That is, there may be a small fee if you transfer money to accounts in other countries, but it may be they cancelled even that, at least within Europe.
It's also completely normal to ask people for their account number if you have to get money to them (either online, which is just as popular here as in NL, but I don't like to use it, or on real-printout bankwire forms), and whenever you get a bill from someone, their account info will be somewhere on it too. To protect people from identity theft, if you do it in paper, the bank has a copy of your signature on file, and you sign every form, and they can compare it against the one on file. Also, if you want to make a direct withdrawal, you need to present your account card (that also functions as a debit card) along with the withdrawal form.
It's also completely normal to ask people for their account number if you have to get money to them (either online, which is just as popular here as in NL, but I don't like to use it, or on real-printout bankwire forms), and whenever you get a bill from someone, their account info will be somewhere on it too. To protect people from identity theft, if you do it in paper, the bank has a copy of your signature on file, and you sign every form, and they can compare it against the one on file. Also, if you want to make a direct withdrawal, you need to present your account card (that also functions as a debit card) along with the withdrawal form.