The Dutch coin is the Guilder (Gulden). Also known as florin.
Dfl means Dutch florin. NLG means Netherland's Guilder. Foreign money
is not accepted, not even from neighbouring countries.
The Euro price is often shown, but the Euro only plays a role in electronic
payment, not in daily life, as yet.
Rates: $ 1 = Dfl 2.4 = Euro 1.09
Credit Card and cheque usage is much less widespread than in other
countries. The Dutch use debit cards themselves: Cirrus, Maestro,
Eurocard. You can pay with them in many shops.
Teller machines for debit cards are widely available. Many of them
accept a MasterCard if you have its PIN code and debit transactions enabled.
The general icon for PIN-based payment is
Chip-card payment is also fairly widespread but inconvenient:
you never know how much is on the card until you put it in the
device to pay. It is used for payments under Dfl. 50.
Will not be of much use to the IWFHR participant.
Icon: .
Taxis rarely accept (credit) cards: you are advised to pay them in cash.
In case credit cards do happen to be accepted (e.g., larger restaurants,
gas stations, luxury goods), it will be usually
MasterCard or Visa
As a consequence: do not rely on the credit card alone and be
sure to have some cash (Guilders) available.
Phones
Public phones are payed using special chipcards, available in, e.g., kiosks or at the hotel.
Sometimes (as in the Barbizon) there is a credit-card enabled public phone.
Mobile phones are GSM (900/1800) with good coverage and many providers.
Miscellaneous
Most people can speak some English words.
Amsterdam has a lot of dogs. Watch were you walk.
Beware of pickpockets.
Driving by car in Amsterdam is not advised. There are not
many parking places and cars are towed away or immobilized
with big yellow wheel clamps very quickly.
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