Tipping in Europe when paying by credit card?

In continental Europe, use cash, nothing else. That's a simple rule you should follow, all other discussions are a distraction.

There are some differences between countries but generally speaking tipping on the credit card is highly unusual, in most countries you won't find any routine way to add a tip on the bill and many people will not know what to do if you ask them to do it. In those places, if you do manage to add a tip to the credit card charge, the money probably won't come back to the waiting staff anyway.

Even in countries where adding a tip to a credit card bill is not that unusual, without being common, like the UK, I am sure most waiters prefer getting cash to avoid sharing with their boss and paying admin fees or taxes.

As an example, I worked at a café/restaurant in France and I can tell you that nobody ever tipped with a credit or debit card (and that includes many tourists from the UK, the Netherlands, or Belgium and some from Spain, Germany, Switzerland or elsewhere). Most people paying by card did not tip at all, those who felt generous just left some extra cash on their table or even handed it to me after paying.

If you would have asked us to add a tip to the credit card, my colleagues and myself wouldn't even know what to do. I am not aware of any way to separate the tip from the price of the meal in either the cash register or the POS card terminal and it would simply mess up the total at the end of the day. We weren't allowed to give you some cash by charging more on the card either.

As you will read in the comments and elsewhere, there are many countries in Europe and some are slightly different in this respect but you can't go wrong with cash. Most importantly for your purpose, in most of Europe, it's definitely very common to tip in cash even if you pay by card.

In the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany its very common to tell the waiter, make it (Price+ Price * 5-10%) euro. Then they will simply input this in there credit card reader, and it get's sorted at the end of the day. (Your tip is divided along all staff working during your visit.)

Source: I live in The Netherlands close to the Belgium and German border, this is what everyone does.

The classical way to go about this is to leave cash on the table. Your receipt will usually come in either a receipt-wallet (left), or a small plate of some kind (right):

After you pay for the meal, drop the tip in there. Usually this means that the waiter who attended you will collect the tip, before clearing the table for the next customers. You can also look out for a tip-jar, which can often be found in certain easy-going places (read: bars).

Other, more modern electronic payment services, allow you to specify the tip before you enter your PIN on the POS (card payment machine). Now I don't have exact figures in terms of how widely-adopted these machines are. From personal experience I recall using them several times in the UK, and a handful of times in Europe.

Should you encounter such POS machines, note that the tip recipient might not be the waiter who actually attended you. This is indeed dependent on the restaurant policy. The tip could also be placed into a common virtual tipping jar which will be then divided between waiters. Moreover, since the tip will be added to the total card payment it will be handled by the card companies. Hence a percentage of it will be taken as processing fee or whatever. Point being, if you want to be sure that a the staff receives the full tip amount, leave it in cash.

The tip line on the credit card slip is IMHO unique to those countries where tipping is more required than optional, such as the US.

In Sweden - when paying with credit card - you almost always get the option of specifying the total amount you want to pay. Many people don't use cash at all any more so it is the only way for the restaurant staff to get a tip. (I guess it then depends on the restaurant if and how it is distributed among the staff.) This seems to differ from most of continental Europe.

In almost all European countries I've been so far, I observed that most people do it the following way (and I also have done it a lot and it almost never caused any troubles or uncertainties):

After receiving the bill, I added a 5% - 10% tip and told the waiter the total amount, including the tip I want to pay. The total amount was then typed into the credit card reader by the waiter and then I paid the whole amount with my credit card.

I live in the UK and the only restaurants that are known for taking a tip via card are chains like Pizza Express, Outback Steakhouse, Wagamamas, ect. You can write the tip amount on the bill that they give you before you pay. sometimes they bring a PDQ terminal to the table in which case you can tell them to "add x pounds for yourself" or if you're mainly at the bar or getting drinks it is common to say "get yourself a drink" and typical tips in the UK are around the 10% mark

Furthermore, restaurants that aren't chains may not even accept card payments... You should really bring cash unless you're sure it accepts card (and isn't a chain).

Restaurants in the UK and Europe in general don't expect everyone to tip so if you don't leave a tip it's not the end of the world because chances are, the server has still been paid for their work.

Also, if you want to have a minimal-service meal you can go to a pub and order food there. You have to go to the bar to make your order, so it's a step-down from restaurant service and hence your hardly expected to tip at all.