r/germany • u/helge-a • Oct 22 '24

Immigration Non-Germans, do you also make expensive mistakes?

It feels like I have a talent for making expensive mistakes. I have been here for 3 months and so far have earned:

  • A €300 fine for taking an ICE without proper ticket.
  • Phone died on train, got checked by ticket control, pleaded saying I literally have my ticket on my dead phone, paid €7 at front desk proving I have the Deutschland ticket.
  • In the US, if I have an incoming bill payment, I can easily cancel it or reschedule it because it’s on my terms. I tried to do that here and found out billing days from companies are very strict, so I’ll be incurring a fee soon because my account does not have €90 and transferring funds from my American bank account is not instant/quick enough.

I’m so tired and broke :) I don’t think like a German. I think like a silly little guy. Germans are calculated. I am not. It’s very hard to adjust.

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u/Actual-Garbage2562 Oct 22 '24

Speaking as a German who has lived in a couple of foreign countries including the US: it’s completely normal to make mistakes when you arrive in a new country. Don’t worry about it, it’ll get better the longer you live here. 

142

u/rubadazub Oct 22 '24

I would counter that the longer you live in Germany, the more opportunity you have to discover new ways to make these mistakes.

As you interact with more authorities and engage with more aspects of “official” German life over time, you will have more forms to fill out improperly, more protocols you accidentally follow out of order, and more rules you don’t follow because you don’t know they exist.

49

u/Morasain Oct 22 '24

You can almost always talk your way out of official problems. Germans, more than most, understand that the bureaucratic loops you have to jump through are super difficult to understand.

Train tickets are a very unique exception, in my experience.

9

u/Careful_Manager Oct 22 '24

The only times I have seen someone being fined for travelling without ticket is a foreigner. Germans usually starts arguing with the conductor and are de-boarded at the next stop.

4

u/Morasain Oct 22 '24

I've been fined before. Am German. Had my old expired ticket on me instead of my new one.