Munich Travel Forum

Folks, what kind of credit card does MVV (public transport) accept? Does it accept the, should i say regular or american type cards, the one with long magnetic strip along the length of the card? I vaguely remember that some places accepted only the credit cards with microchip, the one with thumb size imprint on the left side. May be things have changed or my memory is getting weaker :).
Thanks.

Cards with 'chip & PIN' are the norm in Europe. They still have the long magnetic strip, but it is rarely used for sales.

If your card does not have a chip then it has to be 'swiped' (passed through a reader manually). Not all card reading machines still have this function.

I can't speak for Munich MVV specifically, but many/most European machines (other than ATMs) which do not have a human being working them will not accept non-chip cards, as their technology just reads the chip. I am thinking of ticket machines etc.

Even if there is a human being, if the card reader does not have 'swipe' functionality then your card may not be acceptable.

I am rather sure you can pay by credit card only at the MVV machines at the airport, and at other machines by Geldkarte (money card) and EC Card (Eurocheque card = German eftpos card).

See this info on the MVV website about non-cash payments:

MVV-Zeitkarten bargeldlos zahlen

An diesen Automaten zahlen Sie bargeldlos:

Rund 400 Automaten an S-Bahn-Stationen - mit GeldKarte

147 Fernverkehrsautomaten der Deutschen Bahn - mit GeldKarte oder EC-Karte und Eingabe der Geheimnummer (PIN)

60 Zeitkartenautomaten an den U-Bahnstationen - mit GeldKarte oder EC-Karte und Eingabe der Geheimnummer (PIN)

There is an extra chapter about credit card payment at the airport only:

An allen MVV-Automaten am Flughafen München können Sie Fahrkarten auch mit Ihrer Kreditkarte bezahlen.

Akzeptiert werden:
EUROCARD/MasterCard
VISA
Diners Club
AMERICAN EXPRESS

So geht´s:
Gewünschte Fahrkarte auswählen
Kreditkarte in Kartenleser stecken
Fahrkarte aus dem Ausgabeschacht nehmen

All this info is also available in English:

http://www.mvv-muenchen.de/en/home/fahrgastinformation/services/bargeldloses_bezahlen/index.html

> what kind of credit card does MVV (public transport) accept?

None, except at Munich airport.

Credit cards are too expensive to handle. All German bank accounts come with a so-called EC-Karte (ec = electronic cash, use to be short for Eurocheque until cheques practically ceased to exist some 15 years ago), which is not only used to get money from an ATM but also enables the merchant to directly charge the amount from the customer's bank account. Most card-based transactions in Germany are done using an EC-Karte.

Most of these EC-Karten have an additional function called Geldkarte, which is basically virtual cash stored on the card. Since the money is on the card it's even less expensive to handle and thus the method of choice for small amounts like public transport tickets or cigarette vending machines.

DB ticket machines accept credit cards (VISA and Mastercard for sure). Ticket machines of local transport carriers usually do not accept any credit cards. Those at Munich Airport are a rare exception.

Credit cards with magnetic strip and no chip are common in Germany (I have just checked mine).

Please note that only at major stations DB ticket machines accept credit cards. If you want to purchase a ticket at a small station, often the machines do not even accept eftpos (EC) cards, only cash, and in the best case Geldkarten. None of my friends have Geldkarten....

> Please note that only at major stations DB ticket machines accept credit cards.

No. For about two years now DB has been replacing any kind of old ticket machine with a new, universal one. Maybe Munich is the last place where the old ones have not yet been replaced, but still it's not a question of the station the machine is located at, they just won't accept credit cards for the small amounts typical in local transport.

> None of my friends have Geldkarten....

Then either none of your friends have an ec-Karte or they simply do not know that ec-Karte and Geldkarte are two functions of the _same_ card. There are banks that issue ec-Karten with the Geldkarte functionality disabled, but these are rare: currently we have some 74 million Geldkarten in Germany at a population of 82 million.

New Zealand is far away, isn't it.

Mvmom...

NZ might be far away but I am from Germany and visit every year. Nearly all my friends live in Germany, and although they do not use Geldkarten I would not consider them being idiots.

I have an EC card myself and have not used it as Geldkarte, as I lived in a city where I would pay DB tickets by EC card and paid small amounts cash. On my last visit I wanted to pay for my mother's DB ticket with my EC card, and the machine did not accept it. This BTW was far away from Munich, just in a small town without ticket counter.

So I think you do not have to treat me like a NZ ignorant or idiot. Your attitude has been known for quite a while now.

> Your attitude has been known for quite a while now.

Thank you, nice to hear that my helpful attitude is appreciated and not forgotten in the vast spaces of the Net.