In Europe it is generally cheaper as a merchant to take credit vs cash, because they have low credit processing fees. Because of this they take credit for pretty much any transaction.

In the US, it's not uncommon to see places only take credit for purchases over $20, especially restaurants.

Have you been to Germany? Good luck with getting any cards accepted. And I think you misuse credit for debit - in UK many online retailers only accept debit cards and until the lockdown many mom and pops still really seemed to hate getting out that card machine.

I lived in the UK for decades, and I don't recall a place that only accepted debit cards. The fees are slightly lower for debit vs credit cards, but they're low for both types of card.

Plenty of places in Europe don't accept AmEx, it still has high fees.

It's true that Germans prefer cash, but that's not necessarily because of the cost of processing cards. Most supermarkets accept cards, but the average German uses a card slightly more than once a week.

https://www.euro-area-statistics.org/classic/payment-statist...

Yeah Germany is a strange outlier. They have all the tech but just don’t trust it I guess?

And yes I used credit as a shorthand for debit/credit.

> In the US, it's not uncommon to see places only take credit for purchases over $20, especially restaurants.

This must be semi-regional because it's definitely not the case in the Minneapolis area (or the Midwest in general as far as I've seen). Even mom and pop restaurants will gladly take your credit card. If it exists at all, the minimum I've seen is $5, I've never seen a $20 minimum (not saying it doesn't exist, but it's definitely not "common"). Of course, the US is a huge place, so it definitely could be a regional thing.

I've seen a few $20 minimums in Wisconsin, but its certainly not the norm. Usually if there's a minimum it's $10 around here.

This minimum card payment is not uncommon in Switzerland at mom-and-pop shops, in my experience. Chain stores and larger businesses always accept card payments, but I still need cash once in a while. I haven't actually seen this in restaurants in the US in a long time, although I have at some other small businesses, so maybe it's also somewhat regional.

Payment networks are relatively expensive in Switzerland and some contracts still charge a flat fee + percentage on every transaction, that's why you see these minimums at bakery shops and the like. Hopefully they'll eventually go away.

It's not unique to the US. Last month I was at a shop in Barcelona, Spain, and the shopkeeper told me she was glad I was paying with coins because they were running out of them.

Did you get a sense for whether the higher denomination coins like €1 and €2 are getting impacted as much as lower ones? I'm trying to think of a reason that this effect would be coin-specific and not just, for instance, a function of the denomination.