Money in Albany: Cards, Cash, and What to Carry
A credit card being tapped at a payment terminal in Albany
Cards work basically everywhere; you’ll want about $20 in cash as a backup.
Cards are the default
Every restaurant, bar, hotel, museum, and shop in Albany takes Visa and Mastercard. American Express is accepted at most sit-down restaurants and all chain hotels but sometimes rejected at small cafes and dive bars. Contactless tap works at nearly every terminal, including CDTA buses via the Navigator app. Apple Pay and Google Pay are broadly accepted. Foreign chip-and-PIN cards work fine; the US is comfortable with chip-and-signature or contactless, so you rarely enter a PIN.
Where cash still matters: farmers markets (the Delmar and Troy markets in season), some food trucks around Empire State Plaza on weekday lunch, tipping housekeeping, and the rare cash-only bar. The Peter D. Kiernan Plaza Farmers Market downtown takes cards from most vendors now but not all. Twenty dollars in small bills covers you for a week.
ATMs, exchange, and sales tax
Bank ATMs from KeyBank, M&T, Bank of America, and Chase are common downtown and along Central Avenue. Fees for out-of-network cards run $3 to $5 plus whatever your home bank charges. Currency exchange is limited; do it at the airport or before you arrive rather than counting on downtown. Sales tax in Albany County is 8%, added at the register, so a $10 menu item rings up as $10.80 before tip. Hotel occupancy tax adds another 6% on top of state and local sales tax, which pushes advertised room rates up by roughly 14% at checkout.
Before you book
The questions people ask about Delmar, answered with this month’s numbers.
A handful. Some dive bars, one or two small lunch counters, and certain farmers market stalls. Not enough to worry about.
Bring $50 to $100 for immediate incidentals and use cards for everything else. Exchange rates at Albany banks are poor.
