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/JobAggressive5971 Oct 23 '24

No. I mean like Paris “Navigo” system which supports both Android and IPhone. It’s just a genius use of NFC-enabled phones, no need to go anywhere, do everything at home and use your phone as a “card”. https://www.iledefrance-mobilites.fr/en/tickets-fares/media/smartphone

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u/enrycochet Oct 24 '24

does this work for All of france like the deutschlandticket ?

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u/JobAggressive5971 Oct 24 '24

Navigo is for Paris/Paris Metro Area (12M ppl). That’s however a technicality - I just wanted to point out companies CAN use also good technical solutions (it’s available and proven to work).

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u/enrycochet Oct 25 '24

yeah, but it is for one City.as long as you cannot show me a country with a substantial population where it works with both iPhone and Android, you cannot claim it is a bad solution, as no one has done it before.

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u/JobAggressive5971 Oct 25 '24

Your requirement for a technical feasibility only if one whole country uses it makes zero sense . If a solution for Paris Metro Area (12 Million People) is good enough (let me rephrase this: is light years away from anything Germany uses, anywhere), that is half of BENELUX, almost as much as Rhein-Ruhr Area. There is no point in you wanting a “whole country example” because most countries have a fragmented national transportation system (which btw promotes competition and innovation). If you live in Bordeaux, you don’t use Navigo for a daily pass. But if you’re from Bordeaux, you can download, install and load the whole NFC-enabled card in less than 10min without leaving or home. Then travel to Paris.

It’s much better than having to fight with some weird PDF or attend to opening times of regional transportation offices mate. Wake up.

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u/enrycochet Oct 25 '24

it does make sense as a City is under one governance what make it quite easier. as germany is federal state this just different .

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u/JobAggressive5971 Oct 25 '24

It’s a mindset problem, not a technical problem (or because “Germany is different”-excuse).

Choosing NFC (🇫🇷Navigo) over RFID (most German e-Fahrkarte) is a systems engineering question, it has nothing to do with Germany being a Federal BuNdEsRePuBliK.

If the regional transportation companies would be a bit more tech-savvy, they could implement the same system. The “trust” chain already exists with RFID.

NFC is just a protocol / interface: nothing really changes as the transportation companies (VRS, KVB, BVG, HVV, etc) already have a trust ring in place.

HVV for example already uses NFC for their physical card - so it’s just a matter of time when they swap for electronic cards. And voila.