Paying by card in Croatia, and where you still need cash

Yes, your Visa or Mastercard works in Croatia. Croatia has used the euro since 1 January 2023, so if your card is issued in euros there is no conversion at all, and if it is issued in dollars or pounds there is exactly one conversion instead of two. Contactless is normal in cities, hotels, supermarkets and larger restaurants.

The gap to plan around is that no Croatian law obliges a business to accept cards. Markets, small family-run konobas, some island transport, car parks and a handful of ferry operators still run on cash. Carry 50 to 100 euros in small notes and you will not get caught out.

Our Croatia guide sets out the payment norms alongside the entry rules and the local apps for your own trip, so this post digs into the one question of cards and cash.

The euro, and why it matters for your card

Croatia replaced the kuna with the euro on 1 January 2023, at an irrevocably fixed rate of 1 euro to 7.53450 kuna, set by Council Regulation (EU) 2022/1208. The Croatian National Bank is the authority on this.

For a US or UK visitor this is straightforwardly good news. Before the switch, a dollar card paying a kuna price often went through two conversions. Now it is one, into a major world currency your bank prices competitively.

Croatia also joined the Schengen area on the same day, 1 January 2023, when checks at its land and sea borders were lifted. Checks at internal air borders followed on 26 March 2023, per the Council of the EU.

If you have old kuna in a drawer

This is worth getting precisely right, because the two halves of the rule are different and it is easy to remember them the wrong way round.

Per the Croatian National Bank:

• Kuna banknotes can be exchanged for euro at the Croatian National Bank without any time limit, free of charge.
• Kuna coins could be exchanged only until 31 December 2025. Since 1 January 2026 they can no longer be exchanged at all.

Exchange happens at the Croatian National Bank at Nikole Jurišića 17 in Zagreb, Monday to Friday, 08:30 to 15:30. Amounts under 15,000 kuna can be sent by post, at your own risk. The fixed rate of 7.53450 applies.

So if you have leftover kuna notes from a trip in 2019, they are still worth euros and there is no deadline pressure. The coins, unfortunately, are now souvenirs.

Photo by Lothar Boris Piltz on Unsplash

Nobody can charge you extra for paying by card

If a Croatian business tells you there is a 3% fee for card payment, that is not allowed for an ordinary personal Visa or Mastercard.

EU payment rules ban merchants from charging you extra for paying with a card whose fees are capped under EU law, and consumer Visa and Mastercard both sit inside that cap.

Put plainly: for a personal Visa or Mastercard, the card price and the cash price must be the same.

The exception is commercial and corporate cards, which sit outside the interchange cap and therefore outside the surcharge ban. If you are paying with a company card, a surcharge can be lawful.

There is also a minimum-spend question, which is different. A café saying "cards over 10 euros only" is not surcharging you, and that practice is not covered by the ban. It is mildly annoying and it is legal.

The trap that actually costs money

The one thing likely to cost you real money in Croatia is dynamic currency conversion, where a card terminal or ATM offers to charge you in dollars or pounds instead of euros. It looks like a courtesy. The exchange rate is set by the merchant's provider, and it is nearly always worse than your own bank's.

EU law is on your side here, and it specifically requires disclosure. Whoever offers you that conversion, whether a shop terminal or an ATM, has to show you the markup as a percentage over the European Central Bank's rate before you approve the payment, and has to tell you that you can pay in euros instead and let your own bank handle it.

The rule to follow is short. When a screen offers you a choice of currencies, always choose euros. Every time. If the terminal has already picked your home currency for you, ask the cashier to run it again in euros.

Standalone ATMs that are not attached to a bank branch may also charge their own operator fee on top. They are required to disclose the conversion mark-up, but the fee itself is not capped by the regulation. Using an ATM inside or outside an actual bank is the simpler habit. We were not able to source specific fee figures for individual Croatian ATM operators, so we are not quoting any.

A card with low or no foreign transaction fees does most of this work for you. Wise is what we use, because it converts at the mid-market rate and shows the fee before you confirm, which makes the maths visible rather than a surprise on the statement. If your existing card already charges nothing abroad, you do not need another one.

Photo by Bruno Martins on Unsplash

Where cash still wins

We looked for a Croatian law obliging businesses to accept card payments and did not find one, at gov.hr, at the Ministry of Finance or at the Tax Administration. Greece has such a rule. Croatia, as far as we can establish, does not.

That means acceptance is a commercial choice, and the places most likely to choose cash are predictable:

• Produce, fish and craft markets, stall by stall
• Small family-run konobas, especially inland and on the smaller islands
• Local buses and some island and taxi-boat operators
• Car parks and some public toilets
• Very small shops in villages

Fifty to a hundred euros in five, ten and twenty notes covers all of it comfortably. Break large notes at a supermarket rather than trying to pay for a two euro coffee with a fifty.

Photo by Ivan Ivankovic on Unsplash

You are entitled to a receipt

Since 1 January 2026, Croatia's Fiscalisation Act requires businesses issuing invoices to end consumers to fiscalise receipts regardless of how you paid, whether cash, card or transfer. This is confirmed in a Tax Administration ruling dated 12 February 2026.

For you as a visitor this is a useful safeguard. A fiscal receipt carries a unique verification code, and a business that will not give you one is not complying with Croatian law. If you are querying a bill, the receipt is the document that settles it.

Tipping, and why it is a cash question

Tipping in Croatia is appreciated rather than expected, and the amounts are modest by American standards.

• Restaurants: 10 to 15% is appreciated and is not mandatory.
• Cafés, bars and taxis: rounding up is normal and enough.
• Check the bill first. A service charge is sometimes already included, and you do not need to tip on top of it.

The practical point is that tipping is the one part of a Croatian bill where cash still matters even when the card works perfectly. Servers almost always prefer a cash tip, in Croatia and just about everywhere else, because a tip added to a card payment goes through the business before it reaches them, if it reaches them at all. Leaving the tip in coins or a small note on the table is the reliable way to make sure the person who served you actually gets it.

That is one more reason to keep small euro notes on you even on a trip where you pay for everything else by card.

Worth being clear about the standing of this section: tipping is a social norm, not a law, so this is our own guidance from the Croatia guide rather than something we can point at a government page for. Everything else in this post is sourced.

The short version

• Visa and Mastercard are widely accepted. Croatia uses the euro, so there is one conversion, not two.
• A surcharge on a personal Visa or Mastercard is not lawful. A card minimum is.
• Always choose to be charged in euros. Never in dollars or pounds.
• Prefer bank ATMs over standalone machines.
• Carry 50 to 100 euros for markets, small konobas, island transport and car parks.
• Tip 10 to 15% at restaurants if you are happy with the meal, round up elsewhere, and leave it in cash.
• Old kuna banknotes still exchange at the central bank with no deadline. Kuna coins no longer exchange at all.

Money and payment details move faster than anything else we publish, so this post is rechecked every 60 days. Everything above was verified against the Croatian National Bank, the Croatian Tax Administration and EUR-Lex on 20 August 2026.

Once the payment side is sorted, your personalized Croatia guide covers the entry rules for your passport, the apps worth having before you land, and how transport works from the airport you are actually flying into.