What a strange and awkward discovery it was to find that very, very few stores here accept any kind of credit card.
When we first arrived we had no bank account here - and that took an inordinate amount of time to open too. So we had to buy a lot of stuff, mostly electrical equipment.
And it all had to be paid for in cash as the shops don't take Visa. They do take something called an EC card, which thankfully we now have. But for quite a while, shopping for essentials was nigh on impossible.