I've recently read that many places in Europe accept the very convenient "tap" credit card payments. If we relied on our Apple Wallet for most of our 2 months in Europe this Fall, would we be smart, stupid or it's complicated? I kinda hate carrying cash and physical CC are easier to lose get stolen etc.
We'll primarily be in Italy (Tuscany, Florence, Venice, Rome but also London, Barcelona and Paris...
Try it out at home first - I plan to - except I have an Apple watch so don't even need to use the phone
I use it everywhere here. That's why I was wondering if I can do the same in Europe.
This is the 21 st Century. I know for a fact you can use a tap card everywhere in London. I was ticked last November when I assumed my debit card was a tap card. It wasn’t. Annoying but dealt with it.
Upon my return to the US got my bank to issue a new debit tap card. All good. Tap works here. Will use it upon my next London sojourn.
I’ll let others who have been in Italy, Paris and Barcelona recently chime in.
I was just in Berlin. It's been a bit of a running joke that Germany has clung firmly to the cash-only payment system, but tap to pay is available almost everywhere now except for tiny kebap places, snack bars, etc. I used my Chase contactless card everywhere. In fact when I inserted my card somewhere instead of tapping, it generated a receipt for me to sign and the cashier acted put out that she had to find a pen for me. The pandemic must have pushed them into the 21st century. That might not be the case in small towns, though.
I just spent 11 days in Madrid and literally used cash ONE time! All tap-tap-tap!
And that one time was only because I only had 50 euro notes, and wanted to break one up in case I needed smaller denominations. (Which, clearly, I didn't.)
I will say that facemasks can make Apple Pay a bit of pain, because of failed FaceID. I tend to just use my physical card.
Oh, and another benefit— On many transit systems that previously required you to buy a card with pre-loaded value (and they charge for the card, itself) you can now just tap your credit card or phone.
I used it last week in Lisbon and Madrid. Tapped my Apple Watch/wallet (didn’t know one could do that!) onto the contact reader and hey presto! All places had these - sometimes I took the contact reader from their hand to bring it close to my watch/wrist easily. It was super convenient. No digging into physical wallets, money belts etc to pull out cards. Amex doesn’t work at many places but Visa etc is cool
Fantastic! Thanks everyone. We're also staying in a tiny town in Tuscany for a few weeks so I'm guessing tap will be a luxury there and will plan on the old fashioned payments.
What about BTC? Just kidding.
As I understand it, a fundamental difference in Europe vs US is that there, the banks own the credit card processing equipment, and use it as a feature to attract merchant customers. So the banks end up offering equipment upgrades to stay competitive.
In the US, the merchants have to buy the card readers, making them slower, and more reluctant to carry the cost of upgrading.
I have been trying to remember the last place I have come across in Britain that didn't have contactless but accepted cards. Think it was around 4 years ago where the terminal had 'not contactless' taped on it. Merely anecdotal but if you did find somewhere like that in London you'd be on to a rarity.
Great to know Marco! It's been exactly 10 years since we've been to Europe so thanks for this useful update!
As I understand it, a fundamental difference in Europe vs US is that there, the banks own the credit card processing equipment
Not when I had a customer facing business until a few years ago. When we first started we did hire the machine from the bank who we did everything else with.
Several years ago we gave them their kit back and formed a relationship with a card processing company not related to any bank. They deposited the funds with the bank but it could have been any bank. For about 4 years very cheap mobile linked card readers have been available at many places, including Costco. Many of my friends own those and just pay a fee to card processor who continue to deposit the funds at the bank.
It can be as simple or multi-layered as you want.
@kayla, I'm in Germany and have been in several small towns and they ALL have tap and pay available and prefer it. Sometimes I use cash for very small purposes but almost always tap and pay. I had a problem once with my BofA MC but she said it had been acting up, so I wound up inserting it, signing and everything was good.
@john, I think it could easily be done but I would definitely bring at least one credit card to be on the safe side (and a debit card).
A couple of years ago, I was visiting my daughter for a week in Minneapolis and forgot my wallet. Totally brainless thing to do but I did it. For the most part I was able to use Wallet for 95% of my purchases. However, there were a few times I couldn't or I needed cash. Luckily, my daughter helped me out with that, but I'm just saying that you should definitely have a backup plan. :)
Thanks Mardee! Good to hear.
