Question for Lutz re acceptance of Credit Cards

[DavidKlyne]

Lutz

Prompted by Keith's comment in another thread you might be in the best position to answer this but what is the general state of play now in Germany re the acceptance of credit/debit cards. I am sure I have use credit cards on the autobahns but have had problems in small filling stations and small supermarkets. Also do you know the current situation in Austria?

Thanks

David

 

[Lutz]

Credit cards are becoming increasingly less widely accepted in Germany although I have not found many petrol stations, other than small ones off the main roads, that do not accept them. (I have a Lidl credit card that offers 5% discount on all purchases of petrol and diesel, regardless where bought, and I use that all the time, even in the UK). However, credit cards are starting to disappear from general use for shopping except in large department stores and big chain supermarkets.

With ever more people opening accounts with banks that only operate over the internet, EC debit cards are replacing both credit cards and cash in Germany. In fact, they are more widely accepted than credit cards ever were. I think that UK bank cards bearing the Maestro symbol should work although I'd have to check to make sure.

 

[DavidKlyne]

Lutz

Thanks for the reply, informative as always. Interesting that Germany seems to be going the opposite way to the rest of the world! I do have a debit card with the Maestro symbol but even when I had a card with the EU symbol on I had trouble having it accepted in shops that displayed the EU sign! Looks like I will have to carry more cash! Just out of interest why do they dislike credit cards so much? What do they use when they buy on the internet? Perhaps credit cards don't have the same amount of protection as they do here in the UK.

David

 

[KeithM]

David,

Without a better insight into the German psyche, I cannot give an answer as to why Germany is more reluctant to accept credit cards. Having lived in Germany in the '70s and '80s, it was very noticeable how slow the uptake of credit card acceptance by retail businesses was. In the '70s one either used cash or a Eurocheque (for which there could be a considerable cost). For sure, at Autobahn filling stations, nowadays credit cards will be accepted and also at most filling stations run by the big multinational oil companies.

As I wrote earlier, where one really does need cash is at shops, camp-sites and a lot of the supermarket chains. Lets face it, even in the UK, Lidl and Aldi will only accept cash or debit card. We tried our bank debit card, which has the Maestro symbol, in German supermarkets without success. In Germany, cash (or an EC debit card) is king!

Keith (M)

 

[MalcolmL]

Lidl appear to have recently changed their policy re credit cards as our local store now accepts them. I wonder if they also accept them on the continent?

 

[Lutz]

Although I have a credit card issued by Lidl, they do not accept credit cards for purchases in their supermarkets in Germany (yet). However, other big German supermarket chains such as Toom, Real, and Rewe do.

The reason why credit cards are going out of fashion in Germany is because the shopkeepers were being charged too much commission by the credit card companies whereas the use of EC cards only costs them (and the customer) nothing. In fact, quite a few Germans don't carry any cash but pay for everything with their EC-card, especially if they have their account with an internet bank which doesn't have any branch offices.

 

[Lutz]

ps: Cheques have been abolished completely in Germany (and in a number of other European countries).