Ticket Machines at Schipol.

Sorry to hear that. Both my Bank of America and my Andrews Federal Credit Union cards worked in the ticket machines. But I needed to enter the PIN code. Did you do that with your cards?

You're smart to carry cash as a backup.

The machines (and ticket counters) only accept chip & pin. Chip & signature (which are what most US cards are) won't work:(
My last visit their was one machine set aside that was supposedly setup for c&s cards but I couldn't get it to accept any of my cards.
For Dutch Rail cash only for most US travelers.

But for most all other merchants you'll have few problems. Holland is very credit card friendly.

Yep. My chip and signature cards have never worked at the Schiphol train ticket machines (or at other train stations). One reason I have a chip and PIN card to use for cases like this! But because I'm so frugal I don't use it anyway except in a pinch - those machines charge a 50 Euro cent surcharge for using a credit card. When I used the trains a few times on my last trip to the Netherlands, I got used to getting Euro coins at the change machines and just buying the tickets in cash. (Same 50 Euro cent charge whether a cheap or expensive ticket.)

The Andrews Federal Credit Union Visa card is conditional chip and PIN (PIN used only at machines) and does work in these train ticket machines. Not a bad card to have for travel; $5 to join the American Consumer Council (makes you eligible to join the credit union), but the card has no annual fee and no foreign currency conversion fee...but not much of a rewards program.

You can always just buy from a person at the window. When we were there, there were many windows open, with just a minute or two wait. Enjoy your trip!

Thanks everyone. Yes I have a chip and signature card .
After I got in, my daughter said I could have used my bus/tram pass card. duh.
Glad to know it was them, not me.

Do the ticket machines only accept pin/chip cards issued from Dutch banks?

No, they accept chip and PIN cards from US banks, too.

That's great to know, Andrew. When we were there last, only Dutch bank-based credit cards were accepted in the ticket machines. That was a few years ago.

I might be spending 2 nights, 1 day in the Netherlands (not sure where) in April as a way to save money on my trip to London. Roundtrip airfare to London is $244 MORE expensive than open jaw JFK -- LHR, AMS -- JFK. One way on KLM to AMS is $70 so that's a savings of $174. Hotel per night will be a little cheaper in the Netherlands too. The only expense and it's a significant one is time flying to AMS but I haven't been to Delft and to go to Delft in April might make the time 'expense' worth it. I'm glad to know that NL rail ticket machines take American pin/chip credit cards.

For what it's worth, I've actually used two different US chip and PIN credit cards at those machines (different financial institutions), once in 2015, once in 2016. The only news I've head recently was that the machines will now also accept American Express chip cards, but that's kind of irrelevant to me. (Maybe still only chip and PIN Amex card, if such cards exist for US travelers - not sure.)

Andrews Federal Credit Union Visa with chip and pin worked fine for me.