Do you keep any cash in your wallet? Or do you rely solely on card payments?

If you do keep cash, how much do you keep on an average day?

49 comments

  1. Zero as Norway is pretty much cash free if you use your card or phone for payment.

    When I helped out a friend who ran a piano business in Germany, he’d have upwards of 20,000 Euro in his wallet in case he stumbled upon a bargain. This is pre 2019 when 500 Euro notes were commonly seen.

  2. Not at all.

    Every business accepts card payment and private transactions like paying back a friend can be done via MobilePay or just direct bank transfer. If there ever is a scenario where i’d need cash, i’d just withdraw it for that occasion.

    Also not carrying cash is benefitial in the sense that if i happen to lose my wallet, i lose practically nothing.

    Edit: under further inspection, it seems that i was lying. I had a 5 Finnish mark coin and one Turkish Lira in my wallet. So a currency that doesn’t exist and a coin worth 0.038€.

  4. In Germany, about 30 euros when I buy food, most market stalls here in town only accept cash and I like to buy fresh fruit and vegetables there, otherwise I don’t carry cash.

  5. It changes depending on the time of the week but usually about 50-100 pounds. UK.

  6. I keep about $25 equivalent in a wallet pocket as emergency money or for buying produce from street grannies. Other than that I use card or phone to pay for everything

  7. I prefer card, but I always try to have like 20 € on me. After all there are still places, that take cash only or where you can only use card if payment is above 5 € etc…

  8. Depends where I am. Living in Madrid and pretty much I never use cash but when I go back home I always carry cash, usually 20€

  9. Zero cash.

    I have one coin in my car so I can use a trolley in the supermarket when I go shopping.

  11. I always carry at least 100 CHF in cash with me. I don’t like paying cash-less and basically never do.

  12. Depends if I’m home or traveling.

    When I’m home, not a huge amount… enough to buy a few coffees and some food if necessary.Maybe 30 euros or so.

    Palermo is still quite a cash based society for many things.. going to the bar, the bakery, the street markets etc.

  13. 40 KM max, it always can get stolen/lost. I use a card for large payments only.

    Edit: 40 KM = 20 euros

  14. None.
    I cannot remember last time using cash and if you ask me what’s on the bills, i remember something about bridges and ancient stuff but not exactly what is on what.

    About a year ago i sold a lock 2nd hand and got cash. They are still somewhere in the house, but again no clue.

    Everything here is contactless or paid with an app called Mobilepay which my mother of 75 is even using.

    For me, cash is only if you do trade something illegal (services without tax, drugs, etc).

  15. 40€ emergency money and I don’t touch it. It is for when cards don’t work.

  16. In Germany cash is king. I usually carry around somewhere between 50-150€.

  17. None. I only take out cash if I specifically know that I will need it. For example, I thought I will need 100 PLN about 4 month ago and took it. It turned out that I did not and it is still in my wallet. No idea when I will use it.

  18. Enough to be able to pay for meals or transportation if they don’t accept cards. And less than I would be forced to fight to the death if someone tried to rob me.

  19. I don t use all the time cash(i spend to much like that), but i have like 100-200€, for paying ticket in Germany🤣

  20. Normally between 150 and 250 euros. There are of course times when I carry more than 250€ or less than 150€.

    I always pay with cash except when I am at McDonalds and don’t have an exact amount (i had some bad experiences of them returning too little)

  21. Usually something around €50-100

    You do end up in situations where you gotta pay someone back or where there are no card payments so that makes things a lot easier

  22. Maybe a handful of change (between £0.20-£4.00 depending on what I end up with) and maybe £10-£20 in notes max. Nowadays I mostly just use cash to pay for a haircut. Also tattoos in theory*, but it’s been a few years since I last got one.

    *Seriously, the average tattooist’s insistence on being cash only is an absolute shitemare, I hate having to carry hundreds of pounds on me so they can avoid paying tax.

  23. I hardly ever carry cash at all. Quite often I don’t even take my wallet out with me if I’m going out.

    It’s been months, if not years, since I last went to a shop, restaurant, cafe etc where I couldn’t pay by card.

    The only thing I use cash for is paying my cleaner, and that usually involves a specific trip to the cash point each week because I don’t otherwise have any in the house.

  24. Around 5000Ft, 15$. I almost always pay with card, but if that fails, it’s good to have some cash on me.

  25. Apart from the day each week I buy a new bus pass, which for reasons inexplicable can only be bought with cash *even though all other passes and tickets can be paid for by card*, never.

  26. People say cash is king in Germany which is partly true, but for me at least the experience is different. Nowadays almost all business have card and because I live in a city, even some market stalls offer card payment. This is the only thing I need cash for: Going to the regional market. If I do that I take extra cash with me, but in day to day life I always carry 10€ in the back of my phone if I want to get a Döner Kebap or something similar (Döner shops are notorious for being money laundering operations, so they don’t like you paying with card because it’s too traceable.

  27. Usually none at all, even market stalls here take card. I might carry €50 – 100 if I had to take cash out for some reason (usually paying a tradesman or similar) and took out more than needed.

  28. 50-75€. These days you don’t need it as cashless payment is available almost everywhere, but you never know what kind of emergency may come up. I feel better knowing I have enough cash to pay a taxi back home.

  29. Just had a conversation yesterday with colleagues, we have new coffee machines that only take cash (and a minimum three coins…) none of us carry cash. It changed rapidly in the UK, much slower than it did in the Netherlands, but now it is genuinely rare to use cash. Only people I see use cash are elderly in the supermarket.

    (And the coffee machines will gather lots of dust for not having a card option).

  30. In Germany I usually get 50 bucks from the bank every few weeks. Since I live in Berlin I can do most transactions with a card, but some restaurants or smaller shops don’t take cards at all or have a minimum spending amount to pay with a card, so for them I carry a bit of cash around.

  31. 50-150€. There are still quite a number of places in Austria that are cash only. And I do support it. I don’t trust big business aka digital payment providers and I thouroughly believe that cash is freedom. Data that exists is data that will be abused. I do use card payment like everyone else, but I also like having a choice. So I randomly use one or the other.

  32. Around 40-55 € when I don’t expect to buy something, just in case I get stuck somewhere and need to buy a snack or a bus/train ticket, or something reaaally catches my eye, or my family write me to grab xy when I’m in town (doesn’t happen often, but I like to be prepared).

    When I go shopping I take more cash. It depends on what I’m buying, but I do a rough calculation and try to have enough cash for the whole purchase at hand.

    As a born and bred German I’m just used to paying with cash and I like to see how much I spend. I feel like I lose the overview over my spending when I pay with card. Sometimes I even forget that I have my card with me and panic a bit when I don’t have enough cash to pay for something. It has happened more than once that I said “I’m so sorry, I don’t have enough money with me” and left a few items behind, only to realise later that I could just have paid with card. Embarrassing, I know.

  33. Much more in may-july because I buy obscene amount of strawberries at the market when they’re in season. And the ATM is a pain to get to so I’ll withdraw like 200 PLN (45 EUR) at a time, spend it all on fresh produce and repeat two weeks later. The rest of the year will carry almost no cash

  34. Uk here, always have £30 to £100 on me in cash. I’m always shocked that some people don’t carry cash just in case. Your phone runs out of battery, bank card doesn’t work for some reason, then what do you do!?

  36. It goes between a few Euros to 150€. I’m self-employed and each move on my business account gets charged by my accountant, therefore I usually move about 500 to 1000€ to my personal account from time to time. When I want to submit costs into my tax report, they have to be paid either by cash or my business account, so I often times use cash when doing stuff like paying for car repairs, buying printer ink, diesel, etc.

  37. Most of the time not more than 50€. It’s enough to buy my groceries for the week, which is mostly the only time a week I have to pay anything.
    If I know I will be somewhere special, like going out to eat dinner or something, then obviously I carry more cash with me, like 100€ – 150€.

  38. I have £50 in my back pocket. I have had it there now for over a year and never used it.

  39. I always get 100€ and then I use it up until it’s gone and get a new 100€. I pay with card whenever I can, but at many places here they don’t accept card payment.

  40. I try not to have less than 30-50 euros on me. I use cash very rarely, but it’s super annoying if suddenly you need it and have none.

    Also I don’t like the recent cashless zealotry.

  41. About 140 EUR. Enough so that the largest amount I typically spend is covered in case my card wouldn’t work. I’m a father of a family of 6, do groceries weekly, which costs around 40-50k HUF (up to 135 EUR).

  42. I pay for most things with card, but I like to have some cash. Sometimes more, sometime less, but 200 zł ( around 45 €) sounds for me like good amount for daily use.

  43. Zero cash. I haven’t had Norwegian cash in my pockets/wallet for many years. My drivers license is in my safe at home. You can use an app for that. Some people doesn’t a single card on them, they use Apple/Google, pay with a phone or watch.

    Edit: There is a very small number of small places/kiosks that doesn’t have the option to use card. They use a service where you can transfer money by an app called VIPPS.

  44. I typically carry about 50.000 Crowns in my wallet for various reasons. That’s about 300 Euro or 350 ish Dollars.

  45. I almost never needed it. Then I had a baby and how we pay our babysitter and cleaner with cash….so, a lot.

  46. around 10 euros.

    cash is king in Germany, but cards are much more accepted compared to the pre-corona days. most places accepts cards and apple pay. i need cash if I will
    -eat döner (my favourite döner place doesn’t accept cards. others in my neighbourhood do accept it, but i’m loyal to my döner shop.
    -buy something fresh from the farmers market
    -pay the cleaning lady

    my bank has an ATM 250 metres away from my home, so whenever I need cash, i just go there and withdraw some.

  47. In Austria: a least 100€+ in various denominations. Not all business take cards.

    I came across a decent deal on a used car and the owner wanted cash, so I had to come up with 26k in bank notes! 😂
    Fortunately Austria is a safe country, and the transaction was legitimate at a car dealership.

  48. I usually carry 1000 SEK. This pathetic country Sweden has made it incredibly difficult to pay by cash. So much that there is a facebook group of about 160.000 people demanding stores to accept cash. We cant even exchange our own currency outside of Sweden because swedish banks stopped accepting their own money back from other countries.

  49. I have a 500 SEK note in my wallet in case there is some problem with the card payment systems, but it has been sitting there now unused for many years.

    Most small stores and restaurants and such don’t even accept cash at all. Cash handling is way too expensive given the small volume of it now.

    And if the disturbance is big enough, like when most Coop stores in Sweden got hit by a ransomware attack in 2021, they’ll be likely to just close the store as they could not even process cash transactions, and they would not start doing the transactions on pen and paper.

    So cash is getting increasingly difficult to use, and is not reliable in certain types of emergencies that affect the cash registers anyhow.

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