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Cash is much more popular however another big factor is that credit cards aren't really a thing. Instead Germany has its own system of EC cards which are direct
by DasIch 10y ago
Cash is much more popular however another big factor is that credit cards aren't really a thing. Instead Germany has its own system of EC cards which are directly tied to your bank account (which most people get as a child here) and work more like debit cards.
The only reason to have a credit card as a German is for buying this outside of Germany.
- elcapitan 10y agoAnd for buying stuff on the internet - I use it more for that than when travelling.
- justanton 10y agoI live in Germany, and I always wondered: how Germans buy online and/or book hotels/tickets online, if most of them don't have credit cards and only have this EC-Karte?
- elcapitan 10y agoI have a credit card for that, but if I have the option, I always use Paypal. There are often other payment options though, like "Sofortüberweisung", paying on account or SEPA bank transfers (the last two more typically for b2b though).
- ThePadawan 10y agoThis differs quite a big on the size of the respective business (of sales). Amazon.de e.g. offers the choice of * credit card (as internationally) * direct withdrawal (meaning you give them your bank account details and they withdraw the amount directly - sort of sketchy from the customer's point of view, but no different from credit cards - if anything goes awry, you just challenge the charge directly with the bank instead of the card issuer) * bill-based (generally only for small amounts or trusted customers - might involve a "credit score" check from Schufa (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schufa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schufa) to deter fraud)
- izolate 10y agoI've just moved to Netherlands and noticed this. Cash & Maestro (Debit) cards are the norm here. Credit cards aren't any more popular in the UK, but our debit cards tend to be Visa/Mastercard and we use them the same way. I think mainland Europe has some catching up to do to London as far as being a cashless society :)
- allendoerfer 10y agoDo we really need to put Visa/Mastercard in front of every transaction if we already have model working exactly the same way from a customers point of view? I would say the opposite is true: If you need Visa/Mastercard, your country's banking system is broken. Sending cheques via physical mail is something nobody would even think of over here. I think I have never even seen one.