Austrian consumers performed roughly 11 credit card payments per capita in 2022, although this was slightly higher than before. Indeed, credit cards were used less often in 2020 - the first year of the coronavirus pandemic - than in the previous year. Austria's credit card use is in stark contract to the credit card payments per capita in Germany, which is significantly lower.

Austria has a highly developed payment infrastructure, providing substantial growth opportunities for the cards and payments industry. The country’s highly developed and well regulated financial system provided scope for the development of electronic payment systems. As consumers became aware of the benefits of electronic payments, the use of cash has registered a review-period (2009–2013) downturn. With anticipated economic recovery, an increase in disposable incomes and employment levels, as well as the proliferation of new technologies in the payment cards market, this is anticipated to provide further impetus to electronic payments over the forecast period (2014–2018), thus benefitting the cards and payments industry. Read More

GlobalData’s "Payments Landscape in Austria: Opportunities and Risks to 2021", report provides detailed analysis of market trends in Austrian cards and payments industry. It provides values and volumes for a number of key performance indicators in the industry, including cash, credit transfers, direct debit, payment cards, and cheques during the review-period (2013-17e). Read More

Visa and Mastercard had varying market shares across 14 different European countries in 2024, sometimes significantly lower than domestic payment cards. Visa was the largest card issuer in Ireland, with a market share of 90 percent. Mastercard, on the other hand, held market shares of 87 percent and 71 percent in the Netherlands and Sweden, respectively. Unlike the United States, Visa and Mastercard are often associated with debit cards in Europe. Indeed, debit card use is more prevalent than the use of credit cards in Europe, as revealed by estimates on credit cards and debit cards per capita in 37 European countries. Visa is Europe’s biggest payment brand... Across all considered European payment figures, Visa outperforms MasterCard. For instance, credit cards and prepaid cards issued across the European continent were used for nearly 97 billion transactions in 2019. Nearly 60 percent of all these transactions were done with Visa general purpose cards, while MasterCard made up for 39 percent of the market. In 2018, Visa also had a higher purchase volume in Europe than MasterCard, Amex and Diners combined. Visa made up for 1.8 trillion of the three trillion U.S. dollars that credit cards, debit cards, and prepaid cards generated that year in Europe. ... but in name only, as Europe’s payment landscape is complicated. When looking at European countries individually, however, the market shares of Visa and MasterCard varied dramatically. In Germany, for example, the domestic card brand Girocard had a market share of 75 percent, whereas Visa and MasterCard each made up around 13 and 11 percent of the market. Italy, on the other hand, was more divided. Bancomat cards made up 45 percent of transactions, whereas MasterCard and Visa each held a market share of approximately 20 and 34 percent. Market shares for either Visa or MasterCard are not readily available in France as the term “bank card” or carte bancaire (derived from the domestic payment brand CB) is not associated with a particular brand in French language, as can be seen in a domestic survey on the most preferred payment methods in France.

Should you carry cash in Europe? This will highly depend on the country you are visiting. According to Europe-wide surveys from 2017 and 2019 (the only one that compared the use of paper money for in-person transactions across the euro countries), cash was used most in the southern countries of Europe, as well as in Germany, Austria and Slovenia. Only in the Netherlands, Finland, and Estonia did cash money make up less than half of all payments at shops, restaurants, petrol stations and street merchants. Note that numbers for the United Kingdom (UK), Denmark and Sweden were not included in this ranking - as they do not have the euro as a currency, the scope of these surveys. Statista made its own ranking on how much cash money consumers used in 38 countries across Europe, regardless of currency.

A continent of debit cards, not credit cards

A large part of cashless payments across the European continent can be attributed to the high penetration of debit cards in various countries. This is different from, for instance, the United States - a country that predominantly uses credit cards. Indeed, with the exception of only two European countries, debit cards per capita outweighed credit cards per capita in over 30 countries. Also unlike the United States, there was no single market leader for payments in the whole of Europe. Visa and MasterCard had varying market shares across Europe in 2018, sometimes being the biggest in one country but virtually not present in another.

What is the market size of contactless payments in Europe?

Much like with cash money, the use of contactless payments varied per country. Contactless payment transactions reached a market share of 83 percent in all POS sales in Poland in 2018, whereas this percentage was only 14 percent in neighboring Germany. Not much is known in Europe about the number of users of Apple Pay: domestic banks that provide these services are not allowed to share user figures. A 2019 survey suggested debit cards were significantly more popular in Europe than either Apple Pay or Google Pay, but whether COVID-19 impacted this behavior is not yet clear.