What a charge card is
A charge card lets you pay on credit for a few weeks, and then takes the whole amount back in one go. There is a spending limit, but no balance that carries over and no interest while you pay on time. A revolving credit card, common in the US and UK, lets you pay part of the bill and carry the rest over at an interest rate.
In the Netherlands the cards sold as creditcard by the big issuers work the first way. ICS, which issues Visa and Mastercard cards under its own name and for ABN AMRO, states in its card terms that you must repay the outstanding balance in full within 21 days of the statement date. If you do not, ICS blocks the card and can charge late-payment interest at the statutory rate until the balance is paid (ICS card terms, articles 15.1 to 15.3, checked 5 Oct 2026).
The others say the same in their own words:
- American Express: the Blue Card page says paying in instalments is not possible (gespreid betalen is niet mogelijk) (American Express, checked 4 Oct 2026)
- ANWB: it is not possible to repay in instalments (ANWB Visa Card, checked 4 Oct 2026)
- ING: the full balance is collected each month and the card is not registered at BKR as a loan (ING Creditcard, checked 4 Oct 2026)
When we checked every card's terms on 4 October 2026, each card in our credit card comparison was a charge card. Each card's page states its type, with the issuer's terms as the source.
Cards called "credit card" that are debit cards
Some cards carry a Visa or Mastercard logo but spend money already in your account. Nothing is lent, so there is no credit check and nothing to repay.
- bunq Credit Card: by default it spends your bunq balance; bunq offers a real credit line on it only to a limited group of users (bunq help, checked 4 Oct 2026)
- N26 Mastercard and the Revolut card are debit cards (N26, Revolut help, both checked 4 Oct 2026)
We list these three apart from the credit cards, because a merchant that asks for a credit card, such as a hotel or a car rental desk, decides for itself whether it takes a debit card. At the Dutch till it is the other way round: debit cards work almost everywhere and credit cards don't (see which cards work in the Netherlands). If you need a card that is certain to count as a credit card, pick one from the credit card list. bunq against Revolut and N26 against Revolut compare the debit cards side by side.
What it means for BKR
BKR is the Dutch credit register. Because a charge card has no credit line that runs on, the issuers check BKR when you apply but do not register the card there. ICS puts it this way: when you apply for an ICS card you in principle get no BKR registration, a BKR check is always done for a regular card, and the condition is that you pay the bill in full and on time every month (ICS, checked 5 Oct 2026).
Falling behind changes that. ICS must report an arrear of four months to BKR (ICS card terms, article 15.4, checked 5 Oct 2026), and a negative registration stays on your record for years. Our guide to the BKR check explains what that means, and the cards not registered at BKR are ranked on cost.
Not being registered matters most when you apply for a mortgage, because registered credit lowers what you can borrow: see whether a credit card affects your mortgage.
What it costs
With no interest to earn, Dutch charge cards make their money from the annual or monthly fee, the markup on payments in other currencies, and fees for cash withdrawals. These differ a lot between cards and change over time, so we do not quote them here: the credit card table shows each card's fee and foreign transaction fee as the issuer states it, re-checked daily, and the travel ranking sorts them on foreign fees.
Getting one as an expat
Each issuer sets its own minimum income, stated gross or net and per month or per year, and asks for a Dutch address and no negative BKR registration. Having no BKR history at all, as most newcomers do, is not a negative registration. Our guide on how to get a credit card as an expat goes through the requirements, and each card's page lists them with the issuer's own wording and source.