Any tips for using credit cards in Italy?

Bring a second different one along in case your primary card doesn’t work.

Does your credit card charge extra fees for foreign transactions? There are cards that don’t.

At a restaurant, you may need to go up to the front desk to pay your bill with your card. They’ll ring it up right there.

Bring multiple just in case. Also paying by phone works (like Applepay).

Regarding paying at restaurants Italians don’t ask for the check at the table. When they are done, they get up walk to the exit and pay at the cash register on their way out. Having to bring your check to the table is annoying to waiters. It’s extra work they don’t like to do because Italian restaurants are often understaffed and waiters get no tips. Do them a favor and save them the extra work. Do as the Italians do. Walk to the cash register and get the check yourself on your way out (faster too, in many instances you’ll wait for that check for a long time).

I found that it was 100% super easy to use my credit card everywhere. I rarely paid cash for anything......even a simple capuccino at the stand-up counter was paid with credit card. Train fare, cabs, food on the train -- everything paid with credit card. Most servers/wait-staff carry electronic thingamajigs so you can pay right at your table. If not, walk up to the counter and pay....probably best to keep your card with you at all times. Many banks do not charge international fees anymore, so double-check and make sure yours operates this way. Oh, and I used one card all the time......very easy to sort all the costs out when I got home. Have a nice trip!

I was in Italy on my own, mostly in September last year. Using a credit card is very easy. Sometimes in Venice a few small merchants asked for cash. I mostly used my iPhone, and a credit card in my Wallet. (Note I deleted cards, I knew I would not use while traveling.) I was never asked to use a pin with my credit card. Most café, bars, and various levels of restaurant brought their credit card machine to the table. Then I waved my phone over the machine or occasionally pulled out the actual card and tapped. I traveled just about everywhere north of Rome. From Venice through the village Italy tour then to Florence and Milan. No problems happily. I did bring credit cards that had no international fee. Even my AMEX was accepted most places although of course, I had a visa or MasterCard as well. I hope you have a lovely time and no glitches!

And since lockdown tapping has become the default way to pay so having a card with tap will really smooth things out for you. American cards do chip and signature versus chip and pin and using the chip can cause confusion.
You may still be asked for a signature for purchases above a certain amount.

It's easy, have a great trip!
=Tod

You may be asked (by the terminal, most likely) whether you want to pay in dollars or euros. The answer should always be "euros". If you choose dollars, you will pay a lot more, because the restaurant/hotel/merchant will be able to use his own (favorable to him) exchange rate to figure out how many dollars to charge you. Making the wrong choice can add up to a lot of money over the course of a trip.

The same is true when you use your ATM card to get euros out of an ATM ("bancomat") in Italy--the machine will ask whether you want the transaction recorded in dollars or euros. You want euros.

Check with your credit card issurer to see if you need to put a travel alert on the account. Some do, and some don't. You don't want the card company to see a foreign transaction, think it's fraud, and lock down the account.

I've been using Contactless Pay throughout Europe flawlessly, for like a decade, almost entirely Apple Pay for the last 8 years.

Last trip that included Italy was 2022. I used credit cards everywhere plus Apple Wallet, including for a 60cent water in France (store wouldn’t take cash). I expect to do the same this year.
Here’s a current thread that will give you more information https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/tech-tips/how-many-credit-cards-in-apple-wallet-google-pay-etc

Lots of bits of advice her, just to maybe sum some of it up:

Your card should work fine, verify with your card company that you will be using it in Italy, and if there are any issues (some smaller credit unions have strange restrictions). As for notifying them of travel, that used to be a thing, some cards will still add a note, but honestly, if their algorithms detect what they think is fraud, they will lock the card regardless of any notification, requiring you to call.

Hopefully your card does not charge a Foreign Transaction Fee (FTF), if it does, it will be around 3% of the charge, not terrible, but best to find a card without a fee if possible.

Verify that your card, and one or two back-ups, are contactless capable. There should be a "wi-fi" looking symbol on the card (and a chip). If so, this is how you will pay most of the time, by "tapping" the card on the terminal. This is good for very small charges, on up to 50 euro, even more, but over 50 euro, you may be asked to insert the card. You can also pay by Google/Apple Pay on your phone or watch.

Be aware of DCC, where they offer to do the transaction in Dollars, rather than euros. You will pay a poor exchange rate. The terminals are getting craftier, you will likely get a second question when you decline, warning you that you will not know what the exchange rate will be, that is true, but it will be way better than what they offer, and in the range of 1-2% through the credit card network. I believe the terminal, for DCC only, has to tell you what the charge and the rate is now, any time you are told what the amount in Dollars will be, that is DCC. Pay in euros for the amount that the receipt or price tag says. I do disagree with a previous poster, the business really does not determine the DCC exchange rate, that is the company providing POS terminals and services to the business. I am not even sure the business get any, or much of a cut, at least nearly every time when the employee has seen the question pop up, they advise me to decline, or pick euros.

Of course, while you could maybe go the whole trip never needing cash, it is still wise to maybe have 50 euro in your pocket in case there are problems.

Besides the advice to have multiple cards, it's best if you and your companion are not carrying all the same cards from the same accounts. Otherwise if one of you loses a wallet, the accounts would be cancelled and both of you would be cardless. My wife and I have four cc accounts, we leave one at home and both of us carry our primary card along with different secondary cards.

Contactless is very smooth in Italy these days, so get that working if you can. If you are not used to it, make sure it works before you leave. I got mine installed and working on my phone with Google Wallet.

Contactless is better than swiping a card because it is more secure (far less likely for the card info to get stolen), and also because swiping an American credit card in Italy still requires a signature, but contactless does not.

Also, contactless works on many public transportation options.

Contactless is better than swiping a card because it is more secure (far less likely for the card info to get stolen), and also because swiping an American credit card in Italy still requires a signature, but contactless does not.

To be a bit more clear. Most credit cards with the contactless symbol can be used as contactless themselves, you do not need to load the card into a digital wallet (Apple/Google Pay) to use contactless.

Also, in most European countries, they rarely ever "swipe" cards, you would most likely insert the card to read the chip rather than swipe. Many newer cards issued in Europe do not even have a magnetic strip on them anymore, and a few in the US are following suit.

On recent trips to Paris and London it was all tap to pay. In Austria not so much, they still seemed to prefer cash.

Always have some cash in your pocket just in case.