The Netherlands stands out as a low-cash country, with cashMoney in physical form such as banknotes and coins. More accounting for just 22% of consumer payments in 2024 (ECB SPACE Sudy). Despite this relatively low usage, the Dutch central bank (De Nederlandsche Bank, DNB) and the government have been actively refining policies to ensure the future viability of cash. Key features include the ‘five-kilometer standard’ for access to cash, which stipulates that most Dutch residents must be able to withdraw cash within a five-kilometer radius from their home address ; a nationwide cash infrastructure is maintained by the large banks under the supervision of the DNB ; mandatory acceptance of cash up to €3,000.
According to an annual survey commissioned by DNB cash acceptance has remained stable.
Most retailers do not inform their customers of the paymentA transfer of funds which discharges an obligation on the part of a payer vis-à-vis a payee. More methods they accept. In 2025, 21% of points-of-sale displayed a sign or sticker providing information on payment options, against 25% a year earlier. Where no such sign is displayed, customers may assume that they can pay by both cash and card.
Retailers that do specify how customers can pay usually ask them to pay by card by displaying stickers and signs saying ‘PIN? Yes, please’ and ‘pay electronically’. At 4% of the outlets visited , a sticker clearly marked ‘PIN only’ indicated that customers could only pay by card. That is slightly less than in 2024 (5%).
Cash acceptance varies greatly by type of retailer or service provider (see Chart 1). PIN-only restrictions are mainly found in car parks, cinemas and pharmacies. Compared with the 2024 survey, cash acceptance has increased among cinemas and pharmacies (see Chart 2), but decreased at car parks.
The option to pay with cash is important for people who have difficulty using digital payment methods, as cash helps them to make purchases without assistance. Cash also remains important for people who make a conscious choice to pay in cash. Cash payment is almost always an option in shops where customers typically buy only a few items, such as specialist food shops and non-food shops. Similarly, at markets ‘PIN only’ restrictions are rare: at 15 out of the 1,000 market stalls visited, payment can only be made by card.
As in previous years, PIN-only retailers are mainly found in larger cities. In cities with more than 175,000 inhabitants, around one in eleven retail outlets (9%) only accept card payments. In towns with fewer than 5,000 inhabitants, this is around 1% of the retailers surveyed.
The survey shows that market stallholders comparatively often say they prefer to be paid in cash. Of those displaying a sticker or a sign, more than a quarter say they prefer to be paid in cash, up from the 2024 survey (13%).
Research shows that retailers accept cash primarily because it is legal tenderMoney that is legally valid for the payment of debts and must be accepted for that purpose when offered. Each jurisdiction determines what is legal tender, but essentially it is anything which when offered (“tendered”) in payment of a debt extinguishes the debt. There is no obligation on the creditor to accept the tendered payment, but the act of tendering the payment in legal tender discharges the debt. More and because customers prefer to pay with cash. Both reasons were cited by 59% of the respondents (see Table 1).
70% of retailers who accept cash are (very) satisfied with cash as a means of payment, a quarter are neutral, and a small proportion (5%) are (very) dissatisfied. The main reasons cited for this dissatisfaction are the need to deposit cash, the associated costs and the security risks.
The 43 retailers who do not accept cash cite security, costs and customers’ preference for card payments as the main reasons. When customers insist to pay in cash at these ‘PIN only’ locations, retailers deal with this in different ways. Some still accept cash, while a smaller group refuse to do so. Also, just over one in three opt for alternatives, such as sending a payment request or allowing the customer to make a bank transfer.
Cash also continues to play an important role as a fallback option in the event of disruptions to electronic payments. For example, 78% of retailers ask customers to pay in cash when card payments are not possible. In addition, 47% deliberately keep extra changeThis is the action by which certain banknotes and/or coins are exchanged for the same amount in banknotes/coins of a different face value, or unit value. See Exchange. More on hand so that they can continue to operate in such situations.
This is in line with the ‘resilience advice’ issued by the National Forum on the Payment System (NFPS), which stresses that both consumers and firms must prepare for situations in which payment systems are temporarily disrupted.