For paying rent, internet and stuff like that you need a 'betaalrekening'. With a 'betaalrekening' you can arrange payments very easy online.
Most people also use this account to pay everyday transactions using a debit card 'pinpas/betaalpas'. This 'pinpas/betaalpas' is something that you normally get with a 'betaalrekening'. If you have a 'betaalrekening' on both you and your spouses name you get 2 'pinpassen'. In most cases this is included in the price. With a 'pinpas/betaalpas' you can pay and withdraw money in whole of Europe without extra costs.
We don't have a cash reward system, or not anything worth mentioning that i know of.
Credit cards are not necessary for every day life here, i think some people use them if they are in other countries a lot or if they go to hotels a lot.
Some use them for online shopping in other countries. But like i sad, not a necessary and they do cost money so I'd try it without first.
I've tried to find out where you can avoid paying feed when you receive money in your Dutch account from your American account.
As far as i can tell, with a transaction like that there are 3 options for the costs OUR/SHARED/BENEFICIARY.
In the case of OUR the person who transfers the money pays all the costs,
in the case of SHARED the person who transfers and the person who receives both pay standard costs (as far as i can see for the receiving person that is 0,1% (min €7 max €70)
In case of the BENEFICIARY the person who receives the money pays all the costs (as far as i can see this is also 0,1% (min €7 max €70)
I do not have any experience with transactions outside the EU, but online i found the tip to use transferwise to cut a lot of the costs. Maybe something worth looking in to, because i can't see any accounts where this is free.
There are 2 banks where you get interest on the money on your 'betaalrekening'. ASN Bank and SNS Bank.
ASN is € 18,- per year for 1 person and € 36,- for two
SNS is € 30 per year for 1 person and € 30,- for two
Personally I have an account at the ASN Bank, it is not the cheapest but they have good customer service and that is worth something too for me ;)
I did find on their site that they provide customer service in English but only over the phone mon-fri 08.00 t/m 18.00 003170 - 35 69 335.
A site that is very helpfull when comparing bank accounts is this one:
https://www.consumentenbond.nl/betaalrekening/vergelijker?sortDirection=asc&productGroup=BETAALR&sortCriterion=prijsVanaf&pageSize=18&page=1&prijsVanaf=0&prijsTot=180&40878=nullIf you want to store some of your savings in the Netherlands I would do that at another bank, savings accounts are free.
Interest is very low however, as you can see on this comparing site:
http://www.vanspaarbankveranderen.nl/sparen/rentemeterI have to say, this is quite hard to find out! I can totally get that its impossible to find out if you don't speak the language.
I hope its a bit clear like this. If you have any more questions i would be happy to help.