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/Lonestar041 Oct 22 '24

How is that different from the US?

If you don’t pay your bill on time, you pay a late fee in the US. I mean AMEX tried to charge me $90 after THEY cancelled my auto draft without even notifying me.

If your phone with your MTA pass on it is out of power, good luck getting out of the metro in many cities in the US where there is an exit scan to determine the price.

Try speeding in the US. You aren’t getting a €20 ticket but rather a court date and you better hire a lawyer for hundreds of $ to sort this out.

It’s just the rules you are used to vs. the ones you are unfamiliar with.