Credit /Debit Cards in Germany

[crablab]

Some branches of Albert Heijn outside the big cities would only accept locally issued Maestro cards (which were almost impossible to get hold of if you were not a Dutch national)

Bunq was the way to get a Maestro.

But this is no longer the case; AH accepts Mastercard everywhere now. Maestro is going away (and replacements cannot be issued).

NL does now have a special deal on interchange for the next few years, which I'm sure is totally unrelated...

Stadtwerke where I visit frequently do not take cards on their buses

Isn't everyone using D-ticket or a local area ticket anyway...?
This comes up on the eTicket thread too; I don't think the inhabitants of this forum are representative of the wider population with regard to mobile ticketing!

 

[riceuten]

Bunq was the way to get a Maestro.

It was a massive faff - you had to change your address to a (pretend) Dutch one to order one, then change it back to get it delivered to the UK. I still have a Bunq account (actually I have 3) which is good when you need an non-UK card to withdraw money without a charge.

But this is no longer the case; AH accepts Mastercard everywhere now. Maestro is going away (and replacements cannot be issued).

"MasterCard Debit" as they now call it

Isn't everyone using D-ticket or a local area ticket anyway...?

If you're a commuter, yes. But not everyone spends enough to make it worth it.

This comes up on the eTicket thread too; I don't think the inhabitants of this forum are representative of the wider population with regard to mobile ticketing!

Quite probably not ! But not every Verkehrsverbund is as technologically advanced as in the big cities

 

[crablab]

It was a massive faff - you had to change your address to a (pretend) Dutch one to order one, then change it back to get it delivered to the UK.

Interesting - I did not have to do this, but I'd ordered one a very long time ago (~2019) back when Bunq were refusing to do Google Pay.
IIRC this would have changed when Mastercard prevented issuance of Maestro outside of a few last selected regions, as part of the phase-out.

But not every Verkehrsverbund is as technologically advanced as in the big cities

Very true! Same deal in Japan - not every transport company will accept Suica, and some are very much cash only (and then others in really remote places surprisingly have proper TOTO contactless...) - it's extremely variable

 

[johncrossley]

It was a massive faff - you had to change your address to a (pretend) Dutch one to order one, then change it back to get it delivered to the UK. I still have a Bunq account (actually I have 3) which is good when you need an non-UK card to withdraw money without a charge.

Before Brexit they allowed UK residents to apply, so presumably you applied from 2021.

Now that MasterCard has replaced Maestro I'm not sure what use a Bunq account is now. They charge fees unless you forgo having a physical bank card. Revolut can be used for converting between currencies cheaply.

 

[GTM]

Visiting Munich last September, me and my partner were glad that we had taken cash since the Augustiner Bierhalle (on the main shopping street) did not take card (although 'helpfully' an ATM was provided near the entrance... Glad we didn't have to pay those fees!). Incidentally we got more cash out whilst we were in Munich from a bank's ATM and got more euros for our pounds than at the bureau de change in the UK.

 

[johncrossley]

Incidentally we got more cash out whilst we were in Munich from a bank's ATM and got more euros for our pounds than at the bureau de change in the UK.

If you have a bank card that offers fee free cash withdrawals then it is never cheaper to change money over the counter.

 

[Golghar]

EC cards (Eurocheque cards) haven't existed for quite some time now. When people still use this term, they normally mean a debit card.

Nowadays "EC" stands for "Electronic Cash", i.e. debit cards.

 

[Dougal2345]

Not really sure why any traveller wouldn't want to carry a reasonable amount of cash with them...

I usually take around €150 out of a bank's cash machine with my debit card, and burn my way through that until it's gone and I do it again. I only expect to do the big (hotel) payments by CC, everything else I do by cash unless it's refused/impossible.

Maybe people are thinking that's a mugging risk? I've never been mugged, but (a) if you're travelling then presumably you can afford to risk losing that sort of sum (even though it might sting) and (b) actually having some cash to give to the mugger might spare you a beating.

The only downside is occasionally revisiting a country where you have some leftover cash from the last visit, and find it's of a kind that is no longer valid (some low-value notes in Czechia and silver-coloured coins in Sweden in my case).

 

[crablab]

Not really sure why any traveller wouldn't want to carry a reasonable amount of cash with them...

For the same reasons that society is increasingly becoming cashless...

Revolut can be used for converting between currencies cheaply.

Or Wise.

 

[The exile]

Isn't everyone using D-ticket or a local area ticket anyway...?
This comes up on the eTicket thread too; I don't think the inhabitants of this forum are representative of the wider population with regard to mobile ticketing!

There are still non Verkehrsverbund areas (probably the ones most likely to have refused to participate in the D-Ticket and to have less tech.

 

[Davester50]

For the same reasons that society is increasingly becoming cashless...

And it's the same people that can't plan their way out of a problem when networks fail.
Personal responsibility seems to be gone.

 

[D1024]

December 2024 and our annual Christmas Markets trip took us to Bratislava and Vienna. One was entirely Credit\Debit\Contactless only the other was 99% Cash only. To our surprise it was Vienna that was so cash orientated, so much so we had to actually get some from a bank ATM as we only had about €20 on us.

 

[AdamWW]

Of course it's not just widespread failures that cause problems.

Is there anybody here who at some point hasn't seen a sign in a business saying that they temporarily can't take payment with bank cards?

 

[riceuten]

Before Brexit they allowed UK residents to apply, so presumably you applied from 2021.

I did indeed

Now that MasterCard has replaced Maestro I'm not sure what use a Bunq account is now. They charge fees unless you forgo having a physical bank card. Revolut can be used for converting between currencies cheaply.

That's the theory - I have managed to get a physical card without a monthly fee. I use it to make an IBAN transfer to pay my subscription to Drehscheibe (Germany railway magazine that's impossible to get hold of outside Germany, and not that easy when you're there!).

I USED to pay with Monese but they charge for this now.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 24 May 2026 ==

Visiting Munich last September, me and my partner were glad that we had taken cash since the Augustiner Bierhalle (on the main shopping street) did not take card (although 'helpfully' an ATM was provided near the entrance... Glad we didn't have to pay those fees!). Incidentally we got more cash out whilst we were in Munich from a bank's ATM and got more euros for our pounds than at the bureau de change in the UK.

I think most bureau de change in the UK are a complete rip off - local Tesco offering something like €1.11 = £1 presently.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 24 May 2026 ==

December 2024 and our annual Christmas Markets trip took us to Bratislava and Vienna. One was entirely Credit\Debit\Contactless only the other was 99% Cash only. To our surprise it was Vienna that was so cash orientated, so much so we had to actually get some from a bank ATM as we only had about €20 on us.

It's a cultural thing for Germany and Austria - and a tax avoidance thing as well

 

[DeverseSam]

Left luggage lockers and station vending machines in Germany take only coins (with a few exceptions)

This might mean using notes elsewhere to make sure if you have enough change.

Interestingly I noticed in the Railjet buffet car that there is a discount for using contactless! Shame for the waiters etc

 

[riceuten]

I think my biggest fear is when you get a situation like Swish in Sweden where shops are increasingly not accepting cash in any form or another (and I speak as someone who only uses cash for my haircuts and even he accepts cards in a pinch) - and you can't have a Swish card unless you have Swedish ID and a Swedish bank account - and then firms decide not to accept MasterCard or Visa, or the EU equivalent, as may happen.

You then end up with a situation where if you are not local, you are limited to more expensive shops that accept foreign payment methods. I have a Singaporean bank account (don't ask) and they've just introduced a system, widespread in Asia called "Scan & Pay" where you scan a QR code and the money is automatically deducted from your bank account. Rather hampered in the UK by it not actually being accepted here...

 

[Lemmy99uk]

I’ve had several trips this year and there are still many places that do not take cards.
Restaurants in Leipzig, Berlin and Dusseldorf spring to mind, and these were all quite upmarket places in the town centre.
Even the station buffet/shop at Remagen was cash only.

 

[riceuten]

Left luggage lockers and station vending machines in Germany take only coins (with a few exceptions)

They do indeed, though the latter accept cards in France now. The former in Koeln Hbf usually have a queue of beggars asking you for money as you collect/load up.

This might mean using notes elsewhere to make sure if you have enough change.

Interestingly I noticed in the Railjet buffet car that there is a discount for using contactless! Shame for the waiters etc

I'm always intrigued as to why countries like Poland have overtaken Germany in this respect - PKP buffets accept cards without comment.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 24 May 2026 ==

I’ve had several trips this year and there are still many places that do not take cards.
Restaurants in Leipzig, Berlin and Dusseldorf spring to mind, and these were all quite upmarket places in the town centre.
Even the station buffet/shop at Remagen was cash only.

I often find the worst "offenders" in Germany are upmarket places - I had a similar experience in Frankfurt, but a marvellous little Bosnian cafe round the corner from the station took cards for a €21.50 bill without a murmur

 

[johncrossley]

I usually take around €150 out of a bank's cash machine with my debit card, and burn my way through that until it's gone and I do it again. I only expect to do the big (hotel) payments by CC, everything else I do by cash unless it's refused/impossible.

Would you carry a similar amount of cash when travelling around the UK? For most people that would be far too much. I don't see that it makes much difference if you are travelling within the UK or in the Eurozone. In both cases you will probably have banknotes and coins that could be used on a future trip.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 24 May 2026 ==

and a tax avoidance thing as well

To be pedantic, you probably mean "tax evasion". "Tax avoidance" is doing things which save tax legally (for example, saving in an ISA instead of a savings account outside of an ISA).

 

[The exile]

I'm always intrigued as to why countries like Poland have overtaken Germany in this respect - PKP buffets accept cards without comment.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 24 May 2026 ==

Leaving aside the value judgment inherent in the word “overtaken” there are likely to be several reasons.
1. The ex Iron curtain countries had a bit of a “tabula rasa” in lots of commercial areas, so didn’t have the baggage of an existing system that worked.
2. Germany, of course, did, but one that worked differently to ours, particularly for where cash wasn’t practical. Where we would have written a cheque and popped it in the post, they would have sent an instruction to the bank to transfer the money (if you banked with Postbank, you did that by post). Incidentally, I think that made the uptake of Internet banking in Germany faster than here as you were basically doing what they’d always done. However, it made it much less likely that Max Mustermann had a cheque guarantee card to slowly add payment functions to.
3. German culture was fiercely anti-credit…

 

[Mike395]

The only places I've had to use cash in the last couple of years are a few stalls at Frankfurt's Christmas Market (including some of the smaller, independently run bars) and a bus between Ringsheim and Europa-Park (though you can get tickets for the latter via the DB app amongst others, it was a bit of a surprise to not be able to pay by card on boarding!)

 

[doc7austin]

Well, I had a very weird experience about the new Snalltaget day train Hamburg-Stockholm.
The Krogen dining car (while still running within Germany) only accepted Swish (a Swedish payment system). International cars (Visa, Mastercard) and cash were not accepted. You should have seen the faces of all the non-Swedish travellers.
I believe it is not a good trend that each country creates its own payment system, which cannot be reasonable used by foreigners.

 

[riceuten]

Well, I had a very weird experience about the new Snalltaget day train Hamburg-Stockholm.
The Krogen dining car (while still running within Germany) only accepted Swish (a Swedish payment system). International cars (Visa, Mastercard) and cash were not accepted. You should have seen the faces of all the non-Swedish travellers.

I can believe it. Swish is something no non-Swede could ever obtain, unless they were resident and credit card uptake in Germany is much less than in the UK. One of the big issues previously was that you generally couldn't use your EC cards outside Germany and Austria. The growth of online booking and people travelling outside the Germanosphere and unable to use the EC cards to reserve places led to an uptick in demand for credit cards. Previously bank transfers were the order of the day for reservations - still is for "holiday homes" (FeWos).

I believe it is not a good trend that each country creates its own payment system, which cannot be reasonable used by foreigners.

Me neither - Norway has it's own system as well (Vipps) and Wero is the mobile payment service available in Belgium, France, Germany, and Luxembourg that one hopes does not say exclusive to these countries. France and Luxembourg are very card savvy.

 

[johncrossley]

Wero is the mobile payment service available in Belgium, France, Germany, and Luxembourg that one hopes does not say exclusive to these countries. France and Luxembourg are very card savvy.

The Dutch payments system iDEAL is also being rebranded as Wero. iDEAL was needed because Dutch Maestro bank cards didn't have card numbers that could be used in websites like Visa and Mastercard bank cards. Now Maestro is gone there is arguably no need for iDEAL/Wero. But in today's political climate where Europe needs to be more independent from the US, I see Europe having its own payment system independent from Visa and Mastercard as a worthwhile endeavour. It is backed by the European Commission and so hopefully it can include all SEPA members, including non-Eurozone countries like the UK.

 

[HantsExile]

I've just been in Berlin for 5 days. I'd assumed transactions would be mainly via cards but had taken some euros with me. In practice, while most places would accept cards, we found a strong preference for cash among e.g. taxi drivers, restaurants, cafes - they said it was because of the charges levied on them by the card companies. Clearly (as in the UK) hospitality and other businesses are feeling the pinch. As others have mentioned, ATMs can be helpful in such circumstances!

 

[doc7austin]

I've just been in Berlin for 5 days. I'd assumed transactions would be mainly via cards but had taken some euros with me. In practice, while most places would accept cards, we found a strong preference for cash among e.g. taxi drivers, restaurants, cafes - they said it was because of the charges levied on them by the card companies.

Nope ! The reason why cash is preferred is to save on taxes - a very common occurrence in Berlin. Did you always receive receipts ?

 

[DanielB]

Wero is the mobile payment service available in Belgium, France, Germany, and Luxembourg that one hopes does not say exclusive to these countries. France and Luxembourg are very card savvy.

Wero will also replace iDeal in the Netherlands in the near future. At the moment it's still in the transitional phase and labeled iDeal | Wero.

The Netherlands actually also has it's own system for micropayments, Tikkie, though that's much less advanced than the systems in the Nordics. Though the machines at stations where you can have the deposit on empty bottles and cans returned only work with Tikkie.

iDEAL was needed because Dutch Maestro bank cards didn't have card numbers that could be used in websites like Visa and Mastercard bank cards. Now Maestro is gone there is arguably no need for iDEAL/Wero.

Still having a Maestro bank card however... And even with iDeal | Wero there still is a different payment process for debit cards compared to credit cards, with the debit card transactions usually confirmed via the banking app.
The Netherlands was relatively early with the introduction of debit cards, almost at the same time as in the UK, so that may have led to the development of local systems instead of connecting to international systems. Already in the early 2000s there was a national system for micropayments in The Netherlands, though a bit inconvenient was that ING initially had another system than the other banks and it depended on the shop to which system they were connected. That may have accelerated the transition to cashless over here.

 

[johncrossley]

Still having a Maestro bank card however... And even with iDeal | Wero there still is a different payment process for debit cards compared to credit cards, with the debit card transactions usually confirmed via the banking app.

Presumably that is because you card isn't due for replacement yet, and when it is replaced, you will get a Mastercard. Can you ask for a Mastercard now, even if your Maestro card still works? Mastercard would be useful so you can use foreign websites that don't use iDEAL.

 

[DanielB]

Presumably that is because you card isn't due for replacement yet, and when it is replaced, you will get a Mastercard.

It was recently replaced, a little more than a year ago, when the end of Maestro was long known.

Can you ask for a Mastercard now, even if your Maestro card still works? Mastercard would be useful so you can use foreign websites that don't use iDEAL.

I can request my card to be replaced via the app of my bank, but not sure what I will get as a replacement then.
For using foreign websites I've got a Mastercard credit card already (costs a little extra in banking fees, but not that expensive) and before I had the creditcard using PayPal worked fine in most cases.

 

[johncrossley]

It was recently replaced, a little more than a year ago, when the end of Maestro was long known.

Sounds like Maestro will have to be supported for years to come. Bunq stopped issuing Maestro cards nearly two years ago

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Since August 30, 2024, we no longer offer Maestro Cards but Mastercard Debit Cards instead. These cards have wider acceptance worldwide, and they’re also suited for online payments.