As an aside from the who tip debate, I'd recommend using your debit card as little as possible. Only takes once of having to deal with fraud on your debit card to realize a credit card is far better of an option.
As said above, I'll tip, though many times I forget to break a $20 and it can be painful to get it broken at times. However, my biggest issue with it is why aren't the business owners paying a proper wage? Pay them right and good service should just be the standard. The onus should be on the business owner and not the customer. Maybe we should get tips for a smooth flight and a good landing (sorry 717 guys)? I don't think so because we get paid a proper wage (though it's never good enough
), so why shouldn't these industries pay better? Americans keep buying into this BS idea that it's ok to pay the service industry less, by allowing it to continue. Freakonomics actually did a few podcasts on tipping, pretty good stuff.
Cash is king until you go to a place that doesn't accept cash, which oddly, I'm seeing more often now. But it's never a bad practice to have a $100 tucked away in a wallet for the just in case scenarios. It might get you out of a pickle anywhere in the world.
I went through AF pilot training with a bunch of Euros circa 2006. One day a classmate was writing a check and the Euros in our class looked at him like he had found some ancient relic. They're like, you guys still use checks? They were amazed that we'd still use something to easily counterfeited.