Cash vs Card: What You Actually Need in Madrid, Galapagos, Lima, Easter Island, Santiago, Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro

RetiredCormac
2 hours ago
3 min read

There’s a certain type of traveller who gets off the plane in a new country armed with nothing but a credit card and blind faith in contactless payments.

And then there’s the rest of us, wondering how much cash is too much, too little, or completely unnecessary, and how the credit card traveller has the balls to take his approach.

We found on our travels that the truth is, the cash vs card debate when travelling isn’t clear

cut. It changes city by city, sometimes street by street, and of course who you are paying.

Here’s how we found it worked in Madrid, Galapagos, Lima, Easter Island, Santiago, Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro.

Everywhere

Cash is bordering on irrelevant - even in the Galapagos and Easter Islands.

You can tap your card for coffee, for taxis, or a bottle of water. In the markets at each of the locations each vendor appeared to have a chip and pin machine handy to take payment, and didn't mind. Even beach vendors in Rio de Janeiro carry card machines now, which feels faintly impressive given the setting.

The only time we needed cash was the odd market stall, and if this was the case there was always another stall that would happily take a card.

Lastly - tips in restaurants (where it wasn't already automatically added to the bill - which in most cases it was), and tips for guides.

Cash is a good backup.

Our Approach - Cash v Card

We took $50 bills with us.

Instead of using the local ATMs, and running the guantlet of random charges and unknown exchange rates we simply exchanged a $50 for local currency. Even if the rate was poor the overall hit was minimal, and it felt good to have local currency.

As we were in touristy areas - we never had an issue finding a money exchange.

We'd read on the internet;

That it was common practice for some restaurants or bars to add a credit card surcharge (when paying by card over cash), however we didn't find this happened to us. Perhaps we were lucky, or time has moved on.
That Brazil prefers cash over card. Again we didn't experience this - card seemed to be accpeted everywhere we went, though admittedly we didn't venture too far off the tourist trail.

Stuff to be aware of

Foreigners in Chile are exempt from the 19% IVA (VAT) tax on accommodation when they pay with a foreign CREDIT card (or US dollars), combined with showing a passport and PDI immigration slip. However it is applied if paying with a foreign DEBIT card.