Terminals shouldn’t be an issue. Almost all NFC-Terminals support ApplePay. All major retail stores or shopping stores support, as Germany switched to the PIN format years ago...
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Apple Pay Could Launch in Germany as Early as Next Month
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The German economy thrives at the expense of most other European countries is what you really wanted to say, right..?
(sorry for being OT here)
Yes like I said, I saw lots of those terminals popping up all over the country actually within maybe the last year. Very nice!
But restaurants and cafés are a different story... At least in Neukölln.
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Actually you should consider getting a bank account and card at dkb or ing diba because then you can withdraw money from ANY ATM free of charge - it made my life that much more easy!
What a load of nonsense. I think you should switch to a decent bank and forget about all your ATM moaning.
There are NFC terminals in most supermarkets these days, cash withdrawals can be made at a lot of supermarkets, but hey, you don't need that much cash anyway since the ubiquitous debit (EC) cards are accepted in most stores, restaurants and in general pretty much everyewhere apart from bakeries.
You haven't been to berlin yet haha- paying by ec card can be a pain in the a**in the entire gastronomic sector.
As a Brit who's spent a lot of time in both the US and Germany I was always pretty taken aback by how backwards banking and contactless payments were.
The US is worse than Germany, felt like a complex task paying for stuff by card there. Do I swipe? Do I do contactless? Do I use PIN? Checking or savings... it's so backwards.
In Germany people seem to really like using cash? I hate it, last time I was there I didn't remember seeing any contactless terminals. Also free cash withdrawals from ATM's feels like a right to me. No way would I pay to withdraw my own money.
I have a lot of things I don't like about the UK but banking feels years ahead of anywhere else I've been. I pay for almost everything using Apple Pay, if I need cash it's free to withdraw, if I need to pay cash into my back it's easy to use an ATM to do that. All my banking needs are taken care of online and through the really good mobile app.
Not using cash feels safer and more useful to me. Saves time and saves me from wasting change. Over a lifetime I'm sure it really adds up.
I was in Germany a couple of weeks ago and was amazed that even in Bonn and Cologne how few places accepted cards compared to the UK. The hotel we stayed at did accept cards but they made a big deal out of actually paying by it. They do however have amazing public transport in comparison to the UK so I will let them off on the cards!
And don't forget that German banks charge you for those little online transaction-checking machines (where you put your card in and it returns a code that you have to enter on the website). Postbank wanted THIRTEEN Euros for one when I lived there: here in the UK, they're free...
I agree with your post. 100%
UK banking as well as things like online tax/company registration etc are leap years ahead of most other 1st world countries.
Yet there are more and more ATMs that charge for withdrawing money in the UK. The UK was also amongst the first to get rid of interest on money in your current account, it was also hit much harder by the financial crush some years back when people were queueing to get their savings from cash machines, whereas in Germany there was no panic at any point during that crisis.
London Transport found a way to do this without even requiring a transport card. It just debits cash via ApplePay per journey and automatically calculates the cheapest fares based on the number of journeys you make on that day. Once you hit the day travelcard limit, you pay no more for any journeys made on that day. Saves a lot of time queuing at ticket machines behind confused tourists trying to work out how the manual ticketing system works or what day travelcard to buy.
German banks operated private accounts more like business accounts when I lived there. You paid a standing fee per month for having an account and certain transactions cost money much as my current business account does now. These all became free in the UK when 'free banking' became a thing. The UK banks funded this by raising overdraft charges, late payment interest, PPI etc. It's pretty much a case of you pays your money and you takes your choice.
I'd also go on to say that I really appreciate the government gettings it's act together with all its information and portals together at gov.uk. It presents all the information in a clear and easy way with all the relevant links.
Try booking a theory test or applying for a licence or passport in the US compared to the UK. Just trying to sort out my US drivers licence was a confusing and time consuming nightmare. Whereas in the U.K. Its a few clicks and done.
Where are all these charging cash machines? The only ones I see are in specific places like in a club. I can't remember ever being charged for using an ATM on the street.
Good point and for those of us who aren't stupid with money things like overdraft charges, late payments are not an issue so I'll happily take a free current account - even if it barely gives me any interest - it's not for savings.
The TFL thing sounds really cool, I'll need to remember that for next time I'm down in London.
Not to be obtuse, but what exactly has your comment got to do with my positive comment about the ease of online banking and running a business in the UK?
The panic is also a cultural difference. Trust me, I know the difference between German attitudes and British ones. I am British, my husband is… yes, you guessed it, German.
Some of us keep our savings in a bank, others under the mattress and pay in cash.
If you pay for cash withdrawal on an ATM you just have* to switch to another bank like DKB (free worlwide cash on every ATM with Visa), ING (same like DKB I think), comdirect (free EU wide cash on every ATM with the EC/Girocard/Maestro and worldwide with their Visa card), Consorsbank (free worlwide cash on every ATM with a debit Visa card).
All of those banks doesn't charge fees for the account, standard banking functions, the standard debit + credit cards (except currency conversion fees).
They even give you sometimes a start bonus up to 50€ on your account and also higher interest rates for your savings account (Tagesgeldkonto).
*For the ones that want to keep their bank account there are also free credit cards like Barclaycard New Visa, where worldwide cash withdrawal is also free (except currency conversion fees) and on top you get 25€ on your card if you are a new customer.
Just have a look at this website to see what is possible to get everything for free and even more:
https://www.check24.de/girokonto/
https://www.check24.de/kreditkarte/
All of those banks doesn't charge fees for the account, standard banking functions, the standard debit + credit cards (except currency conversion fees).
They even give you sometimes a start bonus up to 50€ on your account and also higher interest rates for your savings account (Tagesgeldkonto).
*For the ones that want to keep their bank account there are also free credit cards like Barclaycard New Visa, where worldwide cash withdrawal is also free (except currency conversion fees) and on top you get 25€ on your card if you are a new customer.
Just have a look at this website to see what is possible to get everything for free and even more:
https://www.check24.de/girokonto/
https://www.check24.de/kreditkarte/
In Northern Germany you can find Bäckerei Junge. They now accept contactless Payments in all stores with no minimum amount of
Cash machines attached to banks and building societies on the high street are free because banks. Cash machines at motorway service stations and found in most smaller shops that house them tend are usually sponsored by other financial institutions and they do charge per withdrawal - typically £2 a pop. They do tend to have a big warning in the splash screen about that.
Well, such innovations zou can only find in the biggest capital we have - Hamburg <3
There are other cultural differences that surprised me. I queued behind a woman in Kaufhof in pre-Euro days who pulled out a DM500 note to pay for a 30pf battery. No word of apology from her and the cashier did not even bat an eyelid. I was agog. I mean, who walks around with DM500 notes in the first place?
Try something like that in the UK and you would have to cry real tears of contrition to start with and then promise your first-born and you might after that not get thrown out of the shop.
Yes but bank ATM's are everywhere. My local Spar, Tesco and BP all have a free cash machine. Again, it's far easier to find a free cash machine than one that costs.
In cities, yes. In smaller villages, depends. You may only have the one and if it is OOO, well... I found myself at a service station needing cash, can't remember why. Had to suck it up and pay. It would have cost me more to drive to the nearest free one.
EC Cards have been abolished ten years ago. Debit cards issued at the moment are Girocards with additional Maestro or V-Pay functionality.