I just spent 2 weeks in Spain and there were many places I tried to eat that were cash ø ly.
In Chinatown in London, as well, many places are cash only.
"outside the US" is a big place, be careful to be more specific.
Where? Was in Barcelona recently, even the 1€ espresso in a random cafe was paid by card.
Tourist places usually take cards, but the "local" places I was visiting often didn't.
I did not mean to say all places outside the US
Practical, still a bit weary though especially without EMV readers
For everything else, yes, mostly cards
I normally have a few may 100 to 200DKK in my vallet, because the credit/debit card system do still fail. I haven't run into anything in the last few years where I could pay with card or mobile payment.
Since 2015 Berlin taxis (note this doesn’t apply to the rest of Germany) are required by law to accept EC cards and at least 3 different credit card networks (which in practice means Visa, MasterCard and AmEx). If the reader is not operational they‘re comitting a misdemeanor. Best advice is to not pay and ask them call the police if disagree - usually the machines magically start working again.
Why are the drivers lying about it? The fee they‘re paying is relatively high (about 3%, but it‘s somewhat offset by a 1.50€ surcharge) but more commonly they‘re are either trying to avoid taxes and they‘re using someone’s taxi without holding a license themselves.