Cash or Card? Countries where you still need cash.

[RooFlyer]

Put Bosnia and Hertzagovina firmly in the Cash (convertible Mark) preferred camp, especially in the north. this impressed upon us by our local Tour leader and born out by experiences. Many places I Sarajevo will take a card but more will not.

 

[Beano]

In my recent experience, yesterday, cash is still necessary in parts of Germany. I stayed a week in Stuttgart and surrounding area and CC and DC were usable everywhere. Then spent 5 days in Oberstdorf in the alps. Many places in the town were cash only and sometimes took CCs only for purchases above a certain value. Cash only places claimed poor internet as the reason but strangely at 1900 m on the Nebelhorn above Obertsdorf CC was ok but at 1200 m down the hill not. When you are spending Euro 30 to 50 for lunch for 4, you need plenty cash.

 

[Flashback]

In my recent experience, yesterday, cash is still necessary in parts of Germany. I stayed a week in Stuttgart and surrounding area and CC and DC were usable everywhere. Then spent 5 days in Oberstdorf in the alps. Many places in the town were cash only and sometimes took CCs only for purchases above a certain value. Cash only places claimed poor internet as the reason but strangely at 1900 m on the Nebelhorn above Obertsdorf CC was ok but at 1200 m down the hill not. When you are spending Euro 30 to 50 for lunch for 4, you need plenty cash.

Germany is well known for still being very cash heavy. Admittedly not what you'd expect from Europe's powerhouse economy.

 

[Tiki]

Just back from Timor Leste and it was def cash only with rare exceptions. The only card accepted is Visa - if the machine is working. Burger King accepts Visa. Our hotel, Excelsior also accepts Visa but had to make several attempts until it went through. Fortunately I settled the bill (restaurant charges) the day before and had time to wait for the machine to cooperate. I prepaid the hotel through Trip.com and used an Amex because Trip.com accepts Amex. I had changed money to USD before leaving so I can't speak about ATMs.

 

[OZDUCK]

So far in France we have only had to use cash a couple of times. From my experience card use here is far more widespread than in Germany.

 

[aspro2]

So far in France we have only had to use cash a couple of times. From my experience card use here is far more widespread than in Germany.

These nation-specific characteristics in Europe have long history... France was an earlyish adopter of debit-card payments with handheld terminals, while in Germany any form of card payment was relatively rare until the early 90s and actual credit cards were very uncommon for an average consumer for much longer (richer people had the EuroCard, a Mastercard IIRC, but that was about it). Even ten years ago (I don't know now), many non-retail payments (and online shopping) were done using bank transfers (there were (are?) even terminals for doing this in the ATM foyer of many banks).

Some of this might have had to do with fragmentation in the banking system. France seems to have had far fewer small banks, while Germany had numerous very small local banks with little unified communication.

But on the other hand, you have almost no difficulty using foreign cards now in Germany (in my experience), yet you can still have occasional problems in France (mostly petrol stations). And then there's Switzerland where for the longest time anything foreign had almost no chance of working...

 

[VPS]

These nation-specific characteristics in Europe have long history... France was an earlyish adopter of debit-card payments with handheld terminals, while in Germany any form of card payment was relatively rare until the early 90s and actual credit cards were very uncommon for an average consumer for much longer (richer people had the EuroCard, a Mastercard IIRC, but that was about it). Even ten years ago (I don't know now), many non-retail payments (and online shopping) were done using bank transfers (there were (are?) even terminals for doing this in the ATM foyer of many banks).

Some of this might have had to do with fragmentation in the banking system. France seems to have had far fewer small banks, while Germany had numerous very small local banks with little unified communication.

But on the other hand, you have almost no difficulty using foreign cards now in Germany (in my experience), yet you can still have occasional problems in France (mostly petrol stations). And then there's Switzerland where for the longest time anything foreign had almost no chance of working...

(mostly petrol stations).

Yes