The Credit Card System Rick Steves Says Will Be 'Taking Europe By Storm' Is A Convenient Delight

Global travelers know the pain of trying to figure out public transportation in a new country or even only city. This is especially true of payment options. Some ancient cities, like Milan in Italy, have blessedly installed contactless readers on old, single-car trams that negate the need for cumbersome payment system nonsense. Just step on the tram and tap with your card — done. Japan's transportation system, meanwhile, is completely unified across the entire country, right down to the smallest town. You get a Pasmo or Suica card (the most common options) or their apps, load at kiosks or on your phone, and then tap in or tap out anywhere. As time passes, we can hope that more and more such conveniences will ripple across Earth. If travel author Rick Steves is to be believed, this is definitely the case in Europe.

In his recent YouTube video about a trip to Venice and the Dolomites, Steves points out the joys of using his contactless credit card on the Venice Vaporetto, its water-based bus system. But even above and beyond tapping in and tapping out, there's a diminishing cost associated with continual use of the system. One AEROBUS use costs €10 (about $12 USD), two costs €20 (about $24 USD), but the maximum amount per day is €25 (about $30 USD). So, a third use is only €5 (about $6 USD) and beyond that — zilch. London has used a similar system with its Oyster cards for years now, where daily costs and weekly costs hit a cap (per groups of city zones). But, you don't need a separate card to access such systems. You just your own, personal card, phone, watch, etc. This is the trend that Steves predicts will spread throughout Europe. 

It really would be a dream to travel anywhere in Europe with one personal card: Tapping in and tapping out, knowing that most locations has a daily or weekly payment cap. That kind of universality is far, far in the future, however. Nonetheless, it stands to reason that various cities will lean in the direction of Venice and London and adopt similar, contactless, pay-capped systems for public transportation. Not only is it spectacularly convenient, it would arguably thin out overtouristed cities in Europe, like Rome and Barcelona, by reducing tourist confusion. And since you'd be using your own, personal credit card, you'd already be avoiding the payment method that Rick Steves describes as the most unsafe method while traveling abroad: debit cards.

But as it stands, contactless payments on public transportation, in general, are sweeping across Europe bit by bit. Slovenia, for instance, adopted a contactless system recently and in staggered fashion. Starting late 2023, passengers could use contactless cards on buses in Slovenia's capital, Ljubljana (a favorite, undiscovered delight of Rick Steves'). It started with Visa and Mastercard, and recently in May, 2025, expanded to include American Express. Other Slovenian cities like Kranj actually have a daily bus fare cap of €1 (about $1 USD), but you still have to tap in/out every ride. 

Other countries like Hungary are rolling out personal card contactless payments in Budapest only. Even then, it's only available on the M1 metro line and the 100E Airport Express bus. Yet other countries, like the Netherlands, allow personal contactless cards for public transportation, but still have their old card system in place, OV-Chipkaart. In that case, it'd be up to the traveler to decide which payment method to use.