Not sure if I should carry coins for public transport in Romania or if card payments are common. Advice?
In Bucharest, buses, trams, and the metro use reloadable contactless cards (STB and Metrorex). You can buy and top them up at kiosks in stations, usually with cash or card. Drivers don’t take cash directly. In smaller towns like Brașov or Sibiu, you still find kiosks selling paper tickets, often cash-only. ATMs from Banca Transilvania, BRD, and ING are common across the country. Carry some lei coins and small bills, since smaller bus stations sometimes won’t take cards.
Learned the hard way in Iași-got on a tram thinking it’d be contactless. Nope. Driver just waved at me to go find a ticket kiosk. Cash-only, and no change. Been keeping coins ever since. If you're sticking to major cities, maybe you’ll get lucky with cards, but don’t count on it.
Tried to pay with my Revolut at a ticket machine in Brașov and it glitched. Ended up buying a paper ticket from a kiosk-cash only. Metrorex in Bucharest is more modern but still unreliable for foreign cards. For public transport in Romania, it’s smart to keep 10s and 20s RON in your pocket.
I relied mostly on card in Cluj-Napoca-bought my RATUC ticket with my Wise debit at the station. But once I jumped on a trolleybus and realized it was cash-only or an obscure local SMS system. If you're moving around between cities, cash makes life easier. It’s not fully digital yet.
In Bucharest, I used my cash-loaded Activ card for the metro-bought it at Piața Unirii kiosk. Machines didn’t like my UK card, so I paid in cash. Some buses have contactless readers but they usually only take local cards. I’d say have small bills ready, especially in older trams or smaller towns where tech feels stuck in 2009.