Paying in Dutch restaurants

TL;DR

In a Dutch restaurant you pay at the table with a card or your phone. Ask for the bill, and the server brings a card terminal. In 2025, 83 percent of payments at Dutch tills were made by card, and 39 percent of all payments by phone or smartwatch. Visa and Mastercard work, including foreign credit cards. Almost every restaurant still takes cash, but a few are card only. Splitting the bill is normal: say apart betalen.

Question	Answer
How do I ask for the bill?	Make eye contact and say “de rekening, alstublieft”
Card or cash?	Card or phone; cash accepted almost everywhere
Foreign credit card?	Visa and Mastercard work; Amex less widely
Extra fee for cards?	Not allowed on consumer Visa and Mastercard
Splitting the bill	Ask for apart betalen, or use Tikkie
Tip	Optional, on the terminal or in cash

How does the bill work in a Dutch restaurant?

Nobody brings the bill until you ask. Dutch servers leave you at the table as long as you like, so catch their eye and say de rekening, alstublieft (the bill, please) or simply mogen we afrekenen? (can we pay?). The server comes back with the bill and a mobile card terminal. You check the amount, add a tip if you want to, and tap your card or phone. In cafés you can also pay at the bar on your way out.

Prices on the menu already include VAT and every compulsory cost, so the bill matches the menu. Read tipping in the Netherlands for the tip screen that some terminals show.

Which cards work in the Netherlands?

The Netherlands is a debit card country. Dutch banks issue debit cards for daily spending, and Dutch people use credit cards very little: in 2025 there were about 30 million credit card payments at tills against 5.8 billion debit card payments.

Since July 2023 Dutch banks have replaced the old Maestro and V PAY cards with Debit Mastercard and Visa Debit, and the Dutch Payments Association had about 425,000 terminals updated to accept them. That change helps visitors, because those terminals run on the same Visa and Mastercard networks as foreign cards. Credit cards still get refused at some small places that only take debit cards, and American Express is the card most likely to be turned down, so carry a debit card as well.

Phone payments are the fastest-growing way to pay. Apple Pay and Google Pay work on any terminal that accepts contactless cards, and 39 percent of payments at Dutch tills in 2025 were made with a phone or smartwatch. Only 4 percent of payments still involved inserting a card.

Do you need cash?

You can get through a trip without it. Cash made up 17 percent of payments at Dutch tills in 2025 and 14 percent of payments in restaurants, cafés and bars. Almost every hospitality business still accepts it: the hospitality association KHN counts 97 percent. The remaining few post an alleen pinnen sign, Dutch for card only. Read what that means, and where the law on cash stands, in card only in the Netherlands.

A little cash is handy for tips you want to reach the staff directly, for market stalls and for the odd small café.

Can a restaurant charge extra for paying by card?

Not for a consumer Visa or Mastercard, debit or credit. EU payment rules ban surcharges on these cards, and the Dutch consumer authority confirms the ban still applies. The rules do not cover business cards, American Express or some cards from outside the EU, so a restaurant may add a fee on those. If you see a card fee on your bill and you paid with a personal Visa or Mastercard, ask the server to remove it.

How do the Dutch split the bill?

Without any fuss. Unless your Dutch host makes clear you are their guest, expect each person to pay their own share. There are two common ways to do it:

1. Apart betalen (paying separately). Tell the server when you ask for the bill. They split it per person, or per item, and each person taps their own card.
2. One person pays, the rest send a Tikkie. Tikkie is a payment-request app from ABN AMRO. The payer sends a link to the group and everyone pays their share by bank transfer. In 2025 the Dutch sent over 170 million Tikkies worth 8.5 billion euro, with lunch, dinner and pizza among the most common reasons.

The English phrase going Dutch describes exactly this: each diner pays for themselves.

What do Dutch payment words mean?

Pinnen means paying by debit card, from the PIN code. Contant means cash. Samen of apart? is the question you hear when you ask for the bill: together or separately? All of these are in the Dutch menu decoder.