Do You Need Cash In Brazil In 2023?

I was actually surprised by how obvious it was, from the vendors' point of view, that it would be possible to pay by card at every store in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. When I was researching before my trip, the answer to whether I would need cash or not was ambiguous. Just a few years ago, Brazil was still a cash-based economy, but the transition from cash to card has been almost instant, probably helped by the pandemic and the prompts to avoid touching the same surfaces as others.

As of 2023, I would definitely say that a card is the only thing you need in Brazil if you are visiting the larger cities. If you want to go to rural places, the situation might be different. But for the average tourist visiting Rio de Janeiro or a businessman visiting São Paulo, there is no need to bring cash or to look for ATMs when you arrive.

Not a single restaurant or store was reluctant to bring the payment machine, and they always brought it to the table. Another thing many guides mention is not to allow the waiter to take the card away to a machine in the kitchen, which should be obvious. However, it was never a problem that someone even suggested that.

The only problem I had with card payment in Brazil was that my international cards were randomly declined. It was a bit arbitrary which of my cards got declined, so I occasionally had to try several cards for approval. More commonly, their machine was out of order, and they had to bring another one. The record was one restaurant where three machines declined our cards until the fourth accepted it.

To be clear, these machines usually declined before giving the option to enter the code, and I have not had any issues with the cards afterwards. The first time it happened, it felt sketchy, but after it had happened a few times, we learned it was a normal occurrence.

I only needed cash once during my two weeks in Brazil. That was for a tour that included tickets to a football match at Maracana Stadium. That was the only transaction that was not possible to pay by card. I'm pretty sure the tour company required cash because they wanted a deposit before buying the game tickets, and they couldn't visit all hotels every day with a card machine, so it was just easier to have the hotels attest that they had a cash deposit.

It was easy and quick to find an ATM and get cash for that particular situation. I actually liked the Santander ATM that I used in Copacabana because I didn't have to put my card inside the machine. I used it similarly to a normal card machine, so there was no risk of the machine swallowing the card.

My recommendation for tourists in urban Brazil is to not bring any cash in the local currency and to not withdraw any upon arrival. If you, like me, find yourself in a situation where you do need some cash for a particular transaction, then it only takes a few minutes to fix that since there are ATMs available everywhere in the tourist areas of the major cities.