Cashless visit to Schengen countries using USA credit card

Question

How is the cashless situation in Schengen, particularly the Northern and Eastern Europe countries, for American visitors using a US credit card? I heard Amex coverage is spotty but Visa/Mastercard coverage should be decent for those that accept it. Also heard recommendations to add the credit card to Google/Apple Pay since EU uses pins for credit cards but US credit cards usually don't have them (and are Google/Apple Pay even prevalent enough to matter)?

Answer 1

Looking at the tags of your question, I see Denmark, Germany and Poland. IMO, you can live comfortably without cash in Denmark, but not in Germany and Poland. Apart from big cities, it's easy to come across a place that accepts only cash.

Regarding card types, you might as well leave your AMEX at home. Basically only big hotels consistently accept them. VISA and MasterCard are universally accepted; I can't think of any single card-accepting merchant in Europe who doesn't accept both VISA and MasterCard cards. About 15 years ago, some shops in Germany only accepted German EC-cards (as a big country, they have their own card transaction network), but I don't think that's the case anymore. EDIT: According to local experts, some merchants in Germany still only accept German girocards, which is a new name for former EC-cards.

Contactless payments are ubiquitous. In the countries you mentioned, virtually all terminals accept contactless payments using a card or a phone (GPay, Apple Pay) or a similar device.

Since it's not a good idea to travel completely cashless in those countries, you should have a card that's usable for ATM cash withdrawals (that's easier than exchanging cash). If you only have credit cards, double check the terms and conditions for withdrawing cash, especially in a foreign currency.

Answer 2

Obviously this varies a lot by country but here is a summary from my latest trips (10+ countries in Europe)

1. Amex is useless outside the US. Acceptance is low and even if they take it you may have to pay an extra AMEX surcharge.
2. Visa/Master Card acceptance is very good overall even for small stuff (grocery, convenience store, public transport).
3. Totally cashless is probably not a good idea. You still run into exceptions and it's not as cashless as say, Australia, New Zealand, or the US
4. Some exceptions: It's sometimes not possible to tip cashless. Some street vendors do only take cash. A more interesting one: some upscale German restaurants are cash only (you want to watch for that one, since it can be a sizable bill).

Answer 3

The situation may vary a lot by country.

Here is the situation in France:

• It's probably difficult to go completely cashless
• Visa/Mastercard support is widespread but not universal (see below), but there are quite a few places with a minimum spend (often somewhere between 5 and 15 euros), especially smaller shops (I'm looking at you, my butcher...). On the other hand most boulangeries and supermarkets will accept cards even for 1 euro.
• While France has its own national card system, it has coexisted from the beginning with Visa and Mastercard, so it's nearly unheard of to have a store accepting national cards and not foreign cards (quite different from the situation in the Netherlands for instance).
• Contactless coverage is nearly universal for those who accept cards, like above.
• Amex: pretty rare, though other than the usual higher-end shops, hotels, restaurants, etc, there are some interesting exceptions (many supermarkets for instance: Monoprix, Carrefour, Cora...). You can use the Amex app to find stores which support it.

A few notes:

• Taxis are required by law to accept credit cards, whatever the amount. Still, especially outside Paris, they will often tell you there's a minimum, or that the machine is broken, or whatever. Often easier to use Uber or their competitors, but if you are in a hurry at peak times taxis can use bus lanes while Ubers et al. (officially) cannot.
• Cards are less likely to be accepted on food markets, though that varies widely
• The authentication method is normally determined by the card/device, but it must be supported. In many cases if your card requires a signature it may indeed be a problem. But while you may not know it, your card is likely to have a PIN, or you can request one.
• French-issued cards use a PIN for contact and no PIN for contactless (limited to 50 euros). Some terminals will accept contactless cards beyond 50 euros with a PIN. Contactless cards need to be inserted and use a PIN after a number of contactless transactions (3 I think?).
• Apple Pay uses Face ID/Touch ID and there is no standard limit. Probably the same for Google Pay and others.
• While there were a few issues with Apple Pay when it started rolling out, it now works very well. Haven't had a problem using it for ages.
• Places which require a security deposit (hotels, car or bike rentals...) will usually require a real card.
• Make sure you check both transaction fees and currency exchange fees for the card(s) you intend to use. It may be worth it to open an account with Wise or Revolut and get a card from them to avoid/reduce fees.
• In some cities (Lyon, Toulouse...) you can pay public transport directly with your card or phone (just tap the card or phone on the dedicated reader -- often not the same one as that used for regular tickets). In others you will have to buy tickets and/or load them on your phone first (Paris, Bordeaux, Reims...). The exact mechanism varies (NFC, QR Code, Bluetooth...).
• At some point SNCF (the public railway company) kiosks had trouble with some foreign cards. I hope they fixed it, as it's more and more difficult to buy a ticket from a human. The official app and website (SNCF Connect) can be temperamental.

I have limited recent experience in other Schengen countries (and not at all in many), but:

• Again, the situation is likely to vary a lot from country to country
• Many countries have a national system, and some merchants will only accept cards using that system. It gets better, but there are many holdouts, and often pretty annoying ones (like public transport companies).
• Some countries still have strong cash culture.
• Nearly universally, there will be situations where you will need cash, though your experience may vary based on the types of merchants you rely on (mostly large, tourist-oriented or small, local-oriented) and the places you go to (rural locations vs large cities). I'm pretty sure some people are able to do an entire trip without using a cent in cash. But it's easy to stumble on cases where you need cash, especially if you don't have a local card in the countries which favour them.

Answer 4

Switzerland

I live in Switzerland (Zurich), and take cash out approximately once or twice a year. I use Apple Pay exclusively. I think the last place I saw that only took cash was some tiny restaurant nearly at the top of a mountain - presumably due to lack of internet connectivity; the restaurant 5 minutes walk further on did take cash.

Answer 5

How is the cashless situation in Schengen, particularly the Northern and Eastern Europe countries, for American visitors using a US credit card? I heard Amex coverage is spotty but Visa/Mastercard coverage should be decent for those that accept it.

My experience in some of these countries is more limited than in others and I cannot comment on issues with US cards specifically but in general it is possible to go cashless pretty much everywhere in Northern, Western, and Central Europe. This include small transactions, street vendors, even buskers or prostitutes in some places (I kid you not!).

Amex coverage is indeed more limited, Visa and Mastercard are ubiquitous, the main issue is that in that in some countries (e.g. Germany, the Netherlands), there are shops that only accept local debit card and will refuse international credit card.

Since tipping culture is very different, you will find that the terminals and process is also different (no touch screen where you have to sign or enter the tip, no taking your card away and coming back with a receipt where you have to add the tip).

Also heard recommendations to add the credit card to Google/Apple Pay since EU uses pins for credit cards but US credit cards usually don't have them (and are Google/Apple Pay even prevalent enough to matter)?

Google/Apple pay are very common and actually seem to work with all bank card point-of-sale terminals that support contactless payments, which is almost all of them at this point. Using your card through one of these systems is excellent advice because it can take care of some issues with US cards programmed to favor PIN-less or chip-and-signature transactions.

Answer 6

Germany, big cities

Cards, in general

Contrary to other answers, in big cities (Munich, Hamburg, Berlin) I've rarely had to use cash in recent years, almost everywhere takes card. Last time I spent cash was 2 months ago for a taxi, as I was next to a taxi stand and wanted to test my German.

Grocery stores, bars, biergartens, many restaurants, government bureaus, corner shops (kiosk, späti, etc), hotels, many pharmacies, etc etc all take card in my experience.

I do have to say that I rarely dine outdoors, and when I do it's often international fast food or not-cheap restaurants (25-50eur/person). I do buy burritos and döner every now and then, and rarely needed cash. I've been told that my experiences on restaurants not needing cash aren't super representative by those that dine outside more, so you may need to carry some cash just in case. Places that take cards often list mastercard/visa logos on the door or near the ordering area.

Some places do only take EC-Karte (a local debit card type), but their numbers are dwindling and they often have huge signs saying things like "Nur EC-Karte" so you know to avoid them. In my experience, these have been mostly places aimed at locals: A small neighborhood pharmacy, for example. I've been living here for almost 3 years now without an EC-Karte, and have been making do just fine, you will too.

As a tourist, you may want to use luggage lockers at German train stations, which will often only take euro coins. You can check what they accept on the bahnhof.de website, some stations have card readers, but I haven't run into them yet.

For taxis, you can call regular taxis with Uber or freenow, and pay thru the app. Due to language barrier you probably want to do this anyways.

Some smaller stores (some ethnic stores, some döner shops, etc), alongside street markets etc are indeed unlikely to take card. That said, all the döner shops in my area take card, and I did pay with card at a döner shop in Gransee, which is a town with 6022 people.

One can absolutely pay for food delivery with card: Lieferando, Wolt, Uber Eats all let you order food and pay for it online, I never paid for delivery food on door in Germany, cash or card. Of course this locks you out of some options that only accept delivery orders by phonecalls, but language barrier would probably not make this appealing to a tourist anyways.

Amex

In my experience, amex acceptance is pretty good, but you shouldn't rely on it solely. Hotels, big grocery chains, public transport companies (esp. when buying thru the app), many restaurants, ikea, etc all take amex in my experience. Even used amex in a small Bavarian town's edeka once.

When I lived in Munich, I had months where I'd only need to spend maybe ~50EUR on my mastercard, and rest of my monthly expenses (1000+EUR) would go on my amex. It's a bit worse in Hamburg and Berlin, but it's still quite good.

For online purchases, it's accepted on Amazon, Lieferando, Uber Eats, eBay (thru paypal), etc.

For public transport, MVG of Munich, BVG of Berlin, HVV of Hamburg and Deutsche Bahn all take it for online ticket purchases too.

I'd say don't leave it at home, but don't count on it working everywhere. Presence of an amex sticker on the business isn't a guarantee, I was told before that "they hadn't activated it yet". If you want to only pay by amex, ask before you order.

Do note that amex often has unfavorable FX rates and FX fees. I never use my amex outside eurozone for this purpose, as my main mastercard has no FX fees and just passes mastercard rates through (which are often better than amex rates). If amex rates and fees are more favorable than rest of your cards, then by all means, give it a try.

Oh, and I just remembered that amex tried to advertise saying they have good acceptance a while back with this link: https://amex.de/akzeptanz, you could check the businesses listed there to get an idea, but it's not a conclusive list (most Rewes and Edekas also take amex, but they're not on that page).

Totally contactless

I've also been living the "totally contactless" lifestyle and haven't had issues. I wouldn't count on it everywhere, but I can't remember the last time I inserted my card into a POS machine.

Summary

In the big cities, I'd keep around the price of one taxi ride or one meal as cash (for me, I keep ~50eur, though as a tourist I'd keep at least 60eur*), and have around 10eur in coins for things like luggage lockers. If you run low, just obtain more, though I'd consider that unlikely.

*: In case you get a public transport fine (happens to tourists often), and choose to pay cash on the spot. I'd suggest this for a tourist, but insist on getting a receipt!

Answer 7

Germany

It depends a bit on what you are going to do, but you cannot generally go cashless in Germany if you plan to:

• Take a taxi.
• Buy take-away food, in particular from small places run by people with a Middle East/North Africa cultural background (such as Döner places).
• Buy at street markets or mobile vendors.
• Pay for food delivery (might work if the restaurant is on lieferando, although tipping is still cash)

This is true even in big cities.

(I don't think Germany is either in Northern or Eastern Europe, but the question was tagged germany.)