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Why Germans pay cash for almost everything

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Re: Why Germans pay cash for almost everything

#421

Post by frenchy »

kbeckmann wrote: post #417
spiznnx wrote: post #408

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Because credit card companies offer incentives to sign up for their cards. A lot of people here regularly carry a lot of debt on their cards, and the credit card companies know if they give those users more cards to juggle around their debt on, they can leach more money from them.

For financially responsible people, that means you can sometimes get a few freebees if you're willing to deal with the hassle.

I don't know what it's like in most other places, but debt is a weird part of culture here.

Re: Why Germans pay cash for almost everything

#422

Post by chrisper »

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.

There are two different ways of NFC payment. One is through NFC of your phone and another one is NFC directly in the card.

Re: Why Germans pay cash for almost everything

#423

Post by CrystalGamma »

Samuray wrote: post #312

First, while it's true that the German "Schulden" is related to "Schuld", it's also true that one of the definitions of "debt" is "sin". I don't know if many anthropologists really have wasted much time thinking about this one, but it seems pretty irrelevant to me. Second, the German banking system is actually very modern. While the Americans and British are still sending cheques through the post, Germans are regular…

Oh I would definitely say that debt is looked down upon in Germany. I would say I have generally owed at most a single (monetary) debt at a given time in my life (or two if you count my employer paying me mid-month as a credit of half a month), because debtlessness is freedom (cue Anastacia's Paid My Dues ).

Re: Why Germans pay cash for almost everything

#424

Post by [deleted] »

Symbiote wrote: post #320
davemp wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've found cash to be much faster and more pleasent than card for eating out. - Waiter brings check - Leave cost + tip - Leave If you pay with card that's an extra trip from the waiter which can take a pretty long time.

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.

[deleted]

Re: Why Germans pay cash for almost everything

#425

Post by larrysalibra »

codegeek wrote: post #94
_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.

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…

As an American living in Hong Kong:

Cash can be faster because you do know the total before hand since the price on the menu/price tag is what you pay. This is because there is no sales tax or tipping. Buying 3 items at HK$12 each? Your total is HK$36. If there's a queue I usually have my exact change ready before I'm to the front.

In the US, you can rarely tell how much you'll pay since sales tax varies by county or sometimes by city.

A side effect of this is weird totals like $23.76 that result in lots of hard to spend small change which also disincentivizes cash use.

Re: Why Germans pay cash for almost everything

#426

Post by cosmie »

sp332 wrote: post #292
rubicon33 wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Credit cards don't require a PIN. Just get a credit card and pay it off every month. Free points!

America has much higher "rewards" than anywhere else. The reward money comes straight out of merchant fees.

The merchant fees do fund a substantial portion of the rewards programs for cards.

However, there's a pretty large market for credit/debit card transaction data. Even Google purchases it[1]. Both your credit card company and the payment processors/networks themselves are able to monetize this data quite effectively. And the more complete people's transaction histories get the more effective this data becomes for different uses and the more the companies can charge for it.

Depending on the demographic a particular card is able to capture, the transaction history may be valuable enough to run the rewards program at a loss or break even when looked at purely from the merchant fees recouped.

[1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2017/05/23...

Re: Why Germans pay cash for almost everything

#427

Post by jshevek »

true_religion wrote: post #401
george_kaplan wrote: post #386

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I'd be interested in seeing stats on social media adoption in Germany, because my hypothesis is that they lag the rest of the world. Not only do they lag in general, but I also remember a study which showed that in Germany higher education levels are associated with significantly less social media use, while it's quite the opposite in the rest of the world.

That's true. The fastest growing social network within German universities was an anonymous one. This is opposed to the USA, where Facebook was the fastest growing network based on the ideal of knowing exactly what classes Y person on your campus went to.

Does that social network still exist, and can you share its name please?

Re: Why Germans pay cash for almost everything

#428

Post by ApolloFortyNine »

zip1234 wrote: post #152
conanbatt wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In america prices are always cent-specific (2.85, 3.78). Berlin, much like Argentina (cash strong markets) have rounded prices for everything, its actually much faster. What ist errible is the waste of time going to an atm frequently, or handling lots of petty coins or bills. Cards are definitely more convenient.

In Germany the price advertised is the price paid. Not so in America due to taxes and fees.

Germany has the VAT, they just require that vendors hide it from the consumer.

Re: Why Germans pay cash for almost everything

#429

Post by jshevek »

romwell wrote: post #291
_Codemonkeyism wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cash workflow: - Cashier tells you the total amount - I get a 10 EUR note from my trouser pocket - Cashier gives back money - I put money in trouser pocket - Done - Home: I put all spare money in a large glass jar Credit card workflow: - Cashier tells you the total amount - You look in your wallet/purse - You swipe card/insert in chip reader - You insert PIN number - You shield your PIN entrie from the people next to…

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 used to agree regarding pin vs sign, until reading on here today how much slower European systems seem to be.

Re: Why Germans pay cash for almost everything

#430

Post by tracker1 »

_Codemonkeyism wrote: post #261
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…

Cash workflow: - Cashier tells you the total amount - I get a 10 EUR note from my trouser pocket - Cashier gives back money - I put money in trouser pocket - Done - Home: I put all spare money in a large glass jar Credit card workflow: - Cashier tells you the total amount - You look in your wallet/purse - You swipe card/insert in chip reader - You insert PIN number - You shield your PIN entrie from the people next to…

- You get asked if you want cash back

- You get asked if you want to donate to (charity/cause)

...

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