Foreign Credit Cards (e.g. Visa, Mastercards and so on)

I heard that if you have an HSBC account in your home country, it's quite easy to set one up in Europe. I wonder if they have HSBCs in Holland.

A side-note that made me smile: I needed to buy a printer this week, and one of the biggest electronics stores in the country WOULD accept my card for an online purchase.... But only if it was issued in the Netherlands. Mastercard, we've come to a parting of the ways :-)

I wonder if they have HSBCs in Holland
No. Their office in the Netherlands only deals with corporate clients, it seems.

From what I have read and heard (I haven't been to the Netherlands yet, going in May) the Dutch businesses hate paying the fees associated with accepting credit cards and thus prefer cash. Several of the hotels I have been looking at will secure your reservation with a credit card but require payment in cash. Presumably if you don't show up or trash the place, it is worth the fees to charge your card! I'm planning on getting as much cash from the airport ATM as I can to start and pay cash as much as I can.

Like going gambling, he repeated;

Never carry more cash on you, than you can afford to lose.
There are atm all over town. 4 digit pin.

Be sure to tell your home bank branch that you're going to Europe. So they won't cut it off, thinking it may be stolen.

As far as I know, I'm dutch, you can pay in most hotels and restaurants with your creditcard. Family owned hotels will accept creditcards as well but maybe less. Don't take to much cash with you if you would like to visit the big city's. It's safe but there are ATM's everywhere in the Netherlands, even in the rural areas. Every town has at least 1 ATM.

From what I have read and heard (I haven't been to the Netherlands yet, going in May) the Dutch businesses hate paying the fees associated with accepting credit cards and thus prefer cash
Most businesses seem to prefer payment by debet (PIN) card rather than anything else.

Presumably if you don't show up or trash the place, it is worth the fees to charge your card!
I think you're missing the point. Apart from that, asking for a credit card to guarantee a room (btw, this is in my experience only required when you plan to arrive after a certain time, usually 16:00h or so) is by no means a typically Dutch practice - I remember having to give my credit card number for every hotel booking I made in the US, for example.
No-one in his right mind would even consider using his credit card here to purchase a Big Mac menu or an ice cream, but that doesn't mean you'll need to plan on "getting as much cash from the airport ATM as I can" - in fact, boarding the train from Schiphol Airport and walking around Amsterdam in a jetlagged state with hundreds of euros in cash would be a truly dumb thing to do.

Ah, but I will be flying in from nearby, not the US so no jet lag. No offence meant towards anyone Dutch as far as credit card practices. Not using the credit cards for every little thing def makes sense. I also am trying to reduce the ATM and foreign transaction fees by getting a few bigger withdrawals vs lots of small ones. Am I going to have hundreds and hundreds of Euros on my person? I wish I was that wealthy but a reasonable amount is useful.