Do Barcelona taxis take credit cards?

Every licensed taxi in the Barcelona metropolitan area is required to accept card payment. It is a condition of operating, not something each driver decides for themselves, and it applies to the airport, the cruise port and an ordinary street pick-up alike.

Contactless works, and so do phone wallets. For most visitors that means you can land at El Prat with no cash at all and be perfectly fine.

It happens, occasionally honestly — terminals lose signal in the airport tunnels and in some underground car parks. The reasonable thing is to ask before the trip starts rather than after: say you plan to pay by card and you will know immediately.

If a driver refuses card at the end of a trip, you are within your rights to insist. Ask for a printed receipt, which every taxi must also provide, and note the licence number shown inside the car. In practice, asking at the start prevents nearly all of this.

Nothing about paying by card changes the fare. The meter reads what it reads, and there is no surcharge for using a card.

Cash is still accepted everywhere, and small notes are easier than a fifty for a short trip. Drivers are not obliged to change large notes and often genuinely cannot early in a shift.

Tipping is not expected in Spain the way it is in the United States. Rounding up to the nearest euro is normal and generous; anything beyond that is a compliment, not an obligation. Nobody will think less of you for paying exactly what the meter says.

If you book a transfer in advance you agree the price before the trip, so the only thing left at the end is how you would like to hand it over. Card or cash, in the car, with nothing taken up front and no card details stored anywhere.