Cash or card

Small shops, and some jewellers, prefer cash. Bigger shops take cards - a few only accept cards from Bulgarian banks.

You can pay card/cash on delivery for most online purchases (the courier will ask for ID if it's a high value item).

More and more business are accepting cards as a form of payment.

I use  debit/and or credit cards about 90-95% of the time in Bulgaria.

Even small grocery shops take cards if you buy something more than 10 leva worth.

In some pharmacies, DM drug store there is no minimum.Taxis do not take cards with the exception of  some companies in the big cities. In restaurants the tip has to be in cash.

@H Williams

I pay by card for all my grocery shopping and all my online purchases. I do sometimes choose COD, but even then I pay by card.

I've paid all workers/tradesmen with cash.

Most of the materials for our renovations came from Praktiker or other big stores (IKEA, Jysk, Technopolis, BaniaStil), so these were either by card, or bank transfer (for large orders). I paid cash for the AC units and the stone window sills, but these were the exception.

I pay cash for fruit and veg at the local market, I doubt these folks will accept cards. I pay cash at my regular cafe at the market, but they do have a card machine.

Yes, cards are accepted in all the big stores and businesses, but smaller businesses often prefer cash.

I always carry enough cash for something, if I'm going to a small store, in case they don't take cards.  Also, often I experience the line "The card machine is broken" meaning cash only.

Best policy is to ask whether they take cards.

Thanks for all your responses I'll make sure to keep a little cash on me just in case.

@H Williams  we must not let 'them' stop cash, they want cash to go so that then they control our spending remotely. In UK a large number of people now boycott places that refuse cash.  Controlled spending and stopping us from spending, by government, ie use too much petrol for their liking (global warming and all that) and your card will not work to fill up.........social credit on its way!

@buckleyps

Surely they'd be smart enough to vastly increase the cost of aluminium foil as well, don't you think?  It's such an easy way to ensure that we can't protect ourselves from The Matrix....

A minuscule number of people signed a UK petition to force traders to accept cash - and who knows how many of them were genuine or even UK residents?  The government did nonetheless consider the issue, and decided to allow shopkeepers to continue to choose which form(s) of payment they wished to accept - sounds like freedom of choice prevailed, I'd say!

I always carry both. I have a BGN balance on my Wise card which is used places that accept cards (which seems to be more places every time I visit) but also have cash for smaller places, smaller purchases, and anyone who prefers to be paid in cash.

@JimJ what's with the aluminuim comment?

Those who know what is going on know full well that petitions are an absolute waste of time.

Tin foil hats to stop us from been brainwashed lol

I do think social credit isn't quite so tinfoil hat. I can see the strong possibility of it being introduced for UK benefits claimants, for example.

It's not too science fiction to imagine a specific debit card benefits must be paid to, spending being monitored, and then sanctions applied if too much is spent on ciggies and scratch cards, for example. The most likely thing to stop that happening is simply the amount of revenue the government would lose if they stopped people spending on the things they tax most heavily - fuel, alcohol, cigarettes, lotteries...

Certainly it's far easier to track both a person's location and spending habits if they use a card for most purchases. Though of course, few people consider the tracking device most always carry with them - their mobile phone.

@janemulberry

I'm not sure that I accept the use of the term "social credit" in such a context. Leaving that aside, what's to stop governments simply increasing the tax on certain products or services to a level where the consumers it wants to target can no longer afford them? There's no point p*ssing away billions on new systems to control spending when you can not only save that money but also increase tax revenues, and get an extra bit of street cred to boot.

If you want to control what Billy on Bennies spends his handouts on, what's wrong with doling out coupons redeemable against food items, prepaid electricity etc? If it generates "social stigma", so what - maybe it'll get some off Benefits Street and into employment.

There are enough barmy rumours already circulating to keep even the most paranoid of conspiracy theorists permanently frothing at the mouth, but apparently it's impossible to satisfy the demand....

@janemulberry social credit is as the system in China, it is not a tracking of spending, it is a centralised control of what everyone does, where they go, what they can buy, it is on the table as Saving the Planet from Global Warming, but it is to allocate everyone, everyone, with credit and if they don't like what you're doing they stop you having access to it.

@JimJ  It is all written down by the WEF, it isn't rumour, plans already made for social credit system, Agenda 2030, its rolling out globally.

I apologise this is off-topic, but,

It's far too late to think about your privacy and what "they" can see when you are here using the internet, using mobile phones, using digital banks, and everything that has an internet connection even GPS.

If Kier Starmer and his cronies want to see what I'm up to, I'm almost 100% sure they can find out what they want within a few hours, I'm in the armed forces, and even at my level the stuff I have had access to and seen operating lets me know that if they wanted to they already have the information and means to do it.

I don't agree with that they have but you and I won't change that, we all are lazy and like convenience so we will continue to use these technologies, it's thanks to our institutions that keep the government and companies in check.

You will not agree with me, but you shouldn't have an issue unless you are breaking the rules.

The Tinfoil will help block the GPS signal though, 100% tried and tested.

@buckleyps

That's a misrepresentation of what "social credit" is designed to be, and what's currently in use and planned doesn't match your description either.  The situation in China at present is both fluid and chaotic, and there's no certainty around when, or indeed if, the project will ever be fully implemented. Some of its aims are in fact laudable, and insofar as they impact the behaviour of individuals would probably find favour with a majority of people.

Leaving that aside, what makes you think that any other governments or supranational organisations have any intention of imposing such a system, even if they could agree on what it's actually supposed to be and do?  The very fact that it's a bee in the bonnet of the CCP is enough to damn the whole idea in most Western eyes.

I'd reiterate that, in my view, only the Tin-Foil Hat Brigade are concerned about the system coming to dominate their lives or limit their freedoms, even though it's undoubtedly the case that the problems our world is facing in the not so distant future need much stronger and more effective action than our pusillanimous leaders seem capable of taking....

Cash or card, bulgarian builder( good work on new roof 4 years ago, still no leaks.), when time to pay him quote ' in bulgaria cash is still king '.

Small shops like the small change so item cost 10.36, I only have 20 lev notes and change, I give 20.36 their happy easy maths 10 lev change.

@JimJ small shops are now saying that banks charge them to bank cash, as they want them to stop accepting cash.  People are not seeing that cashless society is being brought in slowly but surely.

@JimJ have you read or listened to the plans outed at the WEF summer meeting for future leaders in China July 2024?  It's nothing to do with joking about tin foil hats, it's having an interest in your own life rather than just let unknown establishment tell you how to live.  Too many are head in sand or gullible.

    @JimJ have you read or listened to the plans outed at the WEF summer meeting for future leaders in China July 2024?  It's nothing to do with joking about tin foil hats, it's having an interest in your own life rather than just let unknown establishment tell you how to live.  Too many are head in sand or gullible.
   

    -@buckleyps

Well, I did follow the "New Champions" meeting in June, but I must have missed the secret one in July..

There certainly didn't seem to be anything that came out of the session, which has been taking place since 2007, to get me too rattled - perhaps you can share with us gullible arenaceous types what it is that has you so worried?  The main topics this year were largely undiscussed: why are we in the West continuing to allow China to make fools of us, and why are we ignoring our own economic, military and social interests?  Are our leaders blind and stupid, or have they been bought?

That's an interesting usage of "arenaceous". Love it!

(Admits, to my shame- I needed to look it up, though I should have been able to figure it out.)