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Why Germans pay cash for almost everything

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Re: Why Germans pay cash for almost everything

#411

Post by samastur »

y4mi wrote: post #381
majewsky wrote: post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I pay with cash and the change would be below 5 cents, I usually say "Stimmt so" (i.e. "keep the change") and just leave. If I forget and the cashier puts change on the counter, I just pick the golden and silver coins and leave the rest lying there. I don't remember any unfriendly looks. But then again, I'm German, so I probably just didn't notice the looks. :)

Oh youll them if you paid attention. The cashier's get into trouble if they have an incorrect amount of money in the counter and you're essentially telling them you're too good to bother putting the coins into the donations box sitting centimeters next to you. If that isnt rude, I don't know what is. This only applies to big discounters thought. The smallish shops and bakers don't mind at all.

To be honest I didn't see donations box nearby, but I would not bet on not being there either. If there was, I would certainly put coins there.

Re: Why Germans pay cash for almost everything

#413

Post by eric_h »

mod wrote: post #390
Symbiote wrote: post #320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In countries where paying by card is common, the waiter will assume this and bring the terminal. You can make it explicit, by having a card visible when you ask for the bill.

Speaking for America, where it's common to pay by card, I have never had a waiter bring a terminal to the table. They take your card away and bring back a card receipt for you to sign & leave a tip on.

The mobile card readers are very uncommon in the US. In Canada, they're everywhere.

Re: Why Germans pay cash for almost everything

#414

Post by briandear »

Pxtl wrote: post #366
omni wrote: post #315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That 2.5% goes straight to the credit card companies, even if you pay cash! You're going to have to explain how this makes any sense at all

CC company charges 2.5% of overhead on all CC-based purchases. Vendor agreement prohibits passing that markup over to customers, so instead the vendor must pass that cost onto everybody . The net effect is that cash payers are subsidizing the credit card companies. To encourage this arrangement, the CC companies offer a kickback to the people who use the card, like 1% in cash back or "points" or whatever. This create…

Actually in France where I have a tiny hotel, our fee is 1.5%. High volume merchants can negotiate even lower rates. There is also a savings for us by encouraging credit cards. Cash is a pain in the ass in France because you have to go to a bank to deposit it and we are 30 minutes from the nearest bank.

Then there is security. If our guests paid us all in cash, I now have the very real problem of having thousands of euros in cash unless I want to waste an hour of my time going to a bank all the time. Then also in France, there is a law preventing cash purchases over €1000.

There is also a guest security issue – why would you want guests to be carrying hundreds of euros in cash when they travel?

For businesses, cash handling costs money too. There is a time cost, there is a security cost as well. Rarely does an employee skim money from the credit cards, but in shops it happens all the time.

Re: Why Germans pay cash for almost everything

#415

Post by adventured »

Perseids wrote: post #403
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…

I've talked to an Aldi employee as of late and he said Aldi is proud to now have the fastest Card processing of all the German stores (within the regulatory limits: you have to put in your PIN or sign the receipts except for those fancy/scary NFC chips) and the Cash workflow is still faster, according to their own statistics. Consider that I already look into my purse while standing in line to get an overview of my a…

> This speeds up the process considerable compared to the – likely more cash-inexperienced if I follow your description – American cashiers.

That doesn't make sense as a premise. The US wasn't lacking in experienced cashiers 15-20 years ago when cash was still king, nor today. There was a decade or more of time where the US rapidly transitioned from cash-heavy in stores over to card-heavy, the cards were universally faster unless the store ran a behind-the-counter swipe machine that the cashier had to use. The premise would have to be that in an economy with a super high GDP that has an extremely large service sector, America has especially slow cashiers everywhere (for no apparent reason given the extraordinary economic output overall). It's more than a reach.

Re: Why Germans pay cash for almost everything

#416

Post by adventured »

alasdair_ wrote: post #374
gingerlime wrote: post #339

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm surprised it's not mentioned on other comments, but in Japan, the whole thing is automated. The cashier feeds the cash notes / coins into a machine, and the machine spits out the exact change. It's super-fast, even when the cashier counts your change in front of your eyes, and lays it out neatly onto a tray[0]. I wonder how come these types of machines aren't more popular in other countries. [0] sounds like some…

This happens in grocery stores in the US but many other stores don't have enough volume to bother.

That has turned out to be the comedy of the cash systems in the US. As I noticed the cash readers / auto change makers being installed in a lot of locations, it was just in time to rarely be used due to the shift to everyone using cards.

Re: Why Germans pay cash for almost everything

#417

Post by kbeckmann »

spiznnx wrote: post #408
romwell wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Note for the American readers: in the glorious lands across the ocean, chip cards of all kinds use a PIN instead of a signature, which makes way more sense anyway. Chip & sign is an American abomination.

I love signature, because I play the credit card sign up game. Hard to remember PINs when you open a card a month. Also because if my card gets stolen, I'm assured that my pin wasn't lifted by camera or keypad shim. The signature will be not present or not mine on fraudulent transactions, so I can tell my card issuer to fix it and not worry about them telling me I had "poor PIN security" or that it was somehow my fau…

As a non-american I have to ask: why sign up for new credit cards all the time?

Re: Why Germans pay cash for almost everything

#418

Post by adventured »

mod wrote: post #390
Symbiote wrote: post #320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In countries where paying by card is common, the waiter will assume this and bring the terminal. You can make it explicit, by having a card visible when you ask for the bill.

Speaking for America, where it's common to pay by card, I have never had a waiter bring a terminal to the table. They take your card away and bring back a card receipt for you to sign & leave a tip on.

Numerous large restaurant chains in the US (eg Olive Garden) have installed small interactive screens at every table that act as a terminal, that do other things including take orders. When your meal is finished you pay by card at the machine and leave (it prints your receipt as well). I would expect this premise to essentially spread everywhere among non-fast-food chains.

Re: Why Germans pay cash for almost everything

#419

Post by chrisper »

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…

CC is slow? I can nearly pay everywhere with Visa NFC. Don't see how that is slow. Maybe it is just me after having lived in the US where CC is really slow.

In fact, it is way faster than me trying to find the right coins for the chocolate bar.

Re: Why Germans pay cash for almost everything

#420

Post by CrystalGamma »

miguelrochefort wrote: post #237
lower wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> Turns out they want me to install an app on my phone for this, which is definitely not going to happen. Why not?

In my case, it would be that I trust my phone much less than a single-purpose card.
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