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Plastic Pipe Dreams

Visa Won't Get you Far at the World Cup

Visa and Mastercard may be standards of payment all across the rest of the developed world, but adoption has been slow in Germany. If you want to eat or shop in smaller establishment, your best bet is to bring some cash with you.

"Europe takes plastic," writes one savvy Web guide to international travel, “right down to most of the smallest shops and bistros.” Of course, the Brits love their Barclaycard and the French never leave home without their Carte Bleu. By all conventions of modern tourism, you should be able to flash a major credit card in any developed nation and expect to walk out of a restaurant, theater box office or camera store with your bill paid up. This is the 21st century, after all. And everyone takes Visa and Mastercard, right? Better think again if you're coming to Germany for the World Cup. 

The country may have excellent public transportation and modern architectural marvels by world-class architects, but spend much time here with your Visa drawn and you’ll start to wonder if you're even in a developed country. Sure, you'll have no problem taking a cash advance on your Visa or Mastercard -- since most ATM machines here will take it (along with Plus and other common North American debit cards), but when you present your card in restaurants or stores, be prepared for a blank expression and a Pavlovian response: "Wir nehmen keine Kreditkarten!" ("We don't take cards!").

Despite major advances in recent years, credit cards just haven't become part of the mainstream in a country where people are better known for their fat savings accounts than their consumer spending habits. Germans routinely read horror stories about both identity theft and the kind of personal debt that has become the norm in the United States and Britain. They'll tell you -- correctly -- that their debit cards are more secure than most credit cards; and the ones who do own credit cards tend to pay their balances in full at the end of each month. And with high commission fees, business owners have shied away from allowing customers to pay in plastic.

Credit card ownership is rapidly changing in Gemany: According to the German government, only 580,000 Germans held a credit card in 1980; by 2001, that number had grown to 19 million. Still, fewer than one-in-four Germans carry a Visa or Mastercard in their wallet -- a real testament to a country that still values money and savings and doesn't think much of frivolous consumer spending. Still, don't expect to pay with Mastercard when you have that "priceless" evening noshing on a schnitzel at the corner Kneipe: local restaurants and mom and pop shops tend to eschew credit cards. With an eye on the the €800 million in soccer World Cup-related tourism is forecasted to bring Germany, credit card companies are quickly moving to encourage businesses to accept cards, which are far more widely adopted in other European countries. But don't expect an overnight change.

For visitors from much of Europe, however, this poses less of a problem. Eurocheque or Maestro debit cards -- the European equivalent to the Plus, Star and Cirrus systems in the US and Canada -- are widely accepted across Germany and can often be used as a substitute for cash. And if in doubt, just make sure you drop by the local ATM machine after the game and before your evening on the town.

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