DSGV study: 89% of German restaurants that list a payment method accept cards, 8% remain cash-only

The Deutscher Sparkassen- und Giroverband (DSGV) published on 3 September 2026 an analysis of 70,364 restaurants across Germany's 101 most populous cities, based on the payment information those businesses list on Google Maps as pulled on 30 July 2026. Of the establishments that state a payment method, 89% accept cards and about 8% take cash only; roughly a quarter of establishments list no payment information at all.

Acceptance is highest in Konstanz (97.6%), Gütersloh (96.8%) and Kiel (95.8%), and cash-only is most common in Ludwigshafen am Rhein at 34.3%. By format, 20.4% of snack bars and fast-food outlets are cash-only, against 3.9% of Italian restaurants and 3.3% of burger restaurants. The DSGV sets the finding against girocard's 4.2 billion transactions in the first half of 2026, and quotes DSGV board member Joachim Schmalzl: 'Entscheidend ist, dass die Menschen wählen können.'

German hospitality is the segment that held out longest on cash, and this is the first city-level measurement of how far that has moved — with an unusually large sample and a stated method, which is more than most acceptance claims in this market carry. The 8% cash-only residue and the 20.4% figure for snack bars mark where the remaining terminal-placement opportunity actually sits for acquirers and terminal vendors selling into German gastronomy, and the 34-point spread between Konstanz and Ludwigshafen says that the addressable gap is regional rather than national.

For a single restaurant, the number that matters is the reverse one: card acceptance is now the norm its guests will assume, and being in the cash-only 8% is a visible outlier rather than an ordinary local choice.

Whether the DSGV repeats the measurement so a trend line exists, whether the cash-only share in snack bars falls as softPOS and low-cost terminals reach that format, and whether the regional spread narrows or hardens.

• it-finanzmagazin.de
• DSGV / Sparkasse.de — Bar oder mit Karte? Gastronomie im regionalen Vergleich, 3 Sep 2026