Saw a TikTok the other day about how this person was shocked how in the US we just tap our credit cards to pay for things. The only place in the US that doesn’t have at all is Walmart and that is just because they are Walmart. I don’t ever use my chip unless the tap doesn’t work.
Edit: now I’m interested in how much each country uses cash after reading the comments haha. I rarely use cash outside of bars and it seems like it’s a stereotype to use cash in the US.
Edit: It appears that [Eastern Europe](https://merchantmachine.co.uk/most-reliant-on-cash/) relies on cash more than any other country in the world. The tiktoker was from Eastern Europe after checking so it makes sense.
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I can’t remember the last time I actually put my card into the machine.
The US was a few years behind most of Europe when it came to contact less card payments by all accounts (2007 in the UK, 2014 in the US from a quick search).
Tapping cards?!?!
No, it’s all about Apple/Google Pay. I can’t remember the last time I used my physical card to make a purchase. I’ll often not even bother taking my wallet with me, my Apple Watch is all I need.
It varies alot from country to country.
Contactless card- and phone payment is preferred in most of scandinavia.
Whenever I travel to central or southern europe it seems less common in some places.
In Switzerland contactless card payment is really common and nearly every shop uses it. If the shop doesn’t accept it, it most likely will not accept card at all, which happens in either really small or supposed money laundering shops.
Another popular methode is by paying by phone either by google/apple pay (less common) or Twint (more common, a Switzerland exclusive solution).
All credit cards have the NFC radio built in. By default I have a limit of 25 euros for such purchases. It can be adjusted or the function disabled entirely in the control panel of the bank account. I can use it in most shops with a card terminal.
I usually still put my card in the machine even though that’s often not necessary. Force of habit that’s difficult to break. True contactless payments are limited to 25 euro though. Above that you have to enter your pin anyway.
Belgians also still use a lot of cash. Presumably a lot of dirty money is still going around. Up until very recently (July 1st of this year) stores weren’t even required to offer an electronic payment option at all.
Pretty common. Basicly every place that allows non cash payments has the contactless option.
Everyone does that in Denmark. For us the shock is the reverse, how much you still use cash.
Depends on the country. Remember, if US states have differences between them, European countries have even more. .
In Portugal contactless became more of a thing with the pandemic. Before 2019 less than 10% of payments were done this way, in 2021 it grew to 40%.
Common as muck. We’ve had it for ages. It’s limited up to €50 (used to be €20 but they raised it for covid). After that you need to put in your pin.
Yes, very popular. I’m a big fan of cash, but if I’m paying with card, it’s nearly always contactless.
Pretty much the standard for a looooong time now, if there’s the option to pay via card (and only some small shops or more typically one-man service providers don’t have the machine), it’s also with the contactless option. And everyone uses it unless there’s some problem with the connection. It’s pretty old news. Now phone/watch payments grow in popularity.
It’s more common here than in the US. Europe beraly use cash, and here in Norway cash is almost not used at all.
That means that you can use the card almost anywhere (litteraly), i.e you can tap anywhere.
Seems to be the default method nowadays but for older folk or those who like to cling to cash.
I had to put my card into the device only twice, both times to activate it with the first time PIN usage. I’ve been using Apple Pay ever since.
In Poland people either pay with card contactless or with cash. Only place where I would insert my card is ATM.
Did you consider this TikTok video being made for the purpose of trolling/joking….? Because I really could see this being the case.
It actually was the other way around. Contactless has been everywhere in Spain for the past 10 years or so, at the time my American friends either didn’t know what it was or it wasn’t available for them yet.
…yeah, that’s how old people pay, youth usually just uses phones- from my experience
A few years ago, my dad had met an American who attempted to pay with a check in Poland (xD) I was under impression that Americans aren’t quite as advanced when it comes to cashless payments, as Europeans/Poles. The fact, that even some big supermarkets won’t allow you to pay with a card only confirms it, just wow.
Germany is really lacking behind, but it got a lot better in the pandemic. Places like bakeries, restaurants, and stalls on fairs didn’t have any electronic payment option. I can’t remember the last time I had to insert my card anywhere. Some places still require a signature or pin number when you use the card either normally or contactless.
It is way more common in Europe than the US and has been here a lot longer. I haven’t carried cash for years. It is usually Americans who get the shock when they come over here. There are places in London that positively will NOT accept cash and cheques are a thing of the past.
When I went to Chicago recently, I proffered my card in an Airport restaurant and the waiter ***took my card away!*** If a waiter walked off with my card in this country I’d grab him and ask what the f*ck does he think he’s doing? He then came back with the most antiquated bit of kit I have ever seen and asked me to sign multilayered carbon paper slips like we used to do in the 90s.
Outside of the retail environment instant bank transfers are also pretty normal. You can transfer funds to someone in seconds with instant clearance via an app on your phone. No more 3 days clearance nonsense. This is something else the US still hasn’t rolled out yet.
I think that Tiktok video was some kind of joke.
The majority of card payments are done contactless.
It was introduced about 10/11 years ago in Ireland. It is now the most common method of payment you’ll see in any shop and it would be very rare to find any business without the ability to take contactless payment.
Rate of use picked up even more during in the pandemic. A lot of businesses requested that customers pay contactless if at all possible, and the limit on contactless payments was raised from €30 to €50.
This definitely isn’t my experience with it – in fact I thought the USA was famously years behind in contactless payments? I pretty much live a completely cashless life. I have £50 in my purse just now and I’ll probably still have £40 left in the middle of august
Isn’t it the other way around? Contactless payments by debit card have been possible for quite some years now in The Netherlands and most people use it. Paying by phone is also pretty common, and I believe we are one of the countries where the least people pay with cash.
Everyone uses contactless here. Furthermore, everyone used Apple Pay/Google Pay until the war started.
Do American beggars accept wire transfers?
In Hungary, all businesses that have a cash register (which has to be online and connected to the tax authority since 2013), are required to accept electronic payment since January 1, 2021. For most businesses, this means investing in a credit-debit card reader, which by default comes with contactless payment. Other option for those who didn’t want to invest in it is to just hang a sheet of paper with their bank account number and name by the register. I only saw this once, though.
Yeah didn’t you guys have to sign for stuff until like 6 years ago? We’ve had contactless a while now, all the limits were all going up pre covid but it’s pretty much do what you want
I would say it is more common in the Netherlands than it is in the US. Apple and Google Pay are only now being used because my bank card has been able to do NFC payments for at least half a decade.
Very normal in Belgium, i don’t use a lot of cash anymore.
It’s either contactless or cash. Hardly any place that accepts card payments sticked to the old machines that would only support sticking in your card. And I don’t think there’s any German bank out there that does issue cards that don’t support that option either.
It varies greatly by country, at least by available data from card companies. [Here](https://newsroom.mastercard.com/eu/cs/press-releases/kazda-druha-platba-v-obchode-v-evrope-je-bezkontaktni-v-cr-devet-z-deseti/) is one press release from Mastercard from 2018 which says it was on average 48% in Europe, ranging from 93% in Czechia to only 5% in Belgium. I find that insane, if true. I imagine the pandemic has changed a lot as well.