Europe · GDP rank #4
Germany
DE · EUR @ 1.1595/USD
The largest economy in Europe and the most cash-resilient. Cash still clears roughly half of consumer transactions by volume, the domestic girocard scheme dominates debit, and credit-card penetration is among the lowest in the G10. The slow shifts are real — SEPA Instant is finally free at most banks, Wero is building out — but a story of rapid card displacement is wrong for Germany in 2026.
Tab 02
Consumer payments
How consumers actually pay: the share of cash, the stock and flow of cards, the scheme split at checkout, which mobile wallets matter, and how broadly POS acceptance reaches.
Every figure is authored against a named publisher — click the ⓘ anywhere to open the source panel with the underlying URL and access date.
Cash share of POS volume
% · 2023
Debit card share
% · 2023
Credit card share
% · 2023
Mobile wallet share
% · 2024
Payment mix
At the point of sale
The shares below are POS volume (count of transactions), which reads differently from POS value. For the value-share read, see the card-economy grid underneath.
Share of POS
- Cash51%
- Credit card6%
- Debit card35%
- Instant / A2A2%
- Mobile wallet19%
- BNPL30%
- Other6%
Cash behaviour
- ATM network
- 51,500
- Avg. ATM withdrawal
- €210
- Cash share · value
- 26%
- Cash share · volume
- 51%
Source · Bundesbank
Scheme share
Which networks clear the card volume
Scheme share is the split of general-purpose card purchase volume — not issuance, not count of cards. A high domestic share (e.g. UnionPay, RuPay, ELO) means a large share of card flow never touches a global scheme.
Domestic debit scheme operated by DK (banking-association consortium).
Share of card volume
- Visa16%
- Mastercard14%
- Amex2%
- Other1%
- Domestic Scheme67%
Debit card transactions (girocard + intl debit)
transactions/year · 2024
Debit card spend
EUR annual · 2024
Credit card transactions
transactions/year · 2024
Credit card spend
EUR annual · 2024
Average debit ticket size
EUR · 2024
Average credit ticket size
EUR · 2024
Mobile wallets
Where wallets actually land
User counts are the best single scalar for wallet reach, but they understate usage intensity in markets where one super-app carries multi-digit trillions of renminbi or rupees. For flow, see the rails tab.
Active users
- Apple Pay17M
2024
- Google Pay13M
2024
- PayPal30M
2024
- Wero (EPI)3.5M
Q4 2025
Notable wallets
Apple Pay
Bitkom / Statista
Google Pay
Bitkom / Statista
PayPal
PayPal investor disclosures / Statista Germany
Wero (EPI)
European Payments Initiative
Full reference