Regarding payment methods, Germany is undergoing a big transition, it used to be mainly cash, but in recent years, especially during and post pandemic, that switched to a large proportion of the population, and shops, switching to using debit cards. They now account for over 50% of all transactions.
According to the Bundesbank, 99% of the adult population has a debit card, the number of people with a credit card rose from 38% to 58% in 2020, during the pandemic, but has sunken again to 52% and only around 8% of people have a payment card (E.g. local supermarket, attached to their app).
Interestingly, things like Wero and Klarna are used more often than credit cards in Germany (8% compared to 5% of all transactions).
Most shops accept debit cards and cash, most also accept Apple Pay and Google Pay, but often only in combination with a debit card. Establishments accepting a credit card are still a minority, and most in the hospitality demographic (hotels, larger restaurants and bars in big cities), and Aldi und Lidl. Outside of big cities, the chances of finding somewhere that accepts credit cards is very low.
My wife has a Visa Debit card, and whilst nearly everywhere accepts Maestro or EC (I assume CE in France) cards, a lot of places still don’t accept Visa Debit, although VD is supposed to slowly replace Maestro over the coming years. In fact, the bank she uses has started offering a free girocard for the first 6 months on new accounts, because not everywhere will accept the Visa Debit.
One of the big differences between the US and the UK, for example, compared to Germany is that the German credit card is directly linked to the bank account and is generally settled to 100% at the end of the month, if you current account doesn’t have enough money to cover the credit card, the bank will still pay off the 100% of the card and you drop into your over draught. This means that a credit card is only useful for payments, where you will have the money available by the end of the month - E.g. company trips, were you submit your expenses and get the money reimbursed into your bank account.
I do use the credit card for Amazon, but for most other places, I prefer to pay on Invoice - I get the goods and the invoice and if I keep the goods, I transfer the money electronically to the seller. Some places also accept direct transfers from bank accounts as well.
You don’t get bonus points, you don’t get payment protection etc. with most credit cards here, either, so there is little to no incentive to use them.
When I was in the UK, I used my cards a lot, but mainly because I was staying in hotels a lot and traveling a lot, so I needed to pay thousands in hotel bills, meals, flights or fuel every month. Having the card available and getting my expenses reimbursed in time to pay off the card was very helpful, there is no way I could have paid 4-5K a month out of my current account for those expenses.
Here in Germany, I don’t travel as much on business, or I don’t need to stay in a hotel often, if I do, so the need for a credit card isn’t so great. The only thing I bought on credit in the last 20 years, apart from our house, was an iPhone 13 Pro, because I couldn’t get the money transferred from the UK to Germany in time to cover the payment and Apple was offering a very good payment deal.
I was brought up in the UK to not go into debt. The only things acceptable for getting a credit were a car to get me to work and a house. When I switched from a rented TV to buying my own TV, I went 6 months without a TV to save up for a new one - in fact, I did buy it on credit, in the end, because the shop offered 0% finance, so I left the money saved for the TV in the bank, earning interest.
That is probably one of the reasons I feel so at home in Germany, credit is still a dirty word for most people over here, again, only a house credit is acceptable, although vehicle leasing has seen a sharp increase in the last few years.
Big Tech getting dragged to court over addictive social media design (finally, right?)
NASA’s Artemis II mission is actually happening — plus some GPS software hiccups that are… concerning
The military is using Xbox controllers for weapons systems (I can’t make this up)
Iranian cyberattacks hitting AWS and what that means for all of us
Right-to-repair battles heating up, plus schools are getting real tired of Chromebooks
