On a short trip last month, I surprised a couple of merchants by paying contactlessly with my foreign (EU) card.
That's almost always faster than paying by cash, since there's no need to count the money or make change. The exception is when the cost is €20, and I can hand over a single note.
> Are contactless terminals widespread in Germany?
They are absolutely everywhere since last year more or less, but everybody (esp. cashiers) is always dumbfounded when I use it and it works. Also some of them try to handle your card for you "to insert it in the right way" and since my German is still rather basic I then have to weigh the potential time waste of explaining it's a contactless card with the extra 4-5 seconds for the chip transaction. But I guess that part doesn't really apply to locals.
("kontaktlose karte, nicht einstecken" but they don't listen the first couple times)
Some stores have fucked up the speed of it though by first checking for your store membership account on the card which ruins the flow of the transaction. Often forcing the whole thing to be repeated. It's infuriating.
I was actually pretty annoyed by my bank having issued me a contactless VISA card, but for a particular reason: I already have a contactless card for paying at the university canteen, but with the VISA card also in my wallet, neither the canteen's own terminal nor a merchant's VISA terminal can pick up its respective card's signal properly without having to take the card out of the wallet.
We have them in all major brand stores, all gas stations as well as all big supermarkets.
Depending on where you are people might not have seen wireless terminal usage (especially if you are far away from a bigger city). A cashier once tried to force me to sign the bill when I payed contactless without a pin or signature (which is possible in germany if the total is below 25-30€).
On a short trip last month, I surprised a couple of merchants by paying contactlessly with my foreign (EU) card.
That's almost always faster than paying by cash, since there's no need to count the money or make change. The exception is when the cost is €20, and I can hand over a single note.