In addition to the MSN conversation…

Every bank (AFAIK) gives you an ATM PIN card which you can use to pay in about any store and with which you can draw cash from any ATM machine (though you might be limited to one or more times a day when the ATM machine is not from the same bank). Additionally, some will include a chipknip, which is like a digital wallet, i.e. when it is supported you can use it to pay for stuff without needing to enter a code. You do need to load some money on to it first, though.

As for the expenses: only a few stores (mostly small ones) will charge you for using it for small amounts of cash, which is a relic of old times when using such a card was still more expensive than cash for the store.

Thank you for the answer :) So it works like at Hungary. But I’m curious about, which bank you recommend for me to open the bank account, because as you may know we still using our own money (HUF = Hungarian Forint) and I really need to open an Euro basic bank account to get my scholarship money onto this card of course in Euro. So I can use it in the Netherlands as well, and I don’t have to go into banks to get money, just find an ATM and that’s all.

Well, I don’t really have that much experience with banks. As I said, all banks (Rabobank, SNS, ING/Postbank, Fortis, ...) allow you to just find an ATM and get your money. You can just give people (e.g. an employer) your bank account number so they can deposit e.g. your salary onto your account. You can then withdraw it from an ATM machine or e.g. give your account number and permission to withdraw the required fee from your account to an institution to pay for it.

Ok. thanks for the nice answers :) Today I opened a bank account at a hungarian bank (ERSTE) euro based system. I hope it will work fine over there, as the woman told me in the bank office (She was really hot!) :) lol
I think if I go to more time, like more than half year, I will open a dutch account as well. But now I hope this one will do the job as well.

Does it support Maestro or Pin or something? In that case I think it should work, though you might have to pay a little extra for every transaction (not sure though).

This is a Mastercard Classic, and the hot woman in the bank told me it is going to work in the whole world, and every buying is for free in any store, but from ATM there is some charge… unfortunatelly.