Cash Is Still King — But From July 2027 It Will Have to Show ID

Buying a used car with a suitcase of banknotes, paying a builder in crisp hundreds, settling a private debt in cash: none of it is banned in most of the European Union today. That changes on 10 July 2027, when Regulation (EU) 2024/1624 takes binding effect and pulls large cash payments into the same transparency net that banks have lived with for years.

Under Article 19 of the regulation, businesses and professions classed as "obliged entities" will have to establish and verify the identity of customers — and of the beneficial owners behind them — whenever an occasional cash payment reaches 3,000 euros. The money can still change hands. It simply stops being anonymous. Sellers must check ID and document the transaction properly, and where suspicion arises or the risk is judged higher, extra evidence has to be collected.

Splitting the sum into instalments will not help. Linked payments are added together, a deliberate guard against structuring designed to duck under the threshold. Records are in principle kept for five years from the end of the business relationship or the completion of the transaction, with the possibility of a limited extension in individual cases ordered by the authorities. Romania illustrates how far national implementation can reach: from summer 2027, traders there must gather and report extensive buyer data on transactions above 3,000 euros, on top of the general limit.

A hard ceiling at 10,000 euros

The same regulation introduces an EU-wide maximum for cash payments, also from 10 July 2027. Anyone selling goods or services may neither accept nor pay out amounts above 10,000 euros, or the equivalent in another currency. Connected transactions fall under the ban as well. The only carve-outs are payments between private individuals acting outside any professional activity, and deposits or withdrawals at banks and authorised payment service providers.

Brussels frames the package as targeted surveillance of suspicious money flows rather than an assault on physical currency. According to the European Council, between 117,000 and 210,000 million euros in suspicious transactions circulate in the EU each year, touching roughly 70 percent of active criminal networks. Private arrangements — a loan between friends, the sale of a personal possession — stay outside the restrictions.

Capitals keep room to go stricter

Member states may retain or create tighter national rules, provided they consult the European Central Bank and the European Commission first. Spain already bans cash payments from 1,000 euros where a business or self-employed person is involved, with an exemption for non-residents up to 10,000 euros. In Portugal, selling a car to a private individual for 11,000 euros in cash is not permitted. A draft bill in Poland's Sejm would raise the transaction ceiling between companies from 15,000 to 25,000 z?oty, in force since 2018; the EU's 10,000-euro limit corresponds to about 45,000 z?oty there, and member states may only adjust downwards.

One persistent myth needed correcting: a fact-check by SIC Verifica confirmed that the claim cash holdings above 10,000 euros become illegal in 2027 is false. Owning, storing and transporting large sums remains lawful.

The rules also reach beyond the bloc's borders. A buyer from North Macedonia purchasing a used car from a dealer in Germany or elsewhere in the EU will no longer be able to settle a vehicle priced above 10,000 euros in notes, and will have to use a bank transfer or another cashless method. What does not change is the customs declaration already required when carrying 10,000 euros or more across the EU's external borders.