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We keep hearing that cash is widely popular in Portugal where here in the US most everyone uses credit cards. Are you not able to use credit cards at grocery stores, restaurants and or shopping?
That is most likely true in the smaller towns/villages. Here in Porto and in Lisbon, credit/debit cards are widely used. There are occasions when you cannot but for the most part, I hardly ever need cash.
We find MBway (digital payment system) is very widely accepted, even in our local farmer's markets. Your Portuguese banking app is connected to the system, and you just scan a QR code to pay. We rarely use cash. ApplePay is also fairly common.
@zoom The farmers here sure don't have MBWay - I wonder if you're looking at produce stands in a municipal market, which though usually a big step up from grocery stores, are just retailers. Our farmers market is not the most vital affair here, though, compared to say Leiria's down the road. They may not even have change for a 20 - actually there does seem to be a bit of a strain in the whole system for change in the €1 range, I guess because people don't like to accumulate them in their pockets.
While cash almost always works most places do take credit cards and debit cards. Some will only take Portugal cards that use MBWay. The cash only places have the MBWay sign with a red line through it. We have seen some restaurants that actually will not take cash but that is rare.
Our son came with his Amex card and virtually nobody accepted it. Visa and Mastercard are the dominate players.
There is a clear divide on this issue between the main cities, coastal areas and certain other tourist places, and the rest of the country.
You are pretty much always going to be able to use a credit or debit card to pay for fuel, supermarkets, chain shops and medium/large hotels. (Beware - pay-at-pump machines for fuel are unreliable with foreign cards.)
However, in pretty much any other setting, you are more than likely to find only Multibanco (MB) payments available (which may or may not accept a foreign debit card), or that only cash is accepted. The smaller the merchant, and the smaller the settlement, the more likely this is, in broad terms.
Market traders do not normally accept anything other than cash, except in cities or areas with significant tourist footfall.
Phone-based payment systems such as MBWay (which is not easily used with non-Portuguese cards) and Apple Pay are not commonly used or trusted outside of cities, though this is gradually changing.
As noted by other posters, Visa and MasterCard are the only two widely accepted card systems, with debit being more widely accepted than credit. Other systems, such as Amex, should not be relied on in Portugal.
In essence, if you're going to spend time away from the cities and the coast, have cash, or a card enabling you to get cash out easily. Living in semi-rural Portugal, and mostly spending time away from cities, I need cash most days, particularly if I'm to avoid paying tourist prices or limiting my choices significantly.
Sorry for confusing MB and MB WAY. Here is the specifics on MB WAY https://www.mbway.pt/perguntas/
I use MB WAY quite often with the Millennium app and forget.
@jonesdn2020 Thanks, that's great. It gives all the answers I needed. I think it's wise to wait to get the ap when we move since we will probably get a local phone # and that's what it's tied to. Am I mistaken?
@dottyhop I also use the Millennium app to use MB WAY by scanning a QR code from the vendor. More frequent is the use of my PT cell number and authorize it in the app.
Whereas in MX we always get local currency using our debit card in an ATM and found that's the best/cheapest way in terms of exchange rate & service charge to do so, but in Pt there was a huge charge for using our American bank debit card, but we needed cash in addition to credit cards and without a local bank we were stuck. Had we known how expensive it was to use our debit card, we would have used an exchange desk at the airport on arrival.
@dottyhop I think it will depend on which USA bank and card you use. I took up the advice of others here on the Forum and opened an account with Schwab. Good exchange rates and Schwab reimburses all ATM fees. That's my recommendation.
@jeanne It appears that Schwab only has "investment banking accounts" which I take to mean the bank account is tied to your stock fund. We have no stocks at all (real estate investments only as I've been a Realtor for 37 years) so am thinking we don't qualify for Schwab. Anyone know any different? I really am not comfortable with having other people manage (I think manipulate) our savings which I see happening daily on the stock market, so don't want to get into it. Are Chase or Citibank an alternative? No way would I go to B of A! Otherwise, we'll stick with our local bank, do transfers to a Spartan Fx account and then to our Santander in Pt. We already have all the mortgages and supporting services for rentals in the local bank, so it's a lot easier if I don't have to change everything.
@dottyhop My account at Schwab is not linked to any other assets. It's called an investment account, but I just keep some $$ cash in the account, so the card is basically just a debit card. The interest is next to nothing, but that's not why I have that card. You can start by depositing some $$ into the account, and if you never give trading instructions it just sits there as cash until you withdraw it at a (PT) ATM.
@jeanne Thanks Jeanne. That answers my question. Still deciding what to do with banking, but with Spartan Fx offering a fair exchange rate and the ability to link our account there to our local bank to transfer $$ instead of having to wire, I'm not sure we need to have Schwab after all. Spartan takes away the worst part of local banking which is they had to use B of A for international wires and we lost so much money doing that in the beginning. Live and learn!
@dottyhop always use only Mutlibanco ATMs never use the blue and yellow Euronet ones as they are the ones that charge the most. Also ATMs will often ask if you want to navigate your transaction in your home currency or the local currency. Always complete your transaction in the local currency.
@blaze451 Good to know thanks, I would have not known to use which ATM and would not have known there was much of a difference.
@blaze451 Yes, we learned the hard way. 15,80 euro service charge I think they wanted for 100 euros.
@dottyhop That is interesting because I usually find the exchange desk at the airport to be the more expensive and not the most efficient way. This is something to think about. Thanks,
@barak We now have a Sandander account and a debit card, so don't plan on having to use kiosk exchange desks when we move to Pt.
@dottyhop Hopefully you will still have a US based address that your local US bank will accept, to keep your accounts "open". Most US banks want to close your accts. if they find that you are living in residence in PT. If you did the research, you already are aware of this.
@alleycat Once we move in 2026 we do not plan to have a US address. We use a credit union and am not sure if they will care if we are residents of US or not. guess I will have to ask the question.
@barak Two questions, actually -
- do they care if you're a US resident, and
- do they care if you have a US address.
