>A lot of German and Austrian small business owners see no good reason to pay the credit card companies the ~3% fee when most of their customers are perfectly h

>A lot of German and Austrian small business owners see no good reason to pay the credit card companies the ~3% fee when most of their customers are perfectly happy to settle a 500 EUR bill in cash. Well, and mostly to avoid paying taxes. Card acceptance cost is down to under 1% since last year and often depositing money costs more. There is no requirement for proper cash registers here in Germany, so card acceptance remains low in small businesses.