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Comment by patrickk | Hacker News Reader

> In Germany you can pay by card basically anywhere - with the phone or watch as well in most/many shops as far as I know.

This simply isn't true, outside of large chains or supermarkets. Many smaller businesses like pubs, "kiosks", barbers, non-chain restaurants, and so on, are cash only.

It's a combination of tax avoidance and trying to avoid the insane level of paperwork needed for bascically every aspect of life, but especially if you have a business, no matter how small.

Source: live in Germany, near a large metro area.

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> This simply isn't true, outside of large chains or supermarkets. Many smaller businesses like pubs, "kiosks", barbers, non-chain restaurants, and so on, are cash only.

I have a different experience. I pay by card even for < 1 eur things almost everywhere (from time to time): sometimes I just have no cash with me anymore and I am totally ok. This has changed dramatically in the last 10 years, and I wish that the mainstream theme was different than "wooooow in Germany they still accept cash-only". Until now I only experienced this "cash-only" limitation in very few places.

My recommendation, though, is to always have some cash on you, especially if you don't know where you're going. But I would do the same in any other country in the world.

> especially if you don't know where you're going.

I meant: if you're not familiar with the place you're going to, or which way to take, etc.

In Denmark, I can count the days I've had cash on me in the last decade on one hand.

I remember seeing a 100kr bill a couple of weeks ago, thinking how weird/unusual it was to see it. I didn't really remember how they looked like.

Many smaller businesses like 'kiosks' acting as sort of post office for all the parcel services now, where you can get or send your packages(except letters). Meaning they have the infrastructure for cashless anyways. Like non-chain restaurants and so on, also do.

Source: lived in Germany, at the outskirts of a large metro area, still visiting every few weeks to months into my own appartment, which I didn't abandon.

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