A friend's neighbor just returned from Germany and said that several gas stations (not all of them) did not take credit cards or cash - they had to use an "E-card". Has anyone heard of this? We leave for Germany in three weeks and had planned on paying cash for petrol. Thanks so much for any help!

E-Card (or E-Karte in German) is a German debit card formerly called Eurocheque Card. I think it's affiliated to Maestro, which is MasterCard's debit card system, so your Maestro debit card might work but I have no personal experience.

E-Card or E-Karte don't exist. The cards are called EC-Karte (Electronic Cash, formerly Eurocheque) and are the prefered cards everwhere in Germany. Every person with a bank account over the age of 16 (and without too much debt) has one. They're fully integrated into MasterCards Maestro system. You use your EC-Card to pay for simply anything anywhere using your PIN. A problem with foreign Maestro cards may arise sometimes as they changed their policy to an opt-in model when it comes to accepting foreign cards. Some terminals simply wont take anything but German cards. The fees are higher for foreign cards and even higher for CC. This may be one reason foreigners have to pay cash, sometime.

Now I'm really confused. My friend's neighbor claimed that some stations did not accept cash, is that true in anyone's experience? If the EC-Karte is German, how is a tourist to buy gasoline at such stations?

There's a similar problem in France. You can buy gas with a U.S. credit card when an attendant is present but not outside office hours. Our cards lack the requisite microchip, which is a real pain when you're trying to buy gas on a Sunday.

hi there,
EVERY gas station take cash - dont know where Your friend has been. A lot of station have electronic cash (when they are closed, normaly after 10 pm or an sundays) which work only on EC. But in bigger cities and on all main roads You find stations which cash automats or that are open 24 hours (every station on the Autobahn). Also most stations take credits cards on the counter.

We have just had the same experience. At the non-manned, totally automatic gas stations, you must have the e-card. If there is someone in the store, you can use your regular card. This was quite a problem for us at the Frankfurt airport, which only had the unmanned station.

>e-card
What's that? Sorry, had to ask ;-)