Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why Germans pay cash for almost everything

qz.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 497 posts

Re: Why Germans pay cash for almost everything

#11

Post by cknight »

YSFEJ4SWJUVU6 wrote: post #4

It might be worth mentioning, but the payment preference goes both ways. Germans' preference for cash payments sometimes means or meant that payment options common elsewhere might not be available. This caught me out at a McDonald's in Berlin that accepted neither Visa nor MasterCard earlier this decade. Even bigger brands adapt to local culture, it seems.

I've been able to witness the change over the last 5 years in Germany. While gradual, it has been quite noticeable to see more plastic options become available, and my ATM visits have become less frequent.

It's still a far cry from home (Australia) where I hadn't needed cash on hand in quite a long time, but it in terms of convenience it's not a big deal. it certainly beats France where cheques are still in extremely frequent use vs. wire transfers.

Re: Why Germans pay cash for almost everything

#12

Post by aapjesverkoper »

YSFEJ4SWJUVU6 wrote: post #4

It might be worth mentioning, but the payment preference goes both ways. Germans' preference for cash payments sometimes means or meant that payment options common elsewhere might not be available. This caught me out at a McDonald's in Berlin that accepted neither Visa nor MasterCard earlier this decade. Even bigger brands adapt to local culture, it seems.

This is still the case in the Netherlands. Most stores don't accept credit cards, debit cards are prevalent here.

Re: Why Germans pay cash for almost everything

#14

Post by arvidkahl »

Most brick & mortar stores in Germany will not offer debit card payments under 10 Euros, since the fees they have to pay are extremely high. Most clerks will frown upon small card payments for that reason, and sometimes outright decline the payment, even if that means no purchase happening.

Credit cards are rarely accepted in any store but larger ones in malls. Most Germans, and that was pretty spot-on in the article, don't even have a credit card. You can imagine how detrimental that is to building a German SaaS business. Stripe and the like have started going into the ELV market, which is pretty much a direct debit payment - and you need to pass quite a few restrictions to even be allowed to offer ELV as a vendor.

All in all, it is both a consumer, banking and a merchant issue, and it severely limits the German E-Commerce landscape in terms of payment solutions. Paypal has taken over German online payments, since it can be linked with a bank account. Credit cards? Not so much.

Re: Why Germans pay cash for almost everything

#16

Post by ijafri »

I have experimented with it too, and you may as well, leave your credit cards at home, and only use 'Cash' ... you will think twice before paying for $100 consumer item ... whereas using Credit Card, you barely had noticed the price tag .... so bottom line is, Yes, paying through Cash can 'significantly' cut your expenses on 'extravagant spendings'.

Re: Why Germans pay cash for almost everything

#17

Post by swah »

Spooky23 wrote: post #6

They're smart. I went all cash a few months ago for everything except hotels and rental cars. It's very liberating. Credit cards give you 3-5% incentives to spend because you spend more. Since going all cash, we spend in average 15% less.

Here in Brazil most places prefer debit or credit card and always have a hard time finding change.

Money is mostly for buying stuff on the street (bottled water, papers).

Re: Why Germans pay cash for almost everything

#18

Post by laumars »

mtmail wrote: post #2

According to https://www.cashforless.de/ec_cash_info/Fakten_zur_Kartenzah... methods for payments in stores 2011 was 57% cash, 5.3% credit card, 33% debit card ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_cash ). > "of course, [the Germans] attitudes toward currency must owe something to Germany’s tumultuous monetary history. During the Weimar-era hyperinflation that peaked in 1923 [...]" > "the German tendency to sett…

Your economy is much more stable than mine in the UK yet anecdotally I've observed we use cards to pay for everything. Even silly little things that only cost a couple of £.

In fact it is rare that I ever carry cash. The same is true for a fair number of my friends and family as well.

Re: Why Germans pay cash for almost everything

#19

Post by revelation »

cocoa19 wrote: post #13

In America, I would prefer to use a debit card or cash, but many credit card issuers offer 1%-3% cash back, meaning, they give back 1%-3% of the purchases you make. That amount adds up over time.

Because you are paying much more in transaction fees. In the EU, transaction fees are capped at <<1% so there are no silly cash-back programs.

Re: Why Germans pay cash for almost everything

#20

Post by zmk_ »

aapjesverkoper wrote: post #12
YSFEJ4SWJUVU6 wrote: post #4

It might be worth mentioning, but the payment preference goes both ways. Germans' preference for cash payments sometimes means or meant that payment options common elsewhere might not be available. This caught me out at a McDonald's in Berlin that accepted neither Visa nor MasterCard earlier this decade. Even bigger brands adapt to local culture, it seems.

This is still the case in the Netherlands. Most stores don't accept credit cards, debit cards are prevalent here.

But at the same time, you have plenty of places where you cannot pay with cash.
Post reply on HN