In Austria do not trust your credit card.
“I’d like to pay,” I say at the bar of a downtown nightclub in Vienna. The place—clearly a trendy spot—is packed with young people, and it must be around 1 a.m. The party is still in full swing, but we’ve had enough and want to head back to our accommodation.
I take out my bank card and look around for the payment terminal, but the bartender informs me that they only accept cash.
Luckily, we hadn’t ordered much, so I manage to scrape together enough money, but I note that if we had gotten one more round, we would have ended up in an awkward situation.
Earlier, we had already run into cash-only payments at a Turkish restaurant and a food stall at a market—unusual, but still acceptable.
But this late-night bar really surprised me.
After that, we always carried some cash with us and asked about card payment options before ordering.
We did the same, for instance, at an elegant café near Westbahnhof, one that evokes the spirit of imperial Vienna. To our surprise, they also told us they only accept cash.
This was the moment I asked the waiter why this is the case. He answered that using cash is part of Austrian tradition, and the café considers national traditions important.
All this is interesting because I’ve recently spent a lot of time in England, where I didn’t pay with cash a single time, anywhere. The same is true in my home country, much poorer Hungary, where card payments are practically accepted everywhere.
In this respect, the Austrians seem somewhat stuck in the past.
According to a friend of mine who works in Austria, the government doesn’t push for a full transition because of the elderly—especially those living in rural areas—so cash remains widely used.
To be clear: official data shows that more and more people in the country use cards, and in most places (ticket machines, museums, supermarkets, etc.) they are fully accepted. But in smaller shops and eateries you can easily encounter the phrase “We take only cash!”, so it’s wise to always keep some paper euros with you.
(A.J.)
