Germany Credit Card use

Germany is still very much a cash-based society, but I've never found any problem with using a credit card for the hotel bill. Make sure that your US credit card works here in Europe. (Use the search function for advice on that issue.)

Some smaller hotels may tack on a 3% charge for using credit cards, or if you prefer, think of it as a 3% discount for cash. But credit cards are fine at hotels, restaurants, transport tickets.

I don't recall any difficulty paying hotel or restaurant bills with my Visa credit card during my two trips to Germany, but the last trip was about five years ago. I did notice that my German friend used cash for restaurant meals while we paid by credit card for our meals.

Make sure to read the fine print when reserving Hotels, we had two this past trip that didn't accept credit cards. We knew it going in so we made sure we had cash on hand.

With restaurants it is just easier to have cash on hand, but we have never run into a problem with restaurants not accepting our card. They just have to go and get a portable machine to run the card. It was funny, some of waiters knew we were from the States and were super surprised when we gave them cash.

Credit Cards were accepted everywhere we wanted to use one in June, but mostly Visa. We did use American Express in a couple of hotels and a couple of tourist shops and museums. If your primary card is AE, you'll need a Visa or MC in addition. We paid cash in restaurants a good bit only because it's faster. They'd bring the bill, then have to go back in and fetch the card machine. Maybe there were one or two places that were cash only, but I always try to have at least a hundred or so for such occurrences, and for smaller purchases. I can't recall ever staying in a hotel or B&B that didn't accept a credit card, at least in the last 10 years.

They'd bring the bill, then have to go back in and fetch the card machine.
Unlike American restaurants dinners usually need to ask for the bill. When I ask for the bill I show the wait person my credit card and they bring the machine to the table with the bill. And if you let the wait person know the amount to round up, they can put in the toal amount you desire or you can give the person a cash gratuity.

Definitely, Germany does NOT accept credit cards as much as the US, or England or France. You can use the US credit card to pay the hotel bill generally, but don't count on it if it is a Pension. If you are staying at a 3 or 4 star hotel, most likely it takes a credit card.

The DB ticket machine also takes the US chip and signature credit card. The pictogram shows that. But no such luck paying for a S-Bahn ticket from a S-Bahn machine, US credit card not accepted. The pictogram shows that too. As correctly pointed out above, Germany and Austria are both cash based societies...good.

One restaurant in Vienna I went to not far from the Stephansdom and Am Graben had the message at the end of the menu in both German and English that only cash would be accepted as payment. But the English message went a step further than that in German because the restaurant stated it was philosophically against electronic payment.

Except for a Ramada Inn in Mannheim, none of the places I stayed at or ate at last fall took credit cards. Granted, I stayed at smaller zimmers and apartments and ate at smaller places. However, the one large dept. store/grocery I visited was a little disappointed I used cash rather than a card!

Small businesses want cash, not a credit card and will often tack on an additional charge if you don't have cash.

I booked a hotel in St. Goar, and the confirmation email specifically said that I was to pay in cash. A lot of places in Germany will NOT take credit cards.

Note: if a hotel has a DEHOGA rating of 2 stars or more, they must accept credit cards. That might explain why so many accommodations in Germany are unrated - they are better than a 1 star rated hotel, but they don't want to take credit cards.

I don't recall any difficulty paying hotel or restaurant bills with my
Visa credit card during my two trips to Germany, but the last trip was
about five years ago.

"but the last trip was about five years ago." It's probably easier today to use a credit card than is was five years ago. When I was in Munich on business 30 years ago, my co-worker tried to check out with a credit card and the owner said "No." We were headed to the airport to fly back to the US. There was no time to go to a currency exchange place. Fortunately, I had enough cash to pay the entire bill.

I think that we could have used credit cards more than we did, but it was much more convenient to pay restaurant bills in cash. However, even in the large cities, not everyone will accept cards. We ate in a few, larger restaurants that had "cash only" on the menu.

The one hotel that we stayed with on our own before the tour started accepted our card, but it was in Hamburg near the train station, so your mileage may vary if you are staying at B&Bs or Pensions.

Make sure that your bank sends you a PIN for your card if you want to use it for the machines in the train stations, as you won't be able to use your card without a PIN there. Any place that has an attendant swipe your card is fine without a PIN.

You'll definitely want to check and see if your credit card charges any foreign transaction fees, as that may make a difference on whether or not you even want to use a card.

Yep, my bad for not reading my post carefully enough. Its been edited.

We have businesses here in Oregun that are limited to cash only transactions.

Banking officials say that after years of moving away from cash, financial institutions have seen a recent influx due to the marijuana industry, The Mail Tribune reported.

"We're seeing much more cash," says Jeri Reno, chief operating officer at Medford-based People's Bank of Commerce. "It really is the unintended consequences of passing new state laws."

[http://www.statesmanjournal.com/story/news/politics/2017/02/13/banking-regs-mean-oregon-flush-marijuana-cash/97849036/]

Thanks Sam. Much clearer now. I thought that was what you meant. :-)

I remember two restaurants in Germany (forget which cities) were cash only, but they were smaller establishments. I also remember one restaurant in Munich that took AmEx but not MC.

We always traveled with a certain amount of cash. We just tried to always pay first with a credit card to save the cash for those places that didn't accept it.

We never had a problem using a card in hotels. We generally used cash for small purchases (bakeries etc.) but we were surprised in one restaurant in Berlin Mitte (I would consider average or above average -- casual though in atmosphere) where the message on the menu stated cash only as they did not want to pay higher fees to banks. Fortunately we had enough cash to cover the bill.

Just back from 10 day trip, only one time were we told no visa no mc, cash only and it was our last day in Munich at a larger place. We had depleted our Euros and were planning on paying with c/c. The waiter told us after we ordered or we may have gone elsewhere, instead I walked a few blocks to the Marienplatz and found a bank, took half hour to do but at least we were covered this way.

We paid cash al oust everywhere except hotels, all hotels took credit cards. I did verify this prior to arrival.

Enjoy your trip!

Never had a problem using a credit card at medium to large hotels and nicer restaurants. Some small shops and restaurants did not take them, but then we preferred to pay cash there since the amounts were relatively small.