For balance and completeness, I was in Munich last week.  I didn’t spend much, but the taxi from the airport took amex (with a sigh), the hotel took amex, the restaurant took amex, the beergarten at the lake said no cards for under 20 euros, but took visa debit contactless for 4.50, when I said it was that or nothing.  The train/untergrund machines took amex.

I moved to contactless where possible when it came in, but earlier this year I applied for my first mortgage and had to send the lender statements detailing every purhcase I’d made. No problem getting a mortgage and I have nothing to hide, but I like the idea that there’s no record of what I’m spending. If nothing else, it makes me feel a tiny bit like a secret agent every time I buy a coffee/beer/whatever.

Just back from Berlin, and came across quite a few places that were Nur Bargeld; some independent coffee shops and smaller shops, but also a couple of higher end restaurants – utter pain in the arse.

Oh and the insistance on taking the card from you to complete the contactless transaction rather then pass you over the terminal is a bit weird – made me wonder a couple of times if it was being skimmed/cloned.

Completely different to recent experiences in Italy, Spain, Austria and Portugal.

We had issues with cards following a breakdown last year. ADAC truck could only accept cash, and a main car dealer only took Eurocard or Cirrus. Mastercard, Visa and Visa debit were useless. (requiring two trips to the ATM as we never imagined the cc would be an issue in the garage).

We had plenty of cash, but it was mostly scandi money as we were just passing through Germany.