How to Pay in Estonia

Estonia uses the euro and card payment is the normal choice for most visitor spending.

Contactless Visa and Mastercard work widely in hotels, restaurants, supermarkets, ticket machines and urban transport. That does not make Estonia literally cashless. Eesti Pank's 2024 survey found that cash still accounted for a substantial minority of point-of-sale payments, and its 2025 survey found that some people had encountered merchants refusing cash while other small businesses still lacked card acceptance. Bring a physical backup card from another issuer and keep a modest amount of euro cash for markets, small rural businesses, tips or a terminal outage.

American Express is less universal than Visa or Mastercard. No Estonian payment app is useful enough for an ordinary short-term visitor to open. Revolut, Wise or another travel card can be useful only if the traveler already has an eligible account and favorable terms; they are not local requirements and not Estonian apps. At an ATM, prefer a recognizable bank machine, read both the operator fee and your bank's fee, and decline conversion into your home currency so your own issuer performs the exchange.

Since January 2025, cash totals are rounded to the nearest five cents, while card totals are not. This is a pricing rule for cash settlement, not an added fee. Keep the backup card separate from the primary wallet and do not rely on a phone wallet as the only way to pay.