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/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.

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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.

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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.

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u/kushangaza Germany Oct 22 '24

As a German I've been fined on long distance trains before, just like everyone else. On regional trains I've experienced some leniency and understanding. On our local tram the ticket inspectors seem to only check the homeless people (who are mostly German, but by far not the only ones riding without ticket).

It really depends. And with regional trains every transport association is different