credit card vs cash

Most of us have reported using very little cash in Europe in recent trips, especially in England.
Don't withdraw too much, but you'll probably use/need a bit of cash.

We withdrew some $200 worth of pounds last week in London (my DH likes to have cash in his pocket). Mostly charged, paid cash sometimes because we had it. We had to use up the last of it at the airport. I figured I would give the leftover to the flight attendants in those envelopes they provide but Delta doesn’t seem to participate. I’ll bring what I have left when we go to croatia in Sept. Frankfurt has one of those collection bins at their airport.
In Paris in April we mostly charged. Paris walks preferred cash but euro are easy to keep for another trip. We never worry about having leftover.

There are places that have signs “cards only.” The majority of your transactions will be by card. I would start small on any cash withdrawals from ATMs. You will be using 3 different currencies over the course of your trip and you don’t want to be left holding a lot of cash. I would think that I would start with “60” in each type of currency and expect that would probably be enough cash.

To give you an example, pay washrooms with a price of 50 pence also had an option for paying by card….

Barbara, please expand on what you said. Tip envelopes for flight attendants? Who does that?

European card companies charge merchants very little for card transactions. Therefore, most people I buy from prefer that I tap rather than bother with cash and change as a time- saver and for better sanitation. On the other hand, most of us in Europe pay about 48€ a year for the convenience there are no points or miles to be awarded with European cards. So yes. Just tap. You'll still be able to get your points, miles, cash back with some of your US cards.

Tip envelopes for flight crews. Good grief .

Barbara, please expand on what you said. Tip envelopes for flight attendants? Who does that?

I think she was referring to those envelopes that some airlines have for depositing unwanted currency that then goes to a charity.

Credit card will be used in all of those places extensively, just make sure that your card is Contactless capable, it will have a wi-fi looking symbol on it, if not, contact your card issuer and get one.

As an example, we are in England now, have used tap (contactless) almost exclusively, you can even use it in place of an Oyster card on London transport and most buses just about everywhere. The only cash we really had to have was two laundries that took only coins, several car park pay and display machines that were coin only, and a hotel where I had to give them a 10 GBP cash deposit for the parking permit. I would maybe withdraw 20-30 GBP when you arrive, so you have a little on hand, you likely will not need it, but use it for coffee and snacks the morning you leave, let the kids stock up on candy with the leftovers.

We like to have some cash in hand when arriving in Europe. That eliminates the need to find an ATM and hope it works (they do malfunction once in a while), and doing with some jet lag. Regardless, be sure to check with the credit card company and bank to see if they need to put a travel advisory on your account. So do, some don't, and some seem to go back and forth depending on ???. You do not want the credit card company and / or bank to see a foreign transaction, suspect fraud, and put a lock on the account.

Jumping in to add, is it enough to have a credit card plus a backup credit card and a debit card? I plan to follow Rick's advice and take cash out once we arrive but I get such an uncomfortable feeling thinking about there being an issue with my cards once I arrive and having no money. I'm coming from Canada.

@Marco

I think she was referring to those envelopes that some airlines have for depositing unwanted currency that then goes to a charity.

Thanks for the explanation. I have never seen that either. What airline does that? They just collect them on board?

Excited Traveller there's no harm in getting a small amount of £ or € from your bank before you leave. We prefer to have a bit of "just in case" cash in hand on arrival so we don't have to deal with that on our first day. Our bank branch is a small one, and usually takes a day or 2 to get the foreign currency from wherever they get it. Since our trips are usually longer ones, we get about €100 in advance. DH and I each have 2 credit cards and a debit card, so we feel secure if something happens to any single card.

For the PPs asking about the envelopes on planes - these aren't for tips for the cabin crew. They were spare cash at the end of a trip that would be donated to various charities. Some, but not all airlines participate. I've seen a few bins in airports in departure areas for this as well.

....I think she was referring to those envelopes that some airlines have for depositing unwanted currency that then goes to a charity......... That use to be a fairly common practice of all airlines to collect coins and bills -- but mostly coins -- on the return flights to the US. But I haven't seen that practice in years. The idea was you kept the paper money for future trips but coins were heavy and a nuisance. It was also before the euro so you might have a pocket full of mixed coins.

@stan Virgin Airlines does the cash envelopes.

OP bring tap debit AND at least 1 tap credit card.

I’ll cary some cash/coinage for public toilets, for museum and church donation boxes. Lapsed Catholic who always visits a church to light a candle.

I’m very pleased that Delta doesn’t have tip envelopes for the crew. What on earth! Are passengers now encouraged to tip each pilot for not crashing the plane?? 😉

I am absolutely unfamiliar with “unwanted currency”. Cash remaining is saved for the next trip. In fact, if the exchange rate favors the USD, I take out extra cash from a cash machine before returning to the US to use for a future trip.

If you like to browse and shop in outdoor markets, cash is necessary. Otherwise, I find that I use my credit card mostly and I use one that doesn’t charge international fees.

We just returned from a Best of Europe 21 day tour and I have to say we paid for everything in Euros. It was very easy to withdraw cash from banks along the way (our guild made a point of show us easy banks locations). We where able to find banks that our banks has deals with so they waved the fees. We ran into very few places that took cards only but we also ran into just as many places that took cash only. You will definitely want to have some cash on you to pay for toilets and other small things along the way.

The only time we used our credit cards was in Switzerland where they uses Francs and it didn't make senses to take out francs because we where only in Switzerland for 3 days.

I just returned from two RS tours back to back, Spain and Portugal. I went with 150 euros from a previous trip, used a cc almost exclusively and came home with 133 Euros. Everyone accepts cc.