History of recession might be a factor.

Personally, I like cash. Better for tips, pocket money and other things. I also like to not leave any transaction history, even if banks are mostly privacy aware.

If you are dependent on social security and the state has the power to look through your finances, you begin to see the advantages again. Because they would rob you of your last 20$.

Cashless paying is convenient and fast, but otherwise isn't really something many people strive for.

Heard about the finance crisis in Greece and how access to their bank accounts became restricted? Another hint.

I think that's more a Germany thing than a European thing. In Sweden cash has almost been completely eliminated from their economy to the point that some retail banks no longer deal in cash.

More fool them - wait until they have a major banking computer crash / cyber attack.

And then what? They have to close for a few hours? A few excited local reporters coming by?

Seeing a Bank run with lines of citizens queuing at banks does tend to concentrate politicians minds.

Why would there be an in-person bank run in a cashless society?

Credit card networks can vary regionally even under the same brand names (like MC/Visa). They are not ubiquitous. Depending on the network the merchant is using, they may or may not be able to connect to your specific card's issuer.

I'm from the US and I've had my chip based Visa pin debit card declined in France due to network incompatibility that neither side could figure out (at a McDonalds of all places) - the authorization just wasn't making it to the issuer.

Basically the further you get from you issuing bank's region/network, the more likely you are to run into problems, regardless of what country you're in. In the US because payment processing industry is so big, merchants are more likely to accept more networks than in other countries because they're paying more to support it or have negotiated better rates with middle men like FDC or directly with Visa/MC.

I think in Germany most MC is actually run using the Maestro network and merchants get hit with either per transaction fees or high interchange rates for using non-maestro cards (if they even opt-in for that with their acquirer).

Credit cards are expensive to accept and it's possible for charges to be reversed. I admit it's a bit odd to accept one type of credit card and not another, but there are plenty of places in Europe that don't accept credit cards at all. Most places do accept payment with a normal PIN bank card.

In my experience that's mainly in Germany. I've paid with my spanish debit card in many countries without any problem.

Might be related to the multiple currency crashes Germany has suffered and tax evasion