Is cash still king in Switzerland?

[Steinar]

I will be traveling (for pleasure) to Switzerland in the near future. As I have never been there, I am wondering whether Switzerland is “cash country” like e.g. Germany, where cards are sometimes not accepted and often only grudgingly, or has electronic payment started dominating, like in e.g. Scandinavia (where some places in Sweden cash is unwanted)?

So, can one of our Swiss or more traveled members enlighten me?  Should I prepare to carry along a fair amount of Swiss francs, or will some plastic with an embedded chip suffice?

[Syem]

I will be traveling (for pleasure) to Switzerland in the near future. As I have never been there, I am wondering whether Switzerland is “cash country” like e.g. Germany, where cards are sometimes not accepted and often only grudgingly, or has electronic payment started dominating, like in e.g. Scandinavia (where some places in Sweden cash is unwanted)?

So, can one of our Swiss or more traveled members enlighten me?  Should I prepare to carry along a fair amount of Swiss francs, or will some plastic with an embedded chip suffice?

Both are kings in the land of money.

Visa and MC are universally accepted although some places will only accept cash for very small amounts (less than 10 or 20 CHF) because of the fees.

AE is accepted in many places but definitely not everywhere. If that's all you have you may run in some trouble.

In terms of cash, 1000.- bills are not accepted everywhere or grudgingly so. All other ones are fine everywhere including the 200.- bills. Maybe a small food truck or tiny store will have issues giving back lots of change but that's about it.

Some small places may refuse CCs altogether so it's good to carry either a Visa or MC and a bit of cash for street stuff or flea market stalls if you're into that.

Otherwise a roll of 200s or 100s is the way to go if you want to avoid plastic.

Wish you a pleasant holiday

[Steinar]

Thanks a lot! Books never seem to cover practical stuff like this.