No issues elsewhere, but in Germany, both ATMs and stores keep rejecting my card. Anyone know if this is common? Any banks that actually work?
I ended up calling my bank (Capital One) because even big stores like MediaMarkt were rejecting my card. Turns out it wasn’t blocked, but Germany had some weird merchant coding that the bank flagged as suspicious. They unblocked it and told me to retry - it worked after that. Also had better luck with cash withdrawals from ReiseBank and Deutsche Bank ATMs.
No issues elsewhere, but in Germany, both ATMs and stores keep rejecting my card. Anyone know if this is common? Any banks that actually work?
Wise card user here - BBVA and ING worked great in Spain but were a nightmare in Germany. My card got declined at every Sparkasse ATM and even a few restaurant terminals in Hamburg. Only worked at a Commerzbank ATM. I read later that some German ATMs don't support certain international card systems, especially if it's debit or non-German Maestro.
I’m using Revolut and had similar issues. At least three Edeka stores rejected it at checkout, even though there was money and contactless worked everywhere else in Europe. What finally worked for me was inserting the card and using chip + PIN. Contactless or swipe kept failing. Also had more luck with Visa than Mastercard at stores.
No issues elsewhere, but in Germany, both ATMs and stores keep rejecting my card. Anyone know if this is common? Any banks that actually work?
Had the exact same problem with my Monzo card when I landed in Berlin. Worked fine in other countries, but at a Sparkasse ATM it just kept declining. Same at a Rewe supermarket. Eventually tried a Deutsche Bank ATM and it went through smoothly. Seems like some older German terminals are super picky with foreign cards, especially the prepaid or app-based ones.
ING ATM in Germany was out of service. Didnt get to use it, so had to find another one.
Used ING ATM in Germany three times successfully. Once it didnt work, so I just went to a Sparkasse ATM instead.