Hi,
Ever since receiving my Bunq metal card, essentially just a Mastercard creditcard, I've noticed it's rarely ever accepted in the Netherlands, e.g. when going to Jumbo or to the the local hairdresser. I've come to accept that this is part of the Dutch preference for debit cards, so am using my maestro debit card by default now in the Netherlands.
However the past week I've been on a trip to the UK where I initially thought to be making good use of the metal card, but no. I run into the same problem here at gas stations, Lidl, Aldi, and my maestro debit card still works.
Now yesterday I came into an embarrassing situation where I was in the bus and had to buy a bus ticket and my maestro card was rejected, then desperately tried my metal card which was also rejected, and had to be saved by the Visa creditcard of a friend.
Now I'm wondering, are master credit cards so badly accepted in both the UK and the Netherlands, or specifically my metal card because it's from Bunq and essentially works as a debit card for me? Is it expected this will improve in the Netherlands with the phase out of maestro, and what about elsewhere in Europe? What's the point of owning a credit card if I can't rely on it to work everywhere?