Christmas Markets: Cash or Card?

Cards are winning, but not at every stall

A few years ago the honest advice for German and Austrian Christmas markets was simple: bring cash. That has changed. Many stalls at the big markets in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the UK now have a card terminal, and contactless payment is common. Some organisers have gone further: Essen has required every trader to accept cards since 2024, and Edinburgh's Christmas is card-only.

Going fully cashless is still the exception, and it can be reversed. In 2025 the market in Zürich's main station announced a cash ban and dropped it before opening day after a public backlash; in 2026 each stall there chooses for itself. Small craft stalls, charity stands and markets in smaller towns often take cash only, and mobile terminals can lose signal in a crowded square. The common pattern is a card for food, drinks and larger gifts and a few notes and coins for everything else.

The mug deposit is the classic exception. At many German and Austrian markets mulled wine comes in a souvenir mug with a deposit, usually 2 to 5 euros, refunded when you return it. If you pay by card, the deposit is normally charged together with the drink, but refunds are usually handed out in cash, so you end the evening with coins either way.

Markets outside the euro: which currency you need

Some of the most visited Christmas markets are in countries with their own currency. Stalls there price in local money, and while a few accept euros, they set the rate themselves and give change in local currency. That rate is rarely in your favour.

• Prague (Czech koruna, CZK): the big markets on Old Town and Wenceslas Squares mix card and cash stalls, and plenty of stalls still want cash. Carry some korunas, take them from a bank's ATM, and avoid exchange offices with eye-catching boards on the main tourist streets. If one does give you a bad rate, Czech law lets you cancel the exchange within three hours, for amounts up to the equivalent of 1,000 euros.
• Budapest (Hungarian forint, HUF): most stalls at the Vörösmarty Square market take cards; smaller markets and craft or food stalls may be cash-only. Prices run into thousands of forints, so check the conversion before you pay rather than guessing.
• Kraków and Wrocław (Polish złoty, PLN): card payment is standard in Poland, even for small amounts. A little cash in złoty covers the stalls that are the exception.
• Zürich and Basel (Swiss franc, CHF): most payments are by card or the Swiss TWINT app, though most stalls also take cash. Euros are accepted in some places, but change comes in francs.
• Copenhagen and Stockholm (Danish krone and Swedish krona, DKK and SEK): you can go the whole trip without cash, and in Sweden some stalls may not take it at all.
• UK markets, from Edinburgh to Manchester (pound, GBP): cards and contactless are widespread and Edinburgh's markets take nothing else, but carry a little cash for Manchester, where some stalls may still want it.

EUR to CZK · EUR to HUF · EUR to PLN · EUR to CHF · EUR to DKK · GBP to EUR

The card trap at a foreign stall

When you pay in a foreign currency, a card terminal or an ATM may offer to charge you in your own currency instead of the local one. It looks helpful, because you see a familiar number. In practice the stall's payment provider then picks the exchange rate, and it is typically several percent worse than the rate your own card network would use.

Always choose the local currency: korunas in Prague, forints in Budapest, francs in Zürich. The same applies at ATMs, where the conversion offer can appear after you choose the amount. In EU countries outside the euro, such as Czechia, Hungary, Poland, Denmark and Sweden, the terminal has to show you the markup over the European Central Bank's rate before you accept, which makes the cost easy to see. Your own bank may still add a foreign transaction fee, but that is usually far smaller than the markup you avoid.

Pay in local currency or your own? · Should you accept the ATM's conversion?

How much cash for a market evening

Count what is likely to be cash-only rather than the whole evening. For most visitors that is a drink and its mug deposit at a cash-only stall, a snack from a small stall and perhaps a handmade gift from a stall without a terminal. A few notes in local currency per person cover that at most markets, and anything bigger goes on the card.

If you are visiting several cities on one trip, do not change money for all of them at once. Withdraw or exchange in each country as you arrive, and spend down coins before you leave: exchange offices rarely take them back.

How much cash to bring on a trip

Set it up before you go

1. Put every market currency on one screen. In WaveRate, add your home currency first, then CZK, HUF, PLN, CHF or DKK for the cities on your route. Every price converts at the reference rate in one glance.
2. Check prices that run into thousands. A forint or koruna price looks large until it is converted. Type it into the calculator before you pay, and you will spot a bad euro rate at a stall straight away.
3. Rely on it without roaming. Recently loaded rates stay available offline, so the converter works in a crowded square with no signal.
4. Log the trip as you go. Add market purchases to a trip in the currency you paid. Each one keeps the rate of its day, so the total in your own currency does not shift with later rate moves.