Cash or Card? Countries where you still need cash.

[Catweazle]

An update re Samoa: all fuel stations only take cash. Card is widely available in upscale restaurants and major resorts and larger supermarkets like, say, Frankie’s, but some smaller shops don’t take card either. Visiting the hospital or the doctor? Take cash too. Unsure about taxis, but I gave him cash too.

 

[CaptJCool]

Cash is still prevalent in the Pacific

A flat tyre on the hotel bike saw me at a local bike shop and cash only

 

[L2.]

The Maluku Islands of Indonesia are cash only except bigger hotels in Ambon and a few Indomaret shops I found. Jakarta is fine for cards.

I found whilst travelling around Java recently that Indomaret stores would invariably accept cards, however all had a minimum of 50k IDR for card transactions, which is roughly equivalent to $5 AUD.

That might not sound like a big deal, except that with the low prices of most items in Indonesia, you'd often need to be buying a few things to reach the minimum!

 

[pagingjoan]

A week into a roaming trip around Tunisia - and have needed cash every day, at some point.
Even where cards are accepted, processing is unpredictable, and we have had to revert to cash several times, after trying multiple cards.
Our current hotel accepts cash only - but that can be in Dinar, US $, or Euros. First time we have seen that set of options. Our accommodation was prepaid, so for us, this is for extras, only.