So I set up Google Pay last night out of interest and.. is it any good? The thing that bothers me with it is that apparently it pretends to be mastercard when you link your PayPal, and a lot of stores here only take maestro so that might be a problem for me

I use g-pay all the time, linked to both my main bank account and to my day-to-day card. Sometimes it doesn't work, but that's rare these days. Certainly I encounter more "cash only" places in Germany than I encountered places which took contactless but not g-pay.

What do you say to the employee? Socially anxious me is scared of that. I usually say "with card, please", but I can't say that if I'm not using a card. Do I say "contactless, please"?

Just say with card as usual. If it supports contactless/g-pay, the icon on the screen with show a little hand above some waves and just tap your phone. Just remember the limit for contactless is about 30-40€?

But if you pass the limit with a card, you just have to enter your pin code. Isn't that the same with GPay?

No, if the clearing house won't accept the transaction contactless at that level, you have to use a real bank card and put it in and use your PIN.

Why do you have to put the card in to use your pin then 🤔

Because a chip+PIN transaction requires the card to be physically connected. (I meant the PIN for the card, not for your phone)

But if you pay contactless with a card, you can also have high transactions and then just enter your pin after taking the card off the contactless panel 🤔 I always do that