FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Debit Card use in Germany
View Single Post
Old Sep 23, 2011 | 6:26 am
  #5  
Aviatrix
All eyes on you!
20 Years on Site
 
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: UK
Posts: 7,566
Originally Posted by SwissCircle
Most stores in Germany do not except Visa/Master/Amex cards.
This is mostly due to the cost incurring when accepting them. This then leads to fewer people using them which leads to higher fees for merchants accepting them.

In short, merchants are just to greedy here and not customer service oriented.
I don't think this is to do with greedy merchants at all. It's to do with lack of demand.

Although things have started to change Germany is still very much a cash society. People have now got into the habit of using debit cards, but very few people use credit cards for day-to-day things. Those who have credit cards (and there are still many who don't!) will often keep them in their desks at home rather than carry in their wallets, and put them into their wallets only when they go travelling abroad.
Aviatrix is offline