Is it really cash only in Germany/Austria?
 

My husband and I will be travelling to Berlin for 4 days in September and will spend another 8 days after that touring Nurnburg, Munich, Salzburg. My guide books, which are a couple of years old, suggest that restaurants, taxis, etc do not take credit cards. If you have travelled to Germany/Austria recently, I am asking if you found this to be true? Do merchants in Germany and Austria deal in cash only? I have noticed "Cash only" has been stated on some restaurant websites.

LOL

That's hilarious! This is not true of course!

https://www.thelocal.de/20190507/car...ime-in-germany

It's true however that some vendors accept only cash. Always have cash with you, which is a good idea anywhere, not only in Germany.

Good Lord, what guidebooks are you reading? Please tell us so that we can avoid them.

Of course there will always be some establishments, in any country, that prefer or insist on cash only, but does anyone seriously think that advanced economies like those of Germany and Austria generally take cash only????

Always have some cash on you, of course, but jeeeeeeez!

Our experience is that Germany tends to be more cash oriented. The heavy tourists areas generally will be more credit card friendly. Always ask and do not make the assumption that a credit card is accepted. And there are often a min set for credit card usage. As long as you check before hand, you will be fine.

Thank you! Your responses are helpful!

I was in Germany recently in June.
This subject lacks context. This is not an all or nothing; always or never matter. It depends on with whom you are dealing with. Comparatively speaking, German shops of similar sizes seems to be more (not exclusively) cash only. Even when they do take credit cards, it felt like it was a fall back position. At restaurants, when I mentioned I wanted to pay with a credit card, unlike in other countries where they would bring a handheld cc machine, in Germany I was asked to physically walk to a cash register and complete the transaction with a credit card.
If you are reading guidebooks targeted to budget travelers, they probably list budget businesses who are more likely to be cash only.
It also depends on whom who ask -- The Blind Men and an Elephant moment.
If you are not carrying sufficient cash to complete transaction in case they really don't take cash, ask before you enter into a transaction so that you can opt out or hit an ATM before doing a business.
>>> As long as you check before hand, you will be fine.
Even dealing with a tourist oriented shop that normally takes credit cards, you might also need cash. I was in a shop in Munich and none of my three credit card would work on neither of their two credit card machines. All my cards worked before and after visiting this shop. None of my bank reported blocking the cards. It appeared it was something wrong with their credit card processor, nevertheless, I did not have time to come back to this store, so I ended up having to use most of the Euro cash at hand.
We were in Vienna one time, and the restaurant happened to be cash only. The Americans sitting next table did not realize this and there was no other way to pay. So, one of the diner had to walk back to his hotel and come back 30 minutes later with enough cash.

We lived in Austria (Vienna) for 7 years before returning to the U.S. a couple of months ago. Hands down, cash was always preferred no matter to where we roamed, and in most places was the accepted norm. This said, in the tourist cities to where you will be traveling, credit cards will generally be accepted (AmEx, not so much) in restaurants and larger shops. Still, don't be surprised if dining or shopping in a smaller place to learn that the credit card machine is, "broken" or that the owner only accepts cash.

Our experience was similar to greg's. We were there this past summer and the year before and we were actually very surprised at how cash-centric Germany in particular was. We found this particularly true in restaurants in Bavaria. We saw many of the servers wearing cash belts and either they took credit cards reluctantly or not at all. We also found many of the gas stations (off the autobahn since we almost always fill at cheaper stations) would only take cash. Of course though we had no problems using credit cards at hotels large store etc.

We found Austria much more credit card friendly at restaurants at least in Vienna.

We've run into so many restaurants and shops in Germany, Austria (and even the odd restaurant in Switzerland) that will not take credit cards, that we now pay with cash when traveling in those countries.

Hotels, ticket kiosks, etc will take credit cards of course, but you may be surprised with how many other businesses will not.

When in doubt, ask.

Bavaria is very much cash only. Munich has more places that will take a credit card. Oktoberfest is cash. We pay cash.

"Due primarily to a desire for privacy and a passionate fear of debt, Germans have historically preferred to pay with cash. Card payments allow financial institutions and potentially others to monitor where your money is being spend, which is something that reminds Germans of the slippery slope of a surveillance state.

German distaste for debt has halted the rollout of credit card payment in the country – the German word for debt ‘Schuld’ also means guilt – meaning that even if you wanted to pay with credit card it would be difficult."


https://www.thelocal.de/20190507/car...ime-in-germany

thursdaysd--That was our experience with our lodgings. We stayed at 4 places on our trip and 3 of them gave us a "discount" if we paid cash, which we did.

If you want to pay gas/petrol with credit card in Germany, use stations belonging to a large chain, like Aral, Shell, Esso, BP etc. Small local stations often don't take cards, or only German Girocard system, which is supposed to work with Maestro debit card.

Well, I live in Germany and I prefer to pay by card.

Any type of "chain store" - which can be anything from chain supermarkets, chain apparel stores or chain restaurants - will most be most likely to accept cards, regardless of the amount.
Department stores will always take credit cards.
Any stores or merchants or eateries within a mall complex is supposed to take cards.
Places where you can almost never pay by card: Small cafes, ice cream parlors, wurst, döner or any type of take-away stands or eateries, farmers markets, and kind of temporary "market", like Christmas markets.
Museums or sights are hit and miss - likelyhood decreases from well-known to small, obscure. Those places which charge only a nominal entrance fee of 2 or 3 euros are not likely to accept cards.

Restaurants are totally random hit and miss.
For example, my next door Vietnamese restaurant (decent size, no "hole in the wall") takes only cash; the tiny Korean BBQ eatery takes cards. As said before: Ask when you enter - it's also pretty common for German customers to ask if they don't have or want to use cash. The waitstaff will be very much used to it.

Independent shops are hit and miss. This includes souvenir shops - don't ask why.

Taxis - depends on municipality. In Berlin, for example, licensed taxis must take cards, it's part of the license obligations.
Public transport - ticket machines are likely to accept cards, but as cashless payment for tickets is now possible by app, it can happen that some machines won't get upgraded.
Long distance travel - Deutsche Bahn ticket machines always accept cards.
Parking garages - hit and miss.

NB: Whenever you can pay with cards, especially at machines, you must have a chip+PIN or NFC card.

P.S. One reason why especially restaurants seem be totally random hit and miss cannot be explained with transaction fees (which are just nominal nowadays, and the restaurants also pay their local banks to process cash) or a dislike of German customers to pay by card. It has more to do with tax evasion...

I've traveled to Germany a couple of times in June. One of which we stayed in a remote hostel in the Bavarian region. I wouldn't have been surprised if they didn't accept cards, as it was old and in the middle of nowhere, but they were fully advanced regarding technology and cards weren't a problem. I agree with everyone before me who says that you need to ditch those guidebooks. Everywhere I went card was the only way I paid for services.

I think many places accept debit cards but not credit cards. Like the Dutch the Germans don't like credit cards much and tend not to use them, and the many shops don't accept them. we have a perfectly good European wide debit card system and last month in Germany we paid for everything by debit card apart from one campsite which was cash only. We did however carry cash with us just in case, something we never do at home. If I have a couple of euros in my purse that is unusual.