Earlier quoted context omitted.
Having visited NL, my card was practically useless. Any other country no problem, but Netherlands? So I don't understand you really. That being said, direct payment gateways are common, but they require cooperation with banks. There's probably hundreds of them and only make sense on local market where you can have on or two implemented to satisfy 80%+ of customers (and others will just use regular card).
That's the whole point, in the Netherlands we use debit cards (known as 'PIN cards' to the locals) instead of credit cards. Usually these are Maestro cards. I don't know the exact number, but as a Dutch resident I guess that >99% of all POS transactions are done using such card, not a credit card. Cashiers in most common shops probably don't even know how to accept a payment by credit card, so the'll just refuse. Mea…
I remember Maestro cards in Sweden as being for under-18's, and then when you become an adult you get a VISA/MasterCard debit card instead, but I don't know if that's true anymore.