Card payments in Germany

How people pay

In 2025, for the first time, Germans paid without cash more often than with it. Cash is still the single most used way to pay. The Bundesbank's study, published on 17 June 2026, found cash in 45% of payments by number, six points fewer than in 2023. By value cash and transfers each had 23% of spending. Debit cards were 26% of payments by number and 28% by value, the largest share by value. Mobile payment reached 10% of payments, up from 6%.

Read the shares as the shape of the habit, not a count of every transaction. The study is a survey of recorded purchases. Your own till will tell you more about your own customers.

Cards and the domestic scheme

The girocard is the German debit card. It belongs to the German Banking Industry Committee, not to Visa or Mastercard, and it runs on its own system and rules. The Bundesbank calls it by far the most used debit card.

Many girocards also carry a second brand, a co-badge such as Debit Mastercard or Visa Debit. The second brand steps in when the girocard system cannot process a payment, which is often the case abroad. Banks generally stopped issuing new cards with the Maestro badge at the end of June 2023, and existing ones work until they expire. The routing rule in Article 8 of the interchange regulation covers these co-badges too: you may set the girocard as your default, and the customer must be able to override it.

If your payment terminal and your acquirer cannot handle girocard, you will miss Germany's leading debit card. It is built for the point of sale, so for online sales plan on the co-badge or another method.

The interchange fee caps of 0.2% for consumer debit and 0.3% for consumer credit apply in the EU, and through the EEA Agreement also in Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. They do not cover commercial cards, three-party schemes or cash withdrawals.

Beyond cards

SEPA Instant is now an obligation for euro-area banks: they had to receive instant transfers from 9 January 2025 and send them from 9 October 2025.

Wero comes out of the same push for a European payment method. German savings banks and cooperative banks switched it on for online shops in November 2025, and another major bank followed in June 2026. In-store payments are announced for 2026, with no month given. For now it matters most online.

Rules a merchant must know

The till must be fiscally secured. Under section 146a of the Abgabenordnung and the KassenSichV, electronic recording systems must be protected by a certified technical security device, the TSE. The BSI publishes the list of certified devices. Running a till without a properly connected certified TSE, or selling one, is an administrative offence under section 379 AO, fined up to 25,000 euros even if nothing was manipulated.

Every system gets reported. The Mein ELSTER form opened on 1 January 2025. Systems in use before 1 July 2025 had to be reported by 31 July 2025. New or retired systems must be reported within one month.

Every sale gets a receipt, if you use an electronic system. The receipt can be on paper or electronic, and the customer does not have to take it. Germany does not force you to use an electronic till. With an open cash box there is no receipt duty, but your records must still be complete. The tax ministry says an exemption from the receipt duty is possible only where there is proven, objective hardship.

No fee for the way they pay. Section 270a of the Civil Code makes void any agreement that makes someone pay a fee for a SEPA transfer or direct debit. For cards it applies to consumer cards covered by the interchange regulation. So there is no surcharge on those.

Getting paid

The authorisation is instant. The settlement and payout to your account follow the schedule in your contract, often measured in working days. No single rule sets that number, so ask for yours in writing.

Cash is still 45% of German payments, so your bank statement tells only part of the story. Reconcile card payouts against your card sales report, and count the cash drawer separately. A gap on the card side is usually fees, refunds or a chargeback.

What I'd tell a merchant here

Do not buy a till or terminal before you have asked about the TSE and about girocard.

Keep your fiscal notification and your TSE paperwork in one folder. An audit will ask for both.

Take cash and cards. Germany has not chosen between them.