Crime rates in Germany are generally a bit lower than in the US. I believe the situation in Japan is similar, housewives think nothing of paying for their grocery shopping from a big stack of bills.
I was in Vienna about three years ago and used my credit card a lot. A lot.
I had no idea there was any ‘resistance’ to using them in Austria. I certainly never saw any sign of it.
Although if they’re anything like Spain it’d very different in the cities and the rural parts.
I used my cards all over the place when I was in the tourist bit on the south Spanish coast, but the village where my in-laws live is in the mountains and there isn’t even a cash machine in a ten mile radius, let alone a card machine in the shops.
It’s a mid-size hotel in a ski resort. I did choose it on price, and maybe part of their cost-saving is avoiding credit card fees.
When I was traveling a lot in Europe, mostly UK, France, the Netherlands, I relied on the tried and true method of travellers checks.
They were somewhat of a pain to use in businesses, but after a few days, I got into the rhythm of: wake up, figure out what I thought I would spend that day, head to the bank and ‘cash’ enough checks for the day and then go about my day. That way, even if I lost the money, I was only out one day of money.
My bank in the U.S. would issue the checks for free and I don’t think there was any fee for cashing them at certain banks in Europe, and the checks would be replaced if they were stolen. Never had an issue with either lost or stolen checks, but the peace of mind was always there.
Is it the same as an ATM card though? I could use my ATM card at the ATMs in the Netherlands, but not everywhere else, IIRC.
I once travelled from Tashkent (Uzbekistan) to Paris overland for 3 months and had at least $5K on me when I started. These were mostly cash societies so there was no other option.
Last Spring in Yemen I had about $3K on me. In fact I can’t remember the last time I had less than a few thousand in cash when on the road… but I mostly travel in places with few ATMs or places that take plastic.
If you only had $300 cash you’d never be able to function for long in: Iran, Syria, Yemen, Russia (outside Moscow/St. Pete), Uganda, Rwanda, Congo, Sri Lanka… places where I have taken holidays. I have just gotten used to it I guess.
Of course in the Mid East at least you are safer from mugging than in Europe/N. America. I have been in line at the bank here and seen people carrying more than $50,000 equivalent.
Is an IOU a negotiable instrument like a legal draft?
My Dutch ATM card has been valid in all or many ATMs in Germany, Luxembourg, France, Belgium and the UK in the last couple of years.
In Belgium at least I’ve been able to pay with it in stores that accept PIN cards, but I have run into issues with that a couple of years back, so I tend to just get enough cash for a day or two from the ATM and pay with that. In none of the above countries will you have trouble finding an ATM machine in any city.
As for credit cards; in western Europe I wouldn’t count on being able to pay with them at all except for fairly high-cost/touristy expenses. For instance, in my experience most (even small) hotels will accept them, and a lot of restaurants too, but you won’t be able to pay a 200 euro grocery bill in even a large supermarket in Amsterdam with a credit card. It’s ATM/PIN card or cash.
Credit cards are also less commonly accepted in Japan than in North America, although it’s increasingly more acceptable. Many small restaurants that do accept credit cards only do so during the evening. The only grocery store that I’ve ever seen credit cards used at catered to embassies. Incidentally, big retailers will often offer to charge your credit card over a couple of months, as credit cards are not supposed to permit carried balances (as tschild describes is true in Germany).
Frustratingly, though, many Japanese ATMs that are useful to foreigners close at night. Of the two networks tied into overseas systems, only CitiBank offers 24 hour machines. I’ve never understood the logic, but the closest ATM to where I used to live was a Post Office machine that closed at 7PM every night. And 5PM on Sundays. :mad:
I was in the Czech Republic, Germany, Austria, and Hungary in October, and I travelled on a credit card the entire way, deliberately trying to avoid withdrawing cash that I might not spend before leaving the country. (CZ and Hungary don’t use Euros yet, so the currency didn’t freely transfer.)
I never had a problem. No one acted like a credit card was exotic and no one refused to take it. Granted, we were in either big cities or well-known tourist spots, but still – no problems at all.
Hmm… yes, that would be uncommon in the Netherlands. I can hardly think of any legit business that would want to be paid larger amounts of cash banknotes. They may accept it, but the guy behind the counter would certainly look surprised.
Before the Euro, the Dutch had 1000 guilder notes (say about 500 dollar notes). Virtually no-one used those in everyday legit business. It was said in the news that such notes were the main currency in underworld business.
Now for your question, over to our German Dopers…
I’ve heard this to be true, but have no cite. The Germans weren’t going to play if they didn’t have a 500 Euro note. I never once saw anything over 50 in a year of living in France; but did see 500s at the casino in Monte Carlo.
IANAL, but an IOU is nothing if not signed and depostied by a notaris (state lawyer). . I just remarked on it because it seems that in the USA there is not one- and-only-formal-format for a check; it seems I could write a check on a piece of my personal stationary. That would make it nothing better then an IOU, correct? Or does every bank issue its own checks?
That would make it similar to the Dutch system, now largely replaced by on-line banking, of sending such filled out checks in the mail to pay bills that were aslo mailed. Its just that such persona checks were never used instead of currency in the Netherlands in stores etc. Up until 15 years ago, you fulled out a check, cashed it at your bank, then paid in stores etc with cash. We skipped the whole " pay in stores with checks", credit cards never caught on, so we went straight form cash to ATM/electronic banking in stores.
Like Parentheses said, with ATM you can pay in stores as well. I’m not sure what you mean by “debit card”, could you explain?
Once upon a time, you could technically write a check to someone else using just paper, or so I understand. Those days are long gone. Banks issue checks with your name, address, and some electronic numbering. Here’s an example of a check–you can order them with pretty pictures on if you’re willing to pay extra.
I don’t think a check is an IOU exactly–it’s a lot more like real money. You fill it out with the correct information and the recipient cashes it at the bank. The bank takes the money out of your account.
A debit card is your ATM card; you use it at the ATM to get cash or at the store to pay for things. Either way, you type in a code number to verify the transaction.
Theoretically, under the common law of commercial paper, you could write a cheque on anything … I seem to recall an episode of Gilligan’s Island in which Mr. Howell wrote a cheque on a piece of tree bark. However, in real life, people only use and accept cheques printed by actual banks.
Cheques are issued by individual banks to holders of checking accounts. They generally follow the same format; there’s very little variation in the general style of a check, although the typeface can be chosen individually and the background image is often personalized (mine have pictures of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman).
A credit card is a card that gives you access an instant loan at the point of purchase.
An ATM card is a card that lets you access your account using automated teller machines.
A debit card or check card is a card that lets you pay at the point of purchase with a card that automatically transfers the sum from your personal checking account.
In most cases these days, bank issue cards that combine the ATM function with the debit card function.
I am not sure how it works in the EU but we have cheques here to pay rent… and the bank honors the date so you can post date cheques. In fact landlords demand two cheques (6 months rent each with one post dated by 6 months) before you can move in. If a cheque bounces, you go to jail… bouncing a cheque here is a very serious crime.
I wasn’t considering places like that since the OP specified Germany and Austria, where ATMs are standard. I’ve been through Uzbekistan as well and I do agree that for long journeys through cash societies like that, it’s better to carry cash, as you have no idea where the next ATM or bank that could process your card is. (That and the black market rates for dollars are multiples higher than the artificially low bank rates. In 2001, the street price gave you about 3x the sum the bank did.) That said, even Tashkent has ATMs, if you’re totally stuck.
People believe that this works here, but it doesn’t. A bank can and will happily cash a post-dated cheque.
I found this out via the nicest landlady in the world ever. I’d given her a cheque for the deposit for my place and for the rent for half a calendar month, plus a separate post-dated cheque covering the next calendar month. This we had agreed because it fitted with when I’d got money coming in.
I got a phone call from her the next day. She was mortified: she’d trusted her husband with taking cheques to the bank, and he’d taken all of them, not just the ones she’d told him to take.
But all she was concerned with was that if the post-dated cheque went through, it might be a problem for me? As it happened, yeah, it would. Before I knew what was happening, she’d driven to her bank, withdrawn the cash, come to collect me and take me to my bank to pay it straight in, and I then wrote her another cheque.
Wonderful woman.
(Yes, the post-dated cheque went through.)
I guess after carrying cash in the back of beyond, it is just habit to carry it everywhere now… so when I am in Germany, yup, I probably have a few thousand in cash with me.
One night on a overnight train in Germany, an American girl was complaining to the conductor because she could not buy a sleeper compartment on the spot with plastic. Cash is king.