cheaper for who? The shop's owner or the customers!? ;-)

By 2dmb | October 12, 2010 2:26 PM

This a final push to make paper money and coins non-existent...but what is at stake giving government a perfect surveillance sytem. By scutenizin where you spend who spent there that day, they could correlation and when your friend spend in some of same places around the same time they can pinpoint who your friends and associates are, and where they are, and when you have seen eachother....etc...Big Brother is becoming bigger....Government always get citizens to voluntarily give up their right under the guise of protecting them....

By Bernard Wisser | October 12, 2010 3:35 PM

For a long time the banks have been putting subtle pressure on retailers to switch over to digital money. Please do not be fooled into thinking that this has anything whatsoever to do with any concern for the well being of
frontline staff, but rather, a sneaky way to save the banks a fortune by not physically handling cash. The retailers will do the bidding of banks because invariably they have loans underwritten by the banks and feel unable to argue the pitfalls of refusing cash. One obvious one being that they will lose massive amounts of revenue as a result of this selfish edict. A security man would suffice, but what the banks want, the banks get!

By Deep Throat | October 12, 2010 5:01 PM

At the end business is business, and who wants to sell to tourists will have to accept cash money.

By zenplus | October 12, 2010 5:09 PM

Damn shame that it has to lead to this,so if you dont have a card your then out of luck ,what about the tourist?What will they do to make a purchase?

By Bob Vlugt | October 12, 2010 5:15 PM

Sounds like a good idea, but it might shift the robbery targets from the shop to the customers, increasing the violence and that is a even bigger concern.

By Lewis R. | October 12, 2010 5:35 PM

When a Dutch friend told me about this new "card only" shop..he told me it was because of the robberies as the politicians said and he believed it. Being a little more cynical I suggested that the real reason was to make sure the stores paid all the tax they should. He said i was paranoid by nature and i thought that he believed too much what his government said.

By alanposting | October 12, 2010 5:51 PM

So here it begins. We lose our ability to purchase necessities. Do something the government doesn't like?- they shut off your card. You're screwed.

By Lisa | October 12, 2010 8:24 PM

This is laughable.What if someone prefers to pay cash,or does not have a bank account? If there is a problem with armed robberies,that is for the the police to deal with.Put them on the streets in New York City for 1 day.These Dutch police wouldn't have a clue after 5 minutes of what their job is supposed to be.

By cvb | October 12, 2010 11:36 PM

Maybe if the authorities werent so soft on the criminals there wouldnt be so many robberies. Now the maladjusted will turn their attention to home invasions and robbing people on the street instead - its just a form of transference. Here in Australia the police dont tell the truth about the crime figures - thats another way of solving the problem, if you dont talk about it it doesnt exist!

By flaedo | October 13, 2010 6:19 AM

As anyone who have been trying to pay with a non-Dutch debit card (or credit card, including Dutch ones) in a store knows, this is a bad idea. Furter, not everyone have debit cards (especially young people). Would a better idea not be to install those cash guard boxes where the store clerks do not have access to the money?

By Mattias | October 13, 2010 6:30 AM

I wonder how will tourists be considered? They will not have pin cards. Why don't you consider accepting credit cards?

By Chris | October 13, 2010 7:50 AM

What about tourists whose cards do not work over here? Does the city have a plan to keep all that tourism revenue flowing?

By Zack | October 13, 2010 10:08 AM

This move will discriminate against those that don't have the means to open a bank account. This could include everyone from the poor and unemployed, to the homeless, immigrants, asylum seekers waiting for their cases to be processed, young people, students, etc... I wonder whether robberies are really driving this issue?

By Eoghan | October 13, 2010 1:37 PM

I wonder if this would still stop a robbery at a jewelery store where the robbers intend to steal Jewels not money! Plain Stupid. Especially in a country where paying by Credit Card (not PIN) is still an issue!!

By Karan | October 13, 2010 4:59 PM

One day last week it seemed every way of getting money was impossible The store's PIN machine was down. The ATM was down... we can't rely too much on this stuff or we're setting ourselves up for a Terminator-like future.

Sad, but true.

By LJK | October 14, 2010 12:52 PM

If it was possible to use a non-Dutch card in NL, then fine, but as we all know, NL is the most backward in Europe when it comes to the use of plastic - join the 21st century and accept EC/Maestro/credit cards universally - after all, the rest of Europe and the world seems to cope OK with it - why not NL?

By Brit out of water | October 15, 2010 9:27 PM

You will find the pressure is more from the tax department, who wants all money to be traceable, they are now in situation to place pressure on banks to make this "attractive"
This is the thin end of the wedge

By ND | October 16, 2010 10:15 AM

And how am I going to spend my money, my Canadian pin card does not work in the Netherlands, oh well I think I will stay in North America

By Chris leenders | October 16, 2010 10:17 PM