Do I need cash here?
Short answer
Cards will carry almost the whole trip, but cash has not gone away — the Federal Reserve's own survey still counts it in roughly one payment in seven, and four in five people used it in the past month.
What the numbers actually say
The Federal Reserve runs an annual diary of how people pay, and the finding is steadier than the headlines: cash remains around a seventh of payments by number, four out of five consumers used it within the past thirty days, and it has held third place behind cards for years.
Read that as a floor rather than a trend. This is not a country where cash is quietly being switched off, and a traveller carrying none will hit the gap at some point in a fortnight.
Where the gap turns up
Small independent businesses with a minimum card spend, laundromats, some street vendors and food trucks, and older transit ticket machines. Tips in cash where you would rather the server got the whole amount.
And the one nobody plans for: a card that stops working. A card flagged for foreign use, or a chip that a particular reader refuses, turns a fifty-dollar note in your pocket into the difference between dinner and no dinner.
How much, and where to get it
A modest amount in small notes covers it — twenties are the note the country runs on, and a hundred can be refused by a small shop that cannot break it.
Draw it from a bank's own ATM rather than the standalone machines in shops and bars, which charge more. And tell your bank you are travelling, because the block placed on a card that suddenly appears abroad is the reason people end up needing the cash they did not bring.
Good to know
- Cash is still around one payment in seven, per the Federal Reserve
- Card minimums, laundromats, food trucks and older ticket machines are the usual gaps
- Carry small notes — twenties, not hundreds
- Use bank ATMs rather than standalone machines, and tell your bank you are travelling
Yes. Cards work in cities, but small restaurants, shrines, and rural transport are cash only.
Rarely — but a card on its own is not the answer either. Almost everything runs through payment apps, and a foreign card has to be linked to one of them first.
Some. Malls and hotels take cards, but stalls, markets and shared vans want cash — and locals mostly pay each other by QR.
Yes. Hotels and malls take cards, but street food, markets and short rides all run on cash — and the notes are easy to confuse.
Rarely. Cards and phone payments work almost everywhere, including buses and street stalls.
Some. Convenience stores and chains take cards, but night markets and small kitchens run on cash — and on the transit card.