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Some EU countries don't issue credit/debit cards by default but they have their own system. The Netherlands is one of them. Such cards don't have embossing. You
by GekkePrutser 5y ago
Some EU countries don't issue credit/debit cards by default but they have their own system. The Netherlands is one of them. Such cards don't have embossing. You can get a MasterCard/Visa compatible card but it's not standard, though I believe this will change soon.
But of course the imprinting system is ancient and extremely prone to fraud. As is the magstripe. I wish we had a choice not to have the latter anymore. I'd gladly give up the ability to pay in places where magstripes are still used in return for more security against skimming. Here in Europe the magstripe is just not used anymore except for supporting foreign cards.
- niels8472 5y agoThe Dutch debit cards are Maestro (Mastercard) or V Pay (Visa) cards which are a pretty standard systems. There is no point in embossing because transactions need to be authorized immediately by the issuing bank for obvious reasons.
- GekkePrutser 5y agoThey are pretty standard but not accepted where credit cards normally are. In particular Maestro, I'm not sure about V Pay as I've never had it. But when I lived in the Netherlands I had to get a credit card to do stuff like book flights or order on foreign sites.
- gpvos 5y agoThey are pretty non-standard as they don't display a number that can be used where credit card numbers are normally accepted (they do have such a number internally to work with the Maestro/V-Pay system).