month are processed as Instant Payments. Immediate transfers within the same bank are not included.
After a long and steady decline, paper Acceptgiros – Dutch requests-to-pay on paper – were permanantly phased out in 2023. SEPA Direct Debits provide a good alternative to Acceptgiros in many cases.
E-Mandates
The Dutch banks launched the possibility to issue e-mandates through online banking in 2015. As a single mandate allows for multiple recurring direct debit payments over many years, the number of issued mandates per year is quite modest in comparison with the number of direct debits per year.
Bank switching service
These figures show the number of yearly applicants for the collective Dutch Bank Switching Service, business and private applicants alike. The Bank Switching Service allows bank customers to easily switch banks for payment services. Direct debits and account credits for the old account are automatically forwarded to the new account, for 13 months. The service also assists customers to inform creditors and debtors about the new account number.
Person-to-person payments
Please note: Figures for 2024 will follow soon!
Consumers make well over 500 million person-to-person payments per year, with cash, electronically with credit transfers and requests-to-pay and with various kinds of gift cards. The convenience of mobile requests-to-pay has boosted the number of electronic person-to-person payments, at the expense of mutual cash payments.
Leading online payment methods
We can show reliable online transaction figures for iDEAL only. iDEAL covers about three quarters of the Dutch market for online payments in e-commerce. Other online payment methods are not shown in this diagram because we lack reliable figures, including for credit cards.
These figures cover every kind of online payment by Dutch residents, at domestic and foreign web shops, companies and institutions. For example, they include online payments for public services and mobile requests-to-pay with iDEAL between friends and relatives.
E-Commerce payments by device
The source of these figures is the Home Shopping Payment Monitor from Thuiswinkel.org, the Dutch trade organisation for online merchants. They represent online payments by Dutch consumers at online merchants world wide. Online payments outside of e-commerce, such as requests-to-pay between friends or payments for traffic violations, are not included.
Availability of payment chains
| Availibility | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Debit card payments | 99.89% | 99.89% | 99.89% | 99.89% | 99.89% |
| Mobile banking | 99.83% | 99.76% | 99.81% | 99.72% | 99.92% |
| Internet banking | 99.88% | 99.77% | 99.81% | 99.77% | 99.88% |
The Dutch domestic infrastructure for card payments has been very reliable for years, with an availability of almost 99.9%. From 2025 onwards, this availability will no longer be monitored.
The Payments Association also reports the availibility of internet banking (via websites) and mobile banking (with apps) for every quarter on its website.
There are no formal requirements for internet banking or mobile banking but Dutch law dictates that online banking services may not be interrupted for more than two hours at a time.
The availibility of iDEAL, the leading Dutch online payment method, is monitored by Currence. Currence tracks the average monthly availability of iDEAL as well as the real-time availability, hour by hour, going back for one week.
Bank offices, ATMs and POS terminals
The shift from cash to electronic payments is also apparent from the gradual decrease in the number of bank branch offices and ATMs and relatively high number of payment terminals at points-of-sale.
Payment fraud
Please note: Figures for 2024 will follow soon!
This line chart shows the trend for fraud with bank payment services, for total fraud and for the biggest losses in giro-based payments (with online banking), for debit cards (with stolen cards) and for credit cards (with online payments).
Mobile banking and internet banking
Please note: Figures on SEPA Credit Transfers are no longer available.
Nine in ten Dutch bank customers use mobile devices (smartphones and tablets) or internet banking (on desktops and laptops) for banking services. In 2018 the use of mobile devices for banking services surpassed the use of internet banking.
Cash withdrawals
Please note: Figures for the last couple of years are no longer available.
The Dutch increasingly pay with debit cards. Still, the availability and accessibility of cash remains very good. Over 99.5% of Dutch residents live within 5 km of a cash dispense facility and 20% of all point-of-sale payments are still made with cash.
Payment instruments
Please note: Figures for the last couple of years are no longer available.
The number of payment accounts and payment cards in circulation has been quite stable in recent years because virtually all Dutch resident have a payment account with a debit card by the time they reach adulthood.
