Spending Money in Cyprus

inspectorperez

My wife is visiting Cyprus shortly to stay with some friends. She has been told that cash is the preferred method of payment in most shops and restaurants.

Normally when going abroad, we use our Monzo cards for most things and only use cash for the likes of taxi fares and buying from market stalls.

Does anyone have any hints or advice please as she is not comfortable with carrying a lot of cash nor with the hassle of using ATM machines?

Ganga

Is she staying in the middle of no where or in a town /village? most restaurants and shops take card payments ,can she not take a small/ moderate amount of local currency to cover anything that will not accept card payment.

inspectorperez

Ganga said:

Is she staying in the middle of no where or in a town /village? most restaurants and shops take card payments ,can she not take a small/ moderate amount of local currency to cover anything that will not accept card payment.

She's staying near a small town on the southern coast, from memory it may be adjacent to Maroni.

From what you say, I would have expected most places to accept cards and if the worst did come to the worst, she could always locate an ATM and draw cash on her Monzo card.

TELLIT01

Wherever we travel we always carry enough local currency to cover any potential restaurant bills and similar.  It could be highly embarrassing to get to the end of a meal only then to discover either they have no machine or the machine/network isn't working.

Mands

inspectorperez said:

Ganga said:

Is she staying in the middle of no where or in a town /village? most restaurants and shops take card payments ,can she not take a small/ moderate amount of local currency to cover anything that will not accept card payment.

She's staying near a small town on the southern coast, from memory it may be adjacent to Maroni.

From what you say, I would have expected most places to accept cards and if the worst did come to the worst, she could always locate an ATM and draw cash on her Monzo card.

I live in Cyprus, quite close to Maroni. I've used cash exactly once in the last month.

eDicky

inspectorperez said:. She has been told that cash is the preferred method of payment in most shops and restaurants.

'Preferred method', probably because it can be kept off the books to reduce tax, doesn't mean that it's the only method of payment and cards are unacceptable.

Using a Greek ATM is not really more hassle than using one in the UK, English will be displayed (or the option given) when a UK card is inserted.

J_B

eDicky said:

Using a Greek Cypriot ATM is not really more hassle than using one in the UK, English will be displayed (or the option given) when a UK card is inserted.

Edited above
But, be warned of the non-bank blue ATM's that charge €3 (?) before you breathe.