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Why Germans pay cash for almost everything

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Re: Why Germans pay cash for almost everything

#121

Post by icebraining »

discombobulate wrote: post #22
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…

Did you learn about the inflation @ school? In the UK we weren't taught about the Weimar Republic's hyperinflation (in education up to 16 y/o). My friend who did history @ a more advanced level was, however.

Really? It's standard in Portugal, as part of the context of WWII. My textbook even had a picture of people with a pile of bills.

Re: Why Germans pay cash for almost everything

#122

Post by fleg »

pantalaimon wrote: post #111
codegeek wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an american, I find it strange that cash is faster. Most people who pay cash need to wait to get the change back unless they know the total beforehand and happen to have exact change. In the US, credit card machines are very fast even the chip enabled ones. Cash workflow: - Cashier tells you the total amount - You look in your wallet/purse - You spend time counting exact change if you do have it - If not, you take…

> Credit card workflow: > - Cashier tells you the total amount > - You look in your wallet/purse > - You swipe card/insert in chip reader > - Done You forgot the part where you have to enter you PIN and wait for the transaction to go through, or sign the receipt.

Contactless payments don't need PIN (up to some small but comfortable amount) and go through almost instantly.

Re: Why Germans pay cash for almost everything

#123

Post by Symbiote »

discombobulate wrote: post #22
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…

Did you learn about the inflation @ school? In the UK we weren't taught about the Weimar Republic's hyperinflation (in education up to 16 y/o). My friend who did history @ a more advanced level was, however.

It's part of the GCSE curriculum, which is examined at age 16.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/history/mwh/german...

(Please write "at".)

Re: Why Germans pay cash for almost everything

#124

Post by kekub »

Symbiote wrote: post #96
_Codemonkeyism wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a German a.) I mostly pay cash because it's faster b.) some shops that can afford it only have cash payments to save on CC costs Not because of inflation or because something happend 100y ago.

Are contactless terminals widespread in Germany? On a short trip last month, I surprised a couple of merchants by paying contactlessly with my foreign (EU) card. That's almost always faster than paying by cash, since there's no need to count the money or make change. The exception is when the cost is €20, and I can hand over a single note.

We have them in all major brand stores, all gas stations as well as all big supermarkets. Depending on where you are people might not have seen wireless terminal usage (especially if you are far away from a bigger city). A cashier once tried to force me to sign the bill when I payed contactless without a pin or signature (which is possible in germany if the total is below 25-30€).

Re: Why Germans pay cash for almost everything

#125

Post by usrusr »

petard wrote: post #45
m_mueller wrote: post #33

As a Swiss German I think the currency stability argument is moot. Swiss Frank is one of the most stable currencies available and we still have a similar attitude to cash as Germans. IMO it's mainly due to the following reasons: 1) CC is slow, at least in Switzerland. Like in Germany, efficiency is baked into the culture - people hate to wait on someone paying his chocolate bar with credit card. It's also not rare fo…

on 1) Recent touch-based CC terminals are really fast, and often don't require a PIN if the amount is less than 10€. I've stopped using cash since with these terminals CC are faster than paying in cash.

Once a certain cultural trait is established, inertia can keep it alive for a long time after the original reason is gone.

As a cash-paying German I think that the main appeal to me is that cash payments are a process you can easily understand in its entirety, whereas everything else comes with an infinite supply of unknowns big and small. Sure, it's easy to grasp the basic and get adequate working knowledge, but there will always be lines in the fine print, lines in the code and lines in the physical specs of the hardware that you never read and even if you did you may not have understood correctly. You don't have to worry about these things, but you could, and that seems to be enough for many to stick to what they know.

Also, not paying cash feels lazy, some stereotypes might apply. (Now I wonder about the possibility of a correlation between cash and the protestant/catholic divide still present as a cultural shadow of the past even amongst decidedly atheist Germans - payment customs in the nordics suggest otherwise though)

Re: Why Germans pay cash for almost everything

#126

Post by mrec »

cabaalis wrote: post #93
alextheparrot wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both Germany and the US insure savings accounts for 6 figure amounts, meaning bankruptcy is not a major concern for most people.

This may be so. I often wonder though if this "disaster recovery plan" has been tested with any bank of significant size. Maybe that's where the whole too-big-to-fail thing comes in.

Depends what you consider significant. The UK's Financial Services Compensation Scheme, which handles depositor protection, paid out over 26 billion pounds in the 2006-2011 period.

At the same time, though, the govt did push Lloyds TSB to take over HBOS in 2008 rather than let the latter fail.

Re: Why Germans pay cash for almost everything

#127

Post by theEXTORTCIST »

BartSaM wrote: post #61
egeozcan wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Debit card is pretty equivalent to cash, though. When my friends and family from my hometown (Istanbul) visit me the first time, they are usually quite shocked that most shops here do not accept credit cards at all. In Turkey (a place I call micro-USA), many credit cards automatically divide the payments for some transactions to 3+ months, whereas here in Germany, there's always some bureaucracy involved, even if you…

Not really. Debit cards are debit cards, not cash. You are comparing CC to DC as far as I can tell, but they are completely different products. There is a huge difference between having currency in your hand or use a medium to access money held by the private organization that can go bankrupt (and this happens much more often than, for example, governments with their currencies).

Some relevant info: In the USA average consumers are protected by the FDIC for the balances of their deposits up to $250,000. A large number of banks have consumer liability limits in place for protection from fraudulent charges on their credit cards.

https://www.fdic.gov/consumers/banking/facts/

Re: Why Germans pay cash for almost everything

#128

Post by aianus »

lower wrote: post #116
lima wrote: post #8

As a German, I disagree. I've had many discussions about the upcoming NFC payment options and the main argument was privacy.

I (German) have never used NFC payments and was curious how that would work with my bank. Turns out they want me to install an app on my phone for this, which is definitely not going to happen.

We just tap our credit cards against the terminal in Canada. No PIN, no signature, way faster than cash.

Re: Why Germans pay cash for almost everything

#129

Post by tehabe »

On the other side, invoices are paid with wire transfers or even direct deposit entries. I haven't seen many checks since the Eurocheck lost its guaranteed value of DEM 400.

Personally I think cash is convenient. I also use debit card and credit card but somehow cash is the most convenient was of payment in a store.

Re: Why Germans pay cash for almost everything

#130

Post by Jommi »

_Codemonkeyism wrote: post #81
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…

As a German a.) I mostly pay cash because it's faster b.) some shops that can afford it only have cash payments to save on CC costs Not because of inflation or because something happend 100y ago.

Don't you guys have paywave for under 25e purchases? Its literally 5 seconds to pay for anything. Literally no one uses cash in Helsinki. I can even use my phone's NFC as a payment option.
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