Debit Card use in Germany
 

Hello Folks,

I was in Essen the other day where I tried to buy a few grocery items in a supermarket. I proffered my UK, Visa-issued, debit card - which was refused. Of course, the hausfrauen standing behind me in the queue started clucking and fussing because they were being delayed by a few seconds!

The card worked fine in the local geldautomaten, so can someone explain why it does not work in shops and stores, please?

German-issued debit cards are all Maestro cards.

You will be able to use your Visa debit card in places that accept credit cards, but places that only accept debit cards (such as many supermarkets, ticket machines etc) will only accept Maestro.

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.

Well, that's what I thought - but dared not utter in public!

Thank you, Aviatrix and Swiss Circle.

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.

If your debit card does not show the MAESTRO sign you´re out of luck in Germany ...
The V-pay system has not really been established yet - it´s still relatively new here in Germany and the Mastercard/MAESTRO company is obviously not going to share the market with new entrants voluntarily ...
Plus merchants usually pay a fixed rental for the debit card "swipe machine" and are not willing to pay for a second system that´s not really used anyways ...

The reason for non-acceptance or limited acceptance of credit cards in german stores (in particular supermarkets - but not limited to) is simply because there´s a huge difference in the commission the dealer has to pay to the CC company compared to the debit card system.

CC companies take about 2-3% off the total but the debit card system charges a "flat rate" of less than 50 Cents regardless of the total amount ...

We have similar commission rates in the UK (i.e., percentage based for credit cards, a flat fee for debit cards), yet supermarkets here do take credit cards, and have done for at least a couple of decades (I am old enough to remember a time when hotels, restaurants and high end shops took them but supermarkets didn't)

I still think the issue is one of lack of demand. Germany was quite a late starter when it comes to credit cards. I still remember the total amazement shown by German friends when I had a credit card, as a university student, in the late 1970s. In Germany credit cards were for the rich and for frequent business travellers (and came with quite a high annual fee - whereas they were free here). Credit card use is now much more common in Germany - but it's still lagging behind other countries. I would say that Germany is now where the UK was in the 1980s.

This is the correct answer! When I first arrived, I was shocked that I couldn't use my credit cards at Saturn (the number one consumer electronics shop for most of the country).

Some years ago when all UK-issued credit cards already had chip & PIN, I tried to pay for some duty free purchase on a Lufthansa flight and none of the 3 or 4 cards I had could be read by onboard handheld terminals.

No, it´s the unwillingness of dealers to calculate commissions into their margins ....

That´s true. But Germany has already catched up with most neighbouring countries. But if you try to make very small payments by CC you´ll get very often denial by the merchant !
It is not that customers don´t want it ! I´ve run many times out of cash and been forced to find an ATM to draw some ...

Some dealers don´t even accept debit cards at all !
E.g.: Mc Donald´s, BK, etc.

In Germany the debitdard is much more popular than a credit card. In addition Germans don't use credit cards to get credit as for example many Americans do it. The credit card is more used to for traveling and shopping abroad. For shopping and paying in Germany its either cash or the debit card which is widely accepted. So for many there is no reason to get a credit card. Not everyone is a flyertalker who tries to earn additional mile by using an airline credit card.

I guess infrastructure (and lack thereof) also plays into this. Most shops (save for the larger ones maybe) are still using dial-up for their payment terminals, so it will literally take ages for any non-cash payment to be processed. You can actually feel the piercing looks people in the queue behind you will throw you just because you're paying by card.

Compare that to the Netherlands, for example, where cashless payments are more than ubiquitous. It takes 1-2 seconds for a transaction to be authorized, plus (and that makes a big difference compared to Germany) you can already swipe your card and enter your PIN while the person at the till is doing their thing so all you have to do is press "Enter" to confirm the total amount.

That's a hundred times faster than the granny in line that's decided to pay 49,99 with exact change. Nonetheless Germans will find her more acceptable than someone paying with their card. Go figure.

Margins in supermarket business are pretty small. This has nothing to do with customer service orientation. Increase all prices by 2 percent and CC will be accepted. Germany has one of the most competitive supermarket markets.

Funny that a comment like this comes from Switzerland. I wonder why thousands of Swiss come to Konstanz for their weekend shopping - prices in the supermarkets are one of the reasons.

Maybe it is, maybe it is not - but I am in Germany right now, and not a single establishment will accept my (Visa-issued) debit card!

If you had told us that "it is the Maestro debit card that isd widely accepted" your words might have been that much more credible!

Shout at your bank!

I knew mine was lying when they told me that my brand-new Visa debit card would work exactly the same as the Maestro card it was replacing, because I knew that it would not work as a debit card in Germany. I told them... but they wouldn't believe me! (I would have taken it further... but I have a German bank account complete with Maestro card, and I decided life is too short to make a fuss about something that doesn't directly affect me)