Buying Cigarettes at a Vending Machine

If you still need cigarettes in Vienna during the night or on weekends, it is often difficult to find a tobacconist that is still open. In front of many tobacconists and in some restaurants and bars but there are cigarette machines where you can buy with bank card and cash cigarettes. This practically does not work anywhere with credit cards.

However, there are bars and clubs that sell cigarettes. There, however, the price is usually about one euro higher than the officially fixed price for a pack of cigarettes.

Age Restriction: 16 Years or Older

In Austria, there is an age limit for the sale of cigarettes. The buyer must be at least 16 years old. This can be checked in the tobacco shops, but it is not done very often. In the machines, the situation is more difficult. Vending machines without age verification are not allowed. The age verification works via the bank card, which you must put in the slot before you buy.

Problem for Tourists in Vienna

However, this procedure in Austria is a problem for tourists. Neither international credit cards nor international bank cards work here. So if you do not have an account with an Austrian bank and therefore no Austrian bank card, you can not buy the cigarettes at the vending machine.

There is only one solution: As a tourist in Vienna you have to address Viennese and ask if you should use the bank card for a short time. The bank card will not be given to a stranger in Vienna. However, as an Austrian you can go to the cigarette vending machine and put the card in it for a short time. Then there is nothing in the way of buying cigarettes for tourists with cash.

Step by step...

1. Insert bank card into the slot on the machine.
2. Remove bank card again.
3. Cash in the machine, the machines take coins and banknotes with 5 or 10 euros value
4. Select the desired cigarette brand

A little tip: If you put a bill for 10 euros in the machine you are often forced to buy two packs of cigarettes. This has to do with the fact that the vending machines are set economically at the return money.