Santiago use cash or credit card ?

[Polome]

Have a long weekend comming up in Santiago , will I need some Peso or is cc commonly accepted in bars/shops/taxi . In UK cash is hardly needed now and wondered if it could be same. Anyone visited Chile recently ? Cheers Ian

[DangerDoom]

Was there in December 2022 (don't know if that counts as recent). Card and contactless seemed pretty widespread. Think there was zero cash used in Santiago actually; cash more prevalent elsewhere in Chile though.

[djc206]

Polome said:

Have a long weekend comming up in Santiago , will I need some Peso or is cc commonly accepted in bars/shops/taxi . In UK cash is hardly needed now and wondered if it could be same. Anyone visited Chile recently ? Cheers Ian

Had 3 weeks in Chile in Nov/Dec, if you’re just in Santiago card should be fine. The little street vendors selling bottles of water etc often only take cash but you can just pop into a 7eleven instead. Uber is good in Santiago, the regular taxis are a bit of a minefield and maintenance standards are questionable.

[smack]

The only time I needed cash in 2 trips there was for toll roads in a hire car. There isn't much in the way of street food and what I found didn't tempt me enough to give it try, so to need for cash is minimal as others said. Pretty much every bar/restaurant/fast food place took card.
For Taxi's I used Cabify - Uber is blocked from operating in parts of Latin America, Cabify is Spanish so looked on more favourably, and the default I use in that part of the world. Short trips with, a few miles cost £2-3, and downtown area to the airport was around £13 with Cabify.

You can take a shared mini bus from the airport if you want to save some money and have the time if you are not on expenses (I did as I was on the early morning arriving BA flight, and no guarantee that I could check in early to my hotel - in the end they were fine with it) , but I found it was a Pita to book for a pickup to take you to the airport.

[djc206]

smack said:

The only time I needed cash in 2 trips there was for toll roads in a hire car. There isn't much in the way of street food and what I found didn't tempt me enough to give it try, so to need for cash is minimal as others said. Pretty much every bar/restaurant/fast food place took card.
For Taxi's I used Cabify - Uber is blocked from operating in parts of Latin America, Cabify is Spanish so looked on more favourably, and the default I use in that part of the world. Short trips with, a few miles cost £2-3, and downtown area to the airport was around £13 with Cabify.

You can take a shared mini bus from the airport if you want to save some money and have the time if you are not on expenses (I did as I was on the early morning arriving BA flight, and no guarantee that I could check in early to my hotel - in the end they were fine with it) , but I found it was a Pita to book for a pickup to take you to the airport.

Uber isn’t blocked in Chile, I used it extensively a few months ago. Cabify is a good shout.

Hire cars seem to have tags now and the tolls are included in the rental, we didn’t have to stop for any toll booths. I was surprised at how easy driving around the country was tbh.

Edited by djc206 on Monday 4th March 16:00

[Polome]

Many thanks for reply’s…don’t think I’ll bother with peso’s after reading the above…usually have dollars as cash so can tip with them if needed. cheers. Ian