Earlier quoted context omitted.
EU has contactless paying for a while now, but it uses a chip embedded in the bank card.
I studied abroad in France in 2012--at this time, all European card readers had been chip-based for quite a while and my US credit card didn't have one. I couldn't figure out how to use them and many store clerks had no idea what to do with my magnetic-strip credit card. I went to England in 2019, at which point cards in the US had been updated to use magnetic stripes, and everyone was using tap-to-pay. It turns out…
One thing that is annoying for foreigners with credit cards is that they are barely accepted here. We work mostly with Maestro and almost all Dutch e-commerce sites work with Ideal which directly link to the banking apps of the local banks.
My wallet does not contain any cash anymore and just an ID and OV card.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/dutch-payment-landscape-one-m...