[DasIch]

Cash is much more popular however another big factor is that credit cards aren't really a thing. Instead Germany has its own system of EC cards which are directly tied to your bank account (which most people get as a child here) and work more like debit cards.

The only reason to have a credit card as a German is for buying this outside of Germany.

[izolate]

I've just moved to Netherlands and noticed this. Cash & Maestro (Debit) cards are the norm here.

Credit cards aren't any more popular in the UK, but our debit cards tend to be Visa/Mastercard and we use them the same way. I think mainland Europe has some catching up to do to London as far as being a cashless society :)

[allendoerfer]

Do we really need to put Visa/Mastercard in front of every transaction if we already have model working exactly the same way from a customers point of view?

I would say the opposite is true: If you need Visa/Mastercard, your country's banking system is broken. Sending cheques via physical mail is something nobody would even think of over here. I think I have never even seen one.

[elcapitan]

And for buying stuff on the internet - I use it more for that than when travelling.

[justanton]

I live in Germany, and I always wondered: how Germans buy online and/or book hotels/tickets online, if most of them don't have credit cards and only have this EC-Karte?

[ThePadawan]

This differs quite a big on the size of the respective business (of sales).

Amazon.de e.g. offers the choice of * credit card (as internationally) * direct withdrawal (meaning you give them your bank account details and they withdraw the amount directly - sort of sketchy from the customer's point of view, but no different from credit cards - if anything goes awry, you just challenge the charge directly with the bank instead of the card issuer) * bill-based (generally only for small amounts or trusted customers - might involve a "credit score" check from Schufa (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schufa) to deter fraud)

[elcapitan]

I have a credit card for that, but if I have the option, I always use Paypal. There are often other payment options though, like "Sofortüberweisung", paying on account or SEPA bank transfers (the last two more typically for b2b though).