Venice - credit card only?

bobblebob

Going to Venice in a few week and would prefer to pay on my credit card for most if not all of my stuff (if possible)

For anyone that has been, do bars, restaurants, transport etc all accept card now?

NoodleDoodleMan

Certain credit cards are a better choice than others in order to avoid fees when used,

Sandtree

NoodleDoodleMan said:

Certain credit cards are a better choice than others in order to avoid fees when used,

which answers the question of if bars accept credit cards how @NoodleDoodleMan?

I pay for as much as possible by card too and cannot remember having any issues in Venice... clearly if you want a gondola ride or buying from street merchants etc you will need cash. This is only vague memory though as it was some time ago that we went 

NoodleDoodleMan

I think it's more than reasonable to expect that credit cards will be widely accepted in a major league tourist city like Venice.

bobblebob

Thank you. Will take a small amount of cash just incase and use card rest of time

daveyjp

bobblebob said:

Thank you. Will take a small amount of cash just incase and use card rest of time

By far the best way.  Our last visit to Italy was to Sorrento and cards were widely accepted, but some cash was useful.  We needed some before being handed our room key as they only took cash in the hotel and tourist tax was due.

In some shops they had obviously never seen contactless used before, despite the payment system being set up for it.  They looked at me like I was a magician when I just waved my card!

zagfles

Yes as above we were there last year and cards were accepted for most things - but for the tourist tax they insisted on cash, they were happy to take a card for the rest of the hotel bill but insisted on cash for the tourist tax part. Not sure why. The only other thing I remember them refusing a card for was the gondala trip (and to be quite honest I wouldn't bother, I know it's a "must do" in Venice but at 80EUR for less than 30 mins with a grumpy gondalier who hardly said a word to us other than to point out "Marco Polo's house", which we discovered on a walking tour wasn't actually his house...)

Sandtree

zagfles said:

Yes as above we were there last year and cards were accepted for most things - but for the tourist tax they insisted on cash, they were happy to take a card for the rest of the hotel bill but insisted on cash for the tourist tax part. Not sure why. 

Only logical reason is that the tax is a straight pass through so if they charge you €20 they have to give the government €20 but if you pay by credit card then 1% or so goes to the card company so they get €19.80 from you and have to top it up to €20 in their payments but this is absolutely no different than VAT or other taxes which merchants collect on behalf of the government. 

Given they cannot charge you a fee for using a credit card (same as the UK) the norm is just to uplift your basic fees for everyone to reflect the blend of payment types you receive and fees charged (in the same way that everyone pays for the 1 in 5 guests that steal a towel) and why they do that for sales tax but not tourist tax who knows.

sammynunes

Even some Gondoliers have moved into taking cards now....we visited in 2020. The few gondoliers were selling 2 hour sunset/evening trips to the even fewer tourists for 50 euros a pop.