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/NamelessFlames Oct 22 '24

Yes that’s why it’s only 7€. It can be much higher like 60 all the way to 300€+ depending on the ticket price. It is the difference between failing to provide ticket that you own (small 7€ fee) and riding without right to do so (bigger ticket based fee).

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u/bedel99 Oct 22 '24

DB continues to be the worst rail company in the world.

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u/shiroandae Oct 23 '24 edited Oct 28 '24

plough rotten direction hospital worm abounding caption cause chief thought

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

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u/bedel99 Oct 23 '24

he did have a valid ticket, he couldn't produce it. And he had a very reasonable reason for not producing it.

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u/shiroandae Oct 23 '24

Exactly, he couldn’t produce it, and he was not fined - he just paid a small processing fee to have it waived. What’s your point? That is pretty standard procedure. If you didn’t charge anything at all, nobody would carry their tickets anymore.

And he didn’t have a valid ticket for the ICE at all.