A few of the things you need to provide when applying to rent a new apartment include bank information and contact information. Now, this seems pretty obvious, until you apply and you don’t yet have either of these things. Today I set out to set up a bank account and obtain a mobile phone, which in germany, people call ‘Handys’.
I go inside Commerzbank and see the sign that says “private banking” and decide that I want all my banking to be private, so I follow the sign up the stairs. A gentleman meets me and notices I speak English, and greets me in English. He wants to know where I work, whether I will be making investments and asks me if I want a credit card.
Now, in America, credit cards are not linked to one’s bank account. Usually, people have numerous credit cards that they overspend on all the time, which is why so many people are in debt.
Here in Germany, the system is set up to avoid that exact problem. Here, you can have a debit card, which pulls immediately out of your checking account when you use it. A german credit card allows the user to make purchases everyday using ‘credit’ however at the end of each month, it automatically withdraws the money you spent on the credit card from your checking account. You don’t have the option to ‘pay later’ or ‘carry a balance.”
The second option is to get a “gold credit card.” This credit card costs 70 euro pr year, and will provide the user with insurance, so this one is the choice credit card for heavy travelers. Now, I suppose I find this strange, since most American credit cards also provide insurance. I decided to sign up for the free credit card and evaluate later whether or not to “Go Gold.”
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