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Well here in Vienna those undercover ticket controllers do put on a badge in the moment they reveal themselves which then clearly identifies them as ticket controllers therefore you know those are "real" and no scam.
grocery store checkout line - go shopping at the right time. Go to the right store which is investing enough in cashiers. Aldi, Lidl - horrible! Edeka in the evening - no problem at all. If you do your groceries once a week, you might choose saturday 6pm, for example. Everybody's having dinner, so there are no lines at all. On other days, too, the lines are smallest at 8am, at 1 pm, at 6 pm - nobody thinks of it. The retired people and young moms are shopping between 10am and 12 , in the afternoon they go home after work or with school-children: early shift: 2pm, with schoolchildren 3pm-4pm, after work daytime: 4-6pm. So from 6 pm on, they all are at home, yet most of the grocerystores won't close before 8pm :-)
ohh there are quite a lot of scammers in germany, mostly shit like phone, tv, internet services. my grandma was sold a very expensive internet contract by 1&1, fun fact my grandma never owned a computer and the prick who sold it to her knew that.
@@tommerker8063 True, but those scams aren't specific to germany. Those scams happen pretty much everywhere. Subscription type scams (aka shady contracts) and scams based on exploiting the goodwill of our elders are a widespread source of anger in the US and Germany.
Germans: Like what? What's so weird? Oh....germany is somehow superior? Is that what you're implying? In what way? Don't just make statements without any proof.....
The toilet ladies in restaurants do NOT have to be paid. Giving them something is a voluntary tip. The plates that sometimes stand there are just an invitation to pay a drinking fee. If you are a guest in a restaurant, the toilet visit is basically free. From users who are not guests at the same time, the restaurants can charge a small fee of 50 cents to 1 euro. Whether they do or not varies locally. In my experience, rather not.
Yeah, I usually mostly do pay when I experience a very clean bathroom and get the feeling that the cleaning person is doing a good job. But I refuse to pay on purpose if I experience a dirty toilet or no soap and hand drying paper, etc. You might catch a mean look from the cleaning person - but I refuse to reward bad service. And you're not obliged to pay it. Every public business has to provide a toilet for its customers and they can't charge you for it. The money you're expected to pay is basically just a tip you're giving to the cleaning person (which most of the time aren't part of the staff). Only sometimes on toilets in large train stations you have to pay upfront because there's a turnstile on the entrance. Back in the days (a long time agoooo....) it was NOT custom to give tips for toilet use in germany. I don't know who started it - but somebody thought they could save money on cleaning personal... and then everybody followed the trend... and germans being germans... just excepted it, instead of boycotting it. 🤷🏻♂️😒
The really bad thing is: the Toilettenfrau won't get the tips. She only gets the appreciation. In my eyes it's theft. But some court said it's ok. :-( The salary is really awful. Guess it doubled with introduction of minimum wage. Might have even doubled with US minimum wage.
drinking fee - Trinkgeld = tip it does sound very funny. Please don't use drinking fee again, otherwise english speakers will think we have alcoholics sitting in front of the facilities :-)
That is how I do it. The person is there to keep the toilet clean. I go in first, see if it is clean or not. If everything is fine, I give 50 cents or 1 Euro. If it is not okay, I won't pay anything. It is that simple.
If you feel this situation as a scam, then you can't even go for a coffee in the US. There, everyone who serves you is underpaid and can only survive through your donation/tip.
@@bordeaux1962 That's not entirely true. Waiters and Waitresses in the US are the only ones who really make the vast majority of their money on tips, baristas and workers in fast food make the actual minimum wage (which is still too low imo but that's a different topic, they actually make the minimum unlike waiters...) so tips for people like baristas in a coffee shop don't need to be tipped, and there's no societal expectation that you tip them. For those professions, tips are just an extra thing you can give if you don't wanna deal with the change or if you just wanna be nice or if you were really satisfied.
If you are asked in public transportation for tickets by "undercover" clothed people, you are totally allowed to asked (friendly) for their license. Normally they have a lanyard with a authority card with ID, Barcode and the local transportation service on it (Munich = MVG/MVV, Hamburg = HVV, Berlin = BVG, etc.) ...
"Allowed to ask for the license/badge"? No, they're pretty much required, atleast within the RMV (Rhein-Main), to show them or have them clearly visible on their clothes before they ask for your ticket. That's why my typical answer to the infamous "Fahrkarte bitte" is usually "Ausweis bitte" whenever they're "undercover". No license = No ticket. And yes, I've also seen 2 in uniform in the S-Bahn asking for tickets but only using the device on the personalizes tickets with name and picture with a very bright light as if they've taken pictures of the ticket, so even the uniform is not a guarantee that they're officials. To be fair though, almost all encounters within the RMV were very friendly. The RFID chip on my ticket wasn't readable twice within the last 2 years and instead of a fine I was told to head to the next official counter to get it fixed. There are of course some who are not as friendly but they're usually the young/new people who are on a bit of a power trip. Simply go to their colleague, who's usually a senior and much friendlier, and everything should be fine.
@@Kiramitsuoka I once went on the bus to go visit my father after school (I was maybe 9 years old). Unfortunately, the tickets given to us by the school did not actually allow travel to the city (which we didn't know) and when I handed my ticket over to the guy, he was just basking in having found a 9-year-old "criminal" and handed me a 40€ fine in a way that everyone on the bus noticed (no one stepped in or even said a word). He also felt the need to lecture me about this bad behaviour and bla bla bla... I was too afraid to explain the situation - and he never asked anyway or gave me a chance to. I have hated these people ever since - they're not human. I never had to pay the fine, btw. My father made one phone call where he didn't sound too happy and the thing was settled.
@@srccde That's what I meant, there are some who are just on a power trip and they have an easy way with children because they can't really defend themselfs in such high-pressure situations. Most of them really are fine people but some are just there because the police didn't want them but they just want to feel powerfull. At least that's how they usually appear to me because as soon as you actually start to argue with them they call their colleagues to "overpower" you, just don't stop to argue now. I've been in a situation where the guy wanted to touch my ticket which I was against because of the pandemic. He started his power trip, called his colleagues to silence me, I told them that he refuses to hold his device against my ticket which I don't want him to touch because of the pandemic going on. They all agreed to my reasoning, held their device to my ticket, scolded the guy and went on.
@@srccde Not sure if they work for provision or if they are not allowed to waive it but I had literally a 2 year backcatalog of my monthly tickets (it was the 5th january my first work day, you may only travel on the first weekday of the following month) and he didn't care. Got it waived eventually but yeah, pricks is what they are.
One scam that used to be a thing, targeting senior citizens, mainly, are "Kaffeefahrten": Flyers advertising bus day-trips to popular tourist destinations for a ridiculously cheap price, often including free lunch and coffee & cake. Before getting you there, there will, however be at least one stop at a sales event by their "special partner", where shrewd sales people contort you into buying overpriced "bargains", mainly household items.
Usually used by elder people. I remember a group of my fellow university students participating. During the special sales event, they made sure, nobody bought anything by asking sassy questions ;)
They do it in Mexico all the time,usually stop at jewelry stores, foreigners love their silver. And they are all inclusive u don't have to be old to get taken advantage of 😄
On the issue of public toilets, I use a wheelchair because of my MS. When in Europe, I pay a once-only fee of €25.00 for a special key which is usable in special 'disabled' toilets in cities, on train & metro stations, and in parks in many EU countries. These are generally very clean, door and flushes are automatic, there are hoists for those severely challenged, and even changing "beds" for the incontinent with aides, at times. I have never seen these in the US.
@@tabbeyah5351 not sure, but it seems this key is more like a safety deposit. Of course, many people with disabilities are not going to get 'better', so you likely won't return the key and get your deposit back.
It's a requirement for all businesses in the US to have a bathroom for people in wheelchairs. It has railings and a taller toliet, but that's it. It's also free.
I always had to laugh when US-Americans in their vlog say: "Yes, you have to pay for German restrooms, but therefore they are clean." I hate going to a German restroom, i despise the smell and I am wondering how much more gross can a US restroom be?
What's so horrendous about the US restroom is the MASSIVE gaps between doors and stalls as well as between stalls and floors. Privacy? Hahaha. Oh, god, I hate that when anyone peek in through the gap or go under the stall to grab your stuff. Not to mention the perverts toeing in underneath the stall for the anonymous blow jobs. Thank god for German restrooms that give us lot of privacy.
@@PassportTwo Actually it depends entirely on when and where in both countries. When I first went to Germany in the 1950's, the little old ladies not only sat outside, but also carried on their cleaning duties darting in and out of customers' way with their mops and buckets. And my tip to travelers in the U.S is always look for for the lobby of a very good hotel with restrooms adjacent, and stop worrying about those "gaps." No one in a decent, busy place is interested in peeking, because everyone is usually in a hurry. The odd exception can be found in both countries, even today in sketchy places in Germany.
Those undercover ticket conductors have to identify themselves with a identification card of the company running that public transportation. If in doubt ask them to show it if they aren't already doing it anyway. Also you only have to show the ticket to them and not hand it over.
Sharing your IBAN and Bic is like giving someone your Homeadress. Sure someone could show up but they'd still need the Key to get in the House. Even IF someone got a hold of you Debit Card and your Pin Code and everything. As you Pointed out youd still need a Valid Tan number which usually are fingerprint validation on Phone Apps. Even if all this Fails and People have access to your account you can usually just call your Bank and they have the card Blocked within Seconds.
@@frauantjeshayday-farmen9517 use a credit card or pay pal or similar service, than you have addditional security. I once had my card cloned somewhere in the Balkans, likely at a gas station and soon after that trip got a call from my provider, asking if I was in China - someone tried to use my cloned card data and they got it immidiately. Some credit cards have the benefice of a relatively cheap and usually good travel insurance. Ask your bank about it.
A copy of my card it what I'm most afraid of. I am checking the bank-automats for manipulations (if something seems wrong, I'm using another one) - and I'm storing the card behind the coins, so that it can't be read out. That's quite a simple trick. Btw. I don't use credit cards - to me they are making no sense, as I don't go for far away holidays. I prefer to know the relation between having and spending.
The toilet person doesn’t necessarily have to be an employee of the shop, restaurant or mall. Sometimes, they are self employed and just get a permission by the shop owner and keep those 50 cents or whatever amount as tip. The fee is not enforceable. There are only few exceptions to this like on resting areas on the Autobahn. But even there you‘ll get a coupon that you can use as a supplemental for paying your coffee or things like that.
@@insideAdirtyMind Have you ever seen a bar's restroom in the US? They might be cleaned once per day either just before opening or right after closing... at least in the few times I was in the US of A ...
Honestly, the Public Radio / Television fee definetely feels like a scam. I am a German and a student living in a student dorm and we don't even have Television connection here. Only wifi. And I still have to pay for it... But there are definitely quite different opinions about the subject depending on who you ask.
You can get everything in the "mediathek" using your internet connection. The System of public (Öffentlich rechtliche) broadcast companies is to ensure independent journalism. No one owns the german public TV and radio stations, so they cannot simply be forced to drop anything, because a major advertising client is against it. they are controlled by a "rundfunkrat". This "Rundfunkrat" consists of representatives of (almost) all groups of the german population to secure it's independence. In contrast to american tv stations which depend on advertising or state tv like russia.
i mean you could just use your wifi to open the mediathek instead of youtube and access all their television programs so...the only aspect i agree on would be how unfair it is for students and generally low-income, and that single households have to pay a lot more than a family of 6 because you pay per apartment not per person
Giving out my credit card details makes me feel way more uncomfortable, than my IBAN, and I get the impression that you get asked for that a lot in the US or online.
This is very true. I wanted to buy a lot of things that were only available outside the EU and every one of these shops (legitimate shops, mind) asked for credit card info. It got to the point that I now use single-use pre-charged cards for this.
In a nutshell there is basically no harm that can be done to you by just knowing your International Bank Account Number. Actually you should rather worry about your date of birth than about your IBAN.
@@petraw9792 Gimme your full name, address and birth date and i may be able to cancel almost your whole life with a bit of effort. Compared to that your bank account number is totally useless.
Funny thing about the "Rundfunkbeitrag" (Household fee for TV): Few years ago, as it still was called GEZ ("GebührenEinzugsZentral" = Central agencie for collecting fees) one had to pay fees for accessing the Internet, even if the PC didn´t have a Internet Connection whatsover. Reason was "you have a device that you COULD connect." As this is obvious deceiving any logic, it still was german law. So many males in germany went up and ask the state "sooooo...in the lower half of my body...I have a device, I COULD make children with...do I get "Kindergeld" (state money you get for raising a child) for just owning such a device...?"
I know a similar joke. The wife of a fisher, since her husband is not going to fish that day, takes the boat (with all the fishing gear on board) and sits in the boat calmly, in the lake, reading a book. An officer comes and wants to fine her for fishing in the lake, in a forbidden zone. "But I was not fishing!" "Yes, ok, but you have all the items needed for fishing. So I will fine you". And her answer is "So I will sue you for rape" "But I never touched you..." "No, but you have all the items needed for raping..."
In the UK nearly everyone is required to pay a TV licence fee of £159 per household per year (around $222). This pays for the BBC, in lieu of advertising.
The BBC also gets extra money from The Netherlands and Belgium, BBC One and BBC Two are available on cable in those countries, rest of Europe only had the international version of BBC
My understanding is there are some significant differences between the TV License rules in Germany versus in the UK - specifically the license in the UK is required only if you actually watch live TV as it is being broadcast. I've heard in many situations in the UK it can actually be legal NOT to have a TV license - such as if you only use streaming services that are NOT live, use a DVD player and/or video game console and do NOT tune to live TV.
Very important about the fee for television ("Rundfunkgebühren"): most Germans who think of the fee in a negative way actually don't have very much knowledge about it. They think it's just for television and radio only but that's not the case. In fact there are also other media like for example UA-cam channels who do research about important topics like politics, corruption, medicine and also education (sex, drugs, alcohol, bullying, addiction, etc). These videos are usually very reputable, independently researched and understandable for the vast majority of people. This is not a scam, it's IMPORTANT. It's not some random sh** controlled by the government! Not at all.
@carnelian.weasel must be very sad in this conspiracy theory world. Educate yourself. The organisations that are payed from the "Rundfunkgebühren" often criticize politics, the state and the system very intense. In fact they often let scientists speak, reveal illegal affairs in politics and industry and draw attention to more unknown problems and their causes in society, also they piblish their information sources. And if you would think about it you would notice that it makes sense. Because they will definitely get payed, no matter what they produce. Conspiracy ideologists (they are not theorists because there is nothing scientific about it) on the other hand wouldn't make a lot of money if they would tell you what you can read in a library in an educational book. Instead they spread fear and misinformation because that's best paid. What newspaper would you rather read, something like "scientists identify complex molecules responsible for protection of vaccines" or something like "the rich meritocracy is trying to kill everyone and only YOU special super intelligent human are able to find out and survive"? When 99% of scientists say A and 1% says B, what do you think who gets payed a lot to twist facts? The 99% with a normal life or the 1% that suddenly own a house in the carribean and just bought a new car? I don't understand why people don't trust someone who dedicated their life to the research of viruses but they trust a vegan Nazi cook that told people to give them money and fled into a foreign country with one prognosis after the other proving to be wrong (this really happened in Germany!). Strange thing, isn't it? Maybe you should do some research about "Rundfunkgebühren" and also the well researched psychology behind conspiracy ideologiesideologies (inferiority complex, loss of control, wanting to be special, lack of logical thinking etc).
@carnelian.weasel and nobody ever said that. If you would be well educated on this toppic you would know that the most media that is influenced by corporations and industry is private instead of "ÖR". And you would also know that the different " ÖR" also criticize each other if they think someone did something unethical. And you would notice that independent scientific media often says the same as the "ÖR". And maybe you would also know that "ÖR" publish their information sources so you can double check if you want to. So if you would be well educated you would know this and wouldn't call people naive because they say and actually explain that/why "Rundfunkgebühren" aren't a scam and actually important.
I'm German, so I start counting with my thumb. Concerning IBAN and BIC. Bic is only needed for transnational transactions, within Germany IBAN is sufficient as it contains DE (for Germany) 2 digits (verification number) 8 digits (BLZ = Bankleitzahl = Bank identification number), and 10 digits (account number with leading 0s to fill in between the BLZ and account number. I normally don't disclose my IBAN if not necessary - for safety reasons. But there are a lot of institutions that require disclosure like Finanzamt (IRS), health insurance, phone, and mobile phone providers, and every debtor you allow to withdraw money from your bank account (which is a really safe option for payment as any money withdrawn without proper authorization can be ordered back within a few weeks time). Btw: using cheques is so 1990.
Your perspective is absolutely fascinating. Matter of fact, when I visited a fast food chain for the first time in the US, the meal they gave me was so massive that I was worried they might charge me much more than I had planned :D
@@horbuchasmrkanal2774 Yes , have been to the USA , meal portions are enormous compared to here in Australia ..even on a cruise the buffet portions they got were enormous , no wonder obesity is a problem
I would rather be st unease when giving my credit card to some waiter who walks away with it the US way, where you do not see what they do with it, rather than telling somebody my IBAN. As you said, if he wants to deposit something on it, he is free to do so. He cannot withdraw anything from it without any additional authorization.
Here in Berlin, housing scams have become extremely common, and mainly target foreigners desperately looking for an apartment before they get here and start their new job or university program. They try to get people to send them money in advance, before they see the place or get the contract or keys. Usually they pretend to be temporarily abroad, often in London for some reason. Other times they use a fake airbnb page.
@@vitocorleone8323 I have no idea about the nationalities of the scammers, but it is not as though all Germans are honest and upright, especially in today's dire housing market. I have lived here almost 40 years, by the way.
Once talked to one that said he is in London and needs to send the key... coincidentely I was in London the weekend after so I siad lets meet.. no answer after that lol
German person here, the Rundfunkgebühren at scam 4 are actually really controversial and there are many people who want to abolish this. The main problem is that we are in Germany and we germans are best at taking 20 years for a simple decision like this.
You don’t have to pay the toilet people. It’s more like a tip ( Shops/Restaurants might asked for a fee if you don’t buy anything though). In fact this used to be a criminal system. The cleaning staff was payed poorly and wasn’t allowed to keep the money. The money was collected by their bosses and the system was used for money laundering, if I remember correctly. Btw the toilets were horrible, especially on the autobahn. It got way better since sanifair took over.
We stopped at some free toilets on the Autobahn on our way to Berlin. They were absolutely disgusting, they had no toilet paper, no soap or paper towels to dry your hands. Next to the building, there was a burned-out car surrounded by police tape. You'd think the government would shut the place down in a pandemic! We high-tailed it out of there. I've never been happier to have a face mask and hand sanitizer in my bag.
@@AdZS848 o yes, a totally free toilet is a place nobody should attend if anyhow possible. At least not as a woman, as we have to sit down. This kind of toilets will be known by smell from far away! 🤮
@@frauantjeshayday-farmen9517 The women's toilet is usually much worse than the men's precisely because most women actually DO NOT SIT DOWN on a public toilet (understandable, but the result is disgusting).
@@INT41O Well... let's say... I've three boys, and when they refused to use a toilet at a train station - not even standing! - I took a look, as no other person was there. Let's say - it looked like as if everybody had used it with his eyes closed. And it had been used for months without cleaning. Most women just are trying to make a second toilet seat out of toilet paper. Which makes the average women's toilet a little more neat - but still most disgusting.
6:05 you can of course always ask the ticket controller for ID proving he is who he is. If he isn't legit, he will come up with some excuse why this isn't possible, or stop bothering you straight away.
@@InTeCredo But nobody really checks that ID. A friend of mine once used his military ID to conduct a check. Everybody showed their tickets, nobody even glanced at the shown ID. In hindsight, that was risky for my friend, as he was a cadet at that time, not just enlisted. He could have been in serious trouble if somebody had reported him.
@@thiloreichelt4199 Well, if you really try, you surely can scam people here. But why would you? What are you gaining by taking a look at everybodys ticket? A friend of mine bought a DB-backpack on ebay and placed it to have the logo shown very obvious. When the ticket controller got to him, he just pretends to sleep and was never bothered, since CB-employees are allowed to use the trains for free. That is what I would call scamming, but being a fake controller? That's just - weird!?
Usually, when someone sits in front of a public toilet with a plate in Germany, you give them a tip afterwards, based on the cleanliness of the toilet. So, you're not really paying a fee for using the toilet in that case, you're tipping the cleaning staff, and you're not required to do so. Please note that that's just the case in Germany, it might well be different in other countries. The IBAN is not a German thing. IBAN is short for "international bank account number" and it's a unified numbering system for bank accounts in Europe. It contains the bank "routing number" as well as the "account number" and some additional verification data to detect potential typos. The BIC is the "bank identifier code" and is a global standard. However, for transactions inside Europe, it's pretty much superfluous, since the IBAN already contains all relevant information about the bank and account. As for secrecy: The IBAN alone is not enough to take money from your account, just like a street address alone isn't enough to clear out your apartment. Still, I wouldn't just throw my IBAN around without good reason, just as I wouldn't publicly proclaim my address to everybody.
I am a german and i have a fun fact for you about the toilets. In germany going to the bathroom is a fundamental right and nobody can say no even if you don't pay. If they actively prevent you from going you can sue them for assult. Even teachers can't deny it they have to grant you access.
I hate to admit, but my view on the Rundfunkbeitrag has changed over the years. Ich wurde regelrecht mit den Dokumentationen unserer Sender verwöhnt, nur um feststellen zu dürfen, dass die Qualität um Lichtjahre besser ist, als die anderer Länder. I don´t watch "Das Erste" or "ZDF", but I love e.g. ZDFneo, ARTE, BR Alpha (especially when Bob Ross is painting)... Wenn ich was neues lernen oder tiefer in die Materie eines Thema dringen will, dann weiss ich, wo ich suchen muss... BTW watching your videos also spoils me with professionalism and quality (in other words: Keep up the great work)....
@@sikckaputten So how do you justify being OK with forcing other people to pay for your entertainment? I don't want to pay for this crap, not 20€, not 15€, not even 1€!
@@INT41O I really don't give a shit what you think. I'm happy to pay those few Euros every month, because it's good value from my point of view. If you don't like it, I don't care.
As a German having lived in a number of countries - the biggest "scam" that always gets me back home is that still most apartments you rent come without kitchen. So either you have to bring your own or pay the previous tennant crazy amounts of "Abstand".
This one is true, but if yout think about it you will agree that it has a major, good reason. We like to design our kitchen in our personal style anyway. The next one is that no one likes to get something used .If you talk with the Person wich lived in the flat before, its usual to speak about the old kitchen because we don´t like to take it with us and the most people would be happy about getting anything back. (In rare cases its also possible to get it for free because we are simply to lasy to throw it away. Mostly it doesn´t fit to the next Flat anyway) A big difference should be that its usual to live in Flats in Germany and Austria. Its very expensive to buy an own house. (Actually its gettin worse year for year) The most missunderstood thing is that tourists often think that its our lifestile to be like the people on Oktoberfest but that specific case is a thing of tradition in bavaria and tyrol but not in the whole Country. (Austria, Germany). Please don´t expect that from any german or austrian if you don´t want to look like a stupid tourist for them. Its a very unconfortable situation and a rather rude thing for us. Also to ask about private things like how much someone earn is a no no. In germany/austria we are also not shouting agressively what we want to say. We're not usually rude either, but it's obviously a cultural difference to be more direct when something doesn't suit you. We also express criticism relatively openly (mostly) but sometimes it seems rough to us to, depending on the dialect. And the biggest failure would be to make a joke about 2nd. World War and Nazis...Thats not a good topic for a discussion. The reason is that everyone suffered in this time and the people were often not as much included in this war as you might think. The "neo-nazis", as we call them, are also a mostly negatively viewed group of people who tend to belong to the poorly educated part of society (me personally at least). Most people are very open-hearted towards others. So If you don`t intend to offend anyone, just don´t talk about it.
I have traveled to Spain by car very often over the past 14 years. Usually 3 times a year. In 2007 it was still the case that German rest stops and toilets on the autobahn were quite clean. In France, on the other hand, they were shabby, old and dirty at the time. The toilets were just a hole in the ground in France back then. Back then I tried to stop there only once and drive through France as quickly as possible. From 2011/2012 they started not only to put all rest stops in order, but also to completely rebuild them. In just 10 years they have rebuilt all the rest stops there, in a really beautiful design, so that I really enjoy stopping there again. In Germany, however, nothing happened and has fallen far behind France, so I'm happy when I leave Germany. The French even completely renewed the carriageway during that time
hmmm, actualy a lot has changed. The majority of german highway bathrooms are in the Serways systems and very clean but not free. You have to pay 70cents and you get a 50cents coupon.
The vast majority in Germany consider the amount of the "Rundfunkbeitrag" as too high and the independent national tv channels (ÖRR), that a paid by the "Rundfunkbeitrag", as not unprejudiced, although they are obliged to be neutral by an contract between government and the ÖRR. One guy (Georg Thiel) is arrested for four monthts since he declined to pay for the ÖRR. Furthermore Germany has got the most expensive national broadcasting in the world (about 10 billion Euros per year). Nontheless the ruling parties don't take measures against the ÖRR since the legal measures a hard to carry out and they fear bad reporting by the ÖRR. The most known tv hosts of the ÖRR say that the increase of the Rundfunkbeitrag is appropriate because "the German population needs high quality journalism and well researched news due to more and more fake news coming up". But in my opinion they like to disregard that we mainly pay for entertainment shows and political talk shows which do more political framing than political information.
Well, I might not be cool with all of ÖRR, but I strongly have the feeling, that I will not be a victim to right wing international media moguls. Just to see Fox gives me a great thank to God feeling that we do have such a great ÖRR which us in fact kind of owned by us citizens. There might be downsides, there might be room for improvement. But I for nothing in the world I would change this.
@@Citizen5000 Ah yes, then tjink about it again, thinkmof all the towers needed, satalite links, maintenance, energy, cameras, technic, stuff, staff. .. Reporters not included. Well....
The GEZ (TV payment) is a hot topic here in Germany. You essentially only get out of paying if you get certain social payments (welfare, student support/bafäg or gov. pension). Even if you're handicapped you have to pay (if you have the RF marker in your handicapped ID, which you only get if sight and/or hearing is impaired, you get a discount...). Every device that is capable of recieving TV signal, radio signal or has internet access is considered a billable device, so you would have to proof that you don't have a cell, TV, PC or radio in order to avoid payment and usually the GEZ will still harrass you for years.
Interessantes Video - viele von den Sachen wären mir wahrscheinlich gar nicht aufgefallen! Auch der Reim am Anfang und die Animation in der Mitte waren wieder ein Highlight :) - Daumen (Quentin Tarantino lässt grüßen ;) )
you don'T have to pay anything to those people sitting in front of toilets. it's completely voluntary. first of all the cleaning personal gets a "normal" wage. 2nd: they are not the ones who can keep the money, it goes to whoever "runs" the toilet.. most of the time this "tactic" is used by department stores which sell all kind of consumer products. restaurants have to offer toilets for free by law and still some fast food chains try to place people in front of their toilets. when it comes to restaurants there are some exceptions e.g depending on size of the place or if it is just a snack stand (Imbissbude), but in general restaurants have to offer free toilets
Restaurants have to offer free toilets, but only to their customers. In many restaurants, however, toilets are also free to non-customers. The general rule is: If you can get something to drink in the place, they need to provide free toilets for the customers. And you are not obliged to pay these in-front-people at all, that's correct. They are placed there to force customers "a little bit more" to paying, by means of guilty conscience. Their main job is to watch for "trashy" people to stay outside the restrooms.
The german IBAN consist of the county identifier, DE. The next two digits are for error correction. The following 8 Digets are Bank routing information, The rest of the digits are your actual Account number. It is possible to fetch money direct from your Bank account. But your Bank has to reverse the transaction within 6 weeks. So check your bank statement at least once every month.
Die deutsche IBAN????? Die schwachsinnige vor Dummheit nur so strotzende IBAN ist eine Erfindung der US-Amerikaner die sie aber selbst bis heute nicht nutzen. "Seinerzeit von den USA vorangetrieben - die selbst die IBAN aber bis heute nicht umgesetzt haben - sind derzeit die Länder der Europäischen Union die treibende Kraft für die Benutzung der IBAN. Auch außerhalb Europas übernehmen kontinuierlich weitere Staaten diese Notation, insbesondere im Mittelmeerraum, im Nahen Osten und in Mittel- und Südamerika.[1]" Quelle Wikipedia
@@maxmustermann8167 Die englische Wikipediaseite zur IBAN sagt, dass sie entwickelt wurde, um Zahlungen innerhalb der EU zu ermöglichen. Quellen dafür liefern keine der beiden Seiten, aber dass die IBAN hauptsächlich in Europa Anwendung findet und dass, (laut Wikipedia) das System zunächst vom Europäischen Komitee für Bankstandards (ECBS) eingeführt wurde bevor es ISO-Standard wurde, spricht dann doch eher für die zweite Version. Außerdem sehe ich nicht, wie Sascha Albert hier überhaupt die Erfindung bzw. Entwicklung der IBAN irgendjemandem zuschreiben wollte, sondern vielmehr nur erklärt hat, wie es in Deutschland funktioniert.
@@chlks5891 Do solltest dringend an deinem Leseverständnis arbeiten. ich habe ja ganz klar zitiert und das Zität ist immer noch unverändert in den Quellenagaben zu finden. Selbst wenn du das Zitat in die Eingabemaske einer Suchmaschine deiner Wahl setzten würdest solltest du fündig werden. Du siehst also nicht wie man die DEUTSCHE IBAN die er explizit erwähnt irgendjemanden zuschreiben soll? Ernsthaft. Er hätte auch einfach IBAN statt explizit DEUTSCHE IBAN schreiben können was eine unmissverständliche Zuordnung darstellt.
@@maxmustermann8167 Vielleicht solltest *Du* etwas an deinem Leseverständnis arbeiten, denn aus meinem Kommentar geht ziemlich klar hervor, dass ich deine Quelle tatsächlich aufgerufen und gelesen habe, auch wenn ich das nicht noch einmal explizit geschrieben habe. Der Punkt war, dass keiner der beiden Wikipedia-Artikel irgendwelche Belege anbieten für ihre Version der Entstehungsgeschichte der IBAN, die Variante der IBAN als europäische Entwicklung jedoch deutlich plausibler erscheint. Auch außerhalb von Wikipedia lässt sich mit einer kurzen, oberflächlichen Suche (weil es mich letztendlich auch nicht wirklich interessiert) die Frage des IBAN Ursprungs nicht wirklich beantworten, aber das bisschen, was sich so finden lässt, legt ebenfalls das ECBS nahe. Vielleicht aber hat die USA die Übernahme der IBAN als ISO-Standard vorangetrieben, wer weiß. Und ja, "IBAN" statt "deutsche IBAN" hätte gereicht, aber mit nur einem Hauch von wohlwollender Interpretation spricht er vom System das in Deutschland genutzt wird, nicht vom System das in Deutschland erfunden wurde.
The "SEPA direct debit mandate" where the IBAN is communicated is secure. If Amazon, the electricity or internet provider etc. books something wrong (something not ordered, too much, double etc.) or criminals book something..... - no problem! One click in internet banking and the money is back in the account. 💵 💶👏
That's true. But you have to look at your bank protocols. And sometimes I cannot be 100 % sure if my wife ordered something or not. Most of the time, I just assume it is correct (if it is a shop which I know).
In the bus/streetcar here, when your ticket was controlled, they show you their member-card of our local bus/streetcar company with a foto of them. Meanwhile I recognized them when they come to check the tickets. One time I was checked two times by the same controller, one time on the way to a grocerystore, the second time on my way back. I have a monthly ticket.
They check so many people in a day no wonder they don't recall everyone's face. I am very impressed how most people checking the tickets on regional or national trains almost never check your ticket twice as they make their tours.
I tried to carefully follow your instructions. First I gave my IBAN to the next toilet person. Then I tried escaping the ticket officers which they did not appreciate. And tipping the GEZ didn´t help to get me out of jail.
About thinks that feel like scams, when my father visited the US for the first time in the early 80th he went to a restaurant with some ppl, but when it came to the paying he did what he always did. he rounded the check to the next dollar as tip and wanted to leave, but the waiter started to talk to my father angrily. His english was and is really terrible but after a while he understood that tried to "scam" him for more tip. some time later the manager called the police and they explained to him that he can´t just dogde the 10-15% tip without any reason. So no scam at all and he was very carefull to tip correctly after that ;)
I have to say…that sounds very strange…a tip in the US is also by no means required and the police can’t get involved to force your to tip. Even though tip is customary and everybody does it, it is by no means law to give a tip and it is still at the end of the day, a tip 🤔
@@PassportTwo well, i wasn´t there myself so i can´t 100%% say it has happend exactly that way, but thats how he tells the story. my guess is that the police calmed down the situation and explained to him that the staff didn´t try to scam him
@@PassportTwo Well... even though it is not mandatory I think we can agree that there is a huge difference between a tip in the US and other industrialized countries.
@@PassportTwo Maybe he still misunderstood and it wasn't about a tip, but about taxes. In european countries it is common for the displayed price to also be the total price you pay at checkout, but in america you usually pay the price + additional taxes being charged on checkout. I don't know if that also applies for restaurants in the US, but I assume if you don't speak english, your first thought might be scam if people charge you more than what is displayed on the pricetag
One thing that is funny is that in recent years telephone scams have become more common in Germany. What is funny about that? The funny thing is that it is almost always people speaking English with a heavy Indian accent. They are trying to pull the usual preying on old people scams, but in a language that most old people in Germany don't speak. My elderly father gets such phone calls all the time and he always hands me the phone when I am in his apartment, telling me: "There is that woman jabbering gibberish at me again." and then it is always someone with a thick Indian accent claiming they are from the Microsoft customer service and have detected problems with my father's Windows operating system. (My father doesn't even know what a operating system is.)
always funny when they speak english with indian accent and start by saying that they are from microsoft germany (but have any random phone number shown, once even from australia. next they say that they found a virus on your computer, followed by the question whether you have a computer. just like scam emails, they probably do obvious errors on purpose to (time consumingly) deal only with "simple" or old people who don't notice these errors and thus also believe other parts of the scam.
@@Anson_AKB Yeah. The whole thing seems very self-defeating to me. The only people clueless and demented enough to fall for such a scam are very unlikely to actually speak English good enough to even understand what the telephone scammers are saying.
Fun Fact: Actually the US were pushing on the implementation of that international bank account system back then, but they haven't introduced it themself. The IBAN is a combination of the routing number and the bank account number. BIC is only necessary for money transfer outside of the EU, within the EU the IBAN is sufficient and the BIC not required. The first two letters of the IBAN identify the country, DE for Germany, AT for Austria and so on. Back in the days before that system we had two separate numbers like in the US, one to identify the bank and one for your account. Like it is still in the US. And they also added an error checking number, or check digit to that system so if you got a wrong number in this whole bunch of numbers the computer system will show an error message. It makes international money transfer easier.
Americans: Sure you can have my credit card and take it with you to the back of your restaurant! Also Americans: I don't want to give them my IBAN number!!
American shops never take the credit card anywhere, but restaurants do in order to get it to the terminal at the cash register. In a shop you are already at the cash register and usually there is a terminal for you to use yourself, or they do it in front of you.
German here: Whoever US-American feels "scammed" by bathroom-fees in Restaurants or public places, well same feelings as we have when being forced to pay extra when going paying at any US restaurant :D "Why do they look at me when I don't pay 20%(?) more than the bill says?!?" @IBAN: Usually you only give that out to service-agencies like insurance or utility companies out of laziness. Most those companies are fine if you pay the monthly dues by wire-tranfser yourself, just do it on time and prepare to get embarrassed when you miss it... If you allow those companies to "cash in" those amounts themselves (called: "Einzugs-Ermächtigung") you don't have to worry about missing it :D And if you check your account and notice that they cashed in too much you can go to your bank and demand it payed back as soon as possible! I'd NEVER shop anywhere in a ordinary store when they'd demand "give me your IBAN"- "No I won't." They get my debit card-transfer and that's it :D
As a dual citizen, I totally get what you mean. I'm usually not that concerned when it comes to my IBAN, cause it's just customary over here, but I'm very protective of my SSN, cause it's customary in the US.
@@PassportTwo yes, but the German equivalent- the Steuer Identifikations Nummer- is not something we keep tooooooo private, cause you can't do that much damage with it 😅☝️
@@rebeccaj5336 The German equivalent of the US SSID (=Social Security Identification Card/Number) is actually the "Sozialversicherungsausweis /-nummer". In the US this ID/number is also (mis-)used as a general identification method for people, since *the US does not have a general citizen ID* (=Personalausweis). That is why keeping your US-SSID secret is very important to prevent identity theft. The German SSID is only used by (**surprise**) the public social security systems, like public health insurance, public unemployment insurance and all the others. The German IRS (Finanzkontrolle Schwarzarbeit) also use that SSID to discover black labor and social security fraud. You are referring to the German federal tax payers´ ID, which is pretty new and only facilitates handling of peoples´ yearly tax statements. Prior to the introduction you received a new tax payers´ id every time you moved into another tax office district (Finanzamtsbezirk).
The bathroom thing: You do it wrong. First go in and do your thing. After that, put money on the plate on your way out. See it as a tip and choose the amount depending on whether you were satisfied with cleanliness etc. If the toilet was disgusting, toilet paper or soap is missing, I do not tip at all.
I start with my thumb 👍 The US has the Walmart greeter's and we have mostly an older lady in front of public restroom. And if I pay them something i expect a clean restroom and if that's not available for my opinion, i definitely complain about it. If you are not sure about a restaurant, check out their toilet's first it could be clue about the rest.
I am German and I still feel scammed when there is someone sitting in the bathroom demanding money xD There is a nightclub in Dortmund (Lightrooms) And there was a toilet lady for years. Don't know if she is still there, but she yelled at anyone coming in and sayed that you don't give enough money. Once I saw someone drop her 20€ and she still wasn't happy with him xD
I’m German, so start counting with my thumb, but currently live in Australia and felt scammed just this week. Everyone started talking about filling out the census and I was like ok, no idea what that is but as people said they got it via mail, I thought only citizens got it but not foreigners on a visa. But then on the deadline day of that census, I got a message from an international friend asking me if I filled out the census because they would start fining me for not doing so after the deadline. So, I filled it out but as a German was shocked about all the private information I had to provide that wasn’t even de-identified. Surely, the next day we discussed this in the office where I learned that Germany is an oddball not having censuses. We apparently had them before I was born and also one EU census in 2011 but at that time I lived in the USA. So fair to say, I never heard of a census until this week (at age 32) and that they are common place in other countries 😅
In contrast to Australia, Germany has a registration requirement and operates population registers. For a census, the state queries the registers, not the residents. After all, they have already communicated the information that is required from the residents to a registration office. With regard to information about residents, this is also sufficient for the EU-wide census standard that has been agreed. Therefore, nobody in Germany was interviewed for the EU-wide census 2011 and nobody will be interviewed for the 2021 census.
We don't have a census in the Netherlands either. Everyone is registered at their place of residence. After World War Ii I think less information is gathered because in 1940 the Germans could easily find all the jews because religion was registered... I was shocked when they asked my religion at the einwohnermeldeamt. That's private! I didn't know about church tax yet. I'm a born again pastafarian so no thanks. Not supporting the anti-LGBTQ squad.
@@jinde75 Behind this cooperation between the state and religious or ideological communities, which at first glance seems strange, is a wise idea. Religious or ideological communities with a large number of members who are loyal to the Basic Law and who are set up to be permanent and representative can apply for the status of "corporations under public law" in Germany in order to enjoy a number of privileges. The service that the state collects their taxes for them is one of those privileges that they can avail of, the tax exemption for donations is another privilege and the state allows them to give religious instruction in schools as well as special regulations in labor and social law. These communities for their part support the state in the sense of the formation and maintenance of a canon of values by promoting peace, law and values and for their part recognizing the state monopoly of violence and punishment. In addition, these communities have to accept it when citizens have a different or no faith and the state enacts secular laws. Recently, only six of the many religious or ideological communities that have the status of "corporation under public law" used the service of the collection of so-called church taxes by the state, four collected their taxes themselves and 19 waived taxes.
Haha. There is actually an ongoing census right now across Germany. 🤣Every homeowner and most tenants have received a letter and either need to fill out an online form or have an census interviewer coming to your home. My interview appointment is tomorrow.
Another thing about the undercover ticket staff, they are required to have identification on them, showing they are legitimately ticket checkers, so if you are in doubt you can ask them to show you identification.
Honestly i agree with paying for TV and Radio on principal. However it really should be paid by already existing taxes and not a nebulous "extra" fee that definitely feels like a ripoff.
taxes can be spent for anything, and thus tv/radio would depend on how much the government gives to the stations, possibly depending on how favorable their reports and news selection are. to be separate, it is a separate fee and no part of taxes.
@@barvdw because a lot of it isn't actually cable TV. Most young folks watch UA-cam channels like strg_f, reporter, Y-Kollektiv and others. It's not just cable TV and radio.
I agree with paying for public broadcast, it's a good thing. However it's too much and the apparatus around it is way too big. I mean just google the amount of households in Germany * roughly 18 per month. It's almost 9 Billion annually plus they do advertising so even more money. Meanwhile ProSieben/Sat1 has an annual revenue (not profit) of 4.5 Billion. RTL globally has 6.6. Sorry but that doesn't calculate in my world, it's a scam.
7:09 That´s because, if in germany, you advertise something as free, and tell people it´s free, and then you take money, you will have to pay a fine at least. If you do it in a fashion that scams more than one person and do it frequently, you´re probably going to jail.
That was awesome folks. It is a lot of fun when I take people for the very first time to Germany to see their reactions to the "toilet ladies" or "men" lol. As always it is great to see your content week after week. PS, yes the tv fee is a scam lol lol. BTW again, I start counting with my thumb when I count on my fingers lol lol. :).
Maybe a little tip for everyone who’s unsure about trusting the person: ask for their identification papers. If you’re to afraid handling this in German ask for a translator. Almost all companies have at least one person who speaks English. Good thing about all the laws we have here, they’ll protect you as well.
The IBAN splits in 4 parts: (As you can see at 12:30 :D ) 1) First two characters encodes the land of the bank. 2) Next two characters is a checksum. 3) Next 8 digits are the old BLZ (Bankleitzahl; is mostly represented in the BIC nowadays) 4) Last 10 digits are the old Kontonummer (account number) with leading zeros if the old number was shorter than 10 digits.
That second toilet looks like one of the municipal automatic toilets - they clean themselves leading to that strange moisture and smell - and since they used to be vandalized pretty often (like phone boxes back in the day) they take money for admission. - From Hesse btw ;)
Its a good sport to ask to see the badge of those undercover ticket checkers and inspect if its still valid (find the years of validity). This might slow progress enough so not everybody's checked before the next escape opportunity at the next station.
I once rode a tram in which some very young and young dressed people suddenly started to check tickets. The passengers were totally irritated. You could tell immediately who in the tram drove without a ticket. Because for once they had all fallen for the camouflage too and were now in a panic. Especially since a lot of these ticket inspectors were scattered all over the tram. I had never seen so many fare dodgers caught during an inspection. - Only one escaped for the reason you mentioned. On the one hand, I found this particular camouflage clever from the tram company. But these guys now all looked to me like deceitful traitors to their age group. That reminded me of old documentary films in which hordes of Nazis attacked fellow citizens and kidnapped them. - - - But don't worry, I didn't forget that in the tram it was just about the tram company fighting the fraudulent use of its services. - - - But still ... That was really unsympathetic.
Guys... I am 32 years old... the only time I had to give my bank number to someone was when I began to work... Where do you give your bank account number??? If you are asked for a SEPA, DONT DO THAT! if you still do it, it is your own fault... every company who wants to have your bank number for a SEPA also HAVE to offer (by law) another possibility to pay them regulary, like GEZ, they also give the possibility to transfer them the money every month yourself, or every 3 months... Dont act like you have to give your bank number...thats not true... please get someone who knows the german language and can translate all the papers you get for you, because obviously you don´t have such a guy...
I didn't know you still have to pay for radio and tv in Germany. We used to have the same in The Netherlands but we don't have that anymore for at least 20 years. I'm surprised Germany still has it.
that toiletthing is a development. it started as a tip for clean bathroom. and most times there was just a plate for the tip without any person sitting there. only in very high class places there was an old lady sitting there.in that time it was ok, if you had not the right coins or if you are a kid, not to pay. it changed , what nobody noticed at the beginning the bosses of the cleaning ladys or teams, took this tip for themselves and because more people pay something there is sitting someone now.
As a european, I hate it when they charge you to use the bathroom. It feels like they should pay me to use their bathroom instead of peeing at a tree in front of their door.
Team Thumb! The "toilet lady" thing seems to be a relatively recent new development. I never encountered anything like it in Germany during my childhood and teen years in the 80s and 90s. The first "toilet lady" I ever encountered was in my mid-20s. One of my aunts used to own a cleaning company. Their biggest customer was a shopping mall in the city of Ludwigsburg. As long as my aunt and uncle were running the cleaning operation there, there was no "toilet lady". They just had a regular cleaning crew member take care of the toilets twice a day and nobody was charging extra for that. Then they retired about 8 years ago and dismantled the company because their daughter didn't want to take over and a Turkish company took over the shopping mall and since then there are "toilet ladies" there too.
@@BlueFlash215 With "they" you mean my aunt and uncle and that you are from Ludwigsburg? If you say so, I can't prove you wrong, but it is a strange coincidence that not one of the restaurants I visited for like the first 25 years of my life had "toilet ladies". Also, if that would have been a common thing, why wouldn't the shopping mall management have told my aunt to do it too?
@@TrangleC no, sorry. I mean Passport Two. But you are right in a certain way. It felt very localized to certain areas. I definitely can tell that there were a lot of places we visited that had no cleaning ladies
I'm 54, and I know these toilet ladies as long as I am using toilets. Grown up in Munich, grandparents in Kaiserslautern - you can't go so far with a small child without rest and restroom
I like the German system of bathroom tickets in Rest areas on the Autobahn. You put 70 cents in a machine and you can access the bathroom (usually very clean!!), you also get a 50 cents voucher for your food and drink purchases at the Rest area shop. So in fact you ony pay 20 cents, and you find clean bathrooms....
Hi I'm from Iran and I see all day in my country, that for restroom u should payed.like germany but it not for all of Iran.I mean some of restroom is free. But some of them u should pay for them.and i love your video's and I wish for you best dream.(sorry if I have a mistake in my text my English is not good. Goodbye 👋)
As a german, i can say i never pay for using the restrooms. It's almost always not mandatory, so if you're a grumpy old bavarian like me, you just don't give them anything. Nobody ever says anything when you don't pay this stupid imaginary fee.
The habit of Tipping an unmentioned amount of money in various places is purely american. So a system where you have to pay a fixed price, is much more obvious to everybody. However, it happened to me only in America so far, that I have been asked for a tip, if not tipping. This unspoken requirement seems to be much more mandatory. It's not like you have to pay for the use of streets or things like that ;-)
Where I live in germany it has become less common for someone to sit in front of the bathroom but if there is someone, you usually tip afterwards and if it's not clean I am not gonna do it.
I start with my thumb when counting with my fingers :) BTW, I loved the video. I lived in Germany for 7 years, as a military dependent and then as a military wife, so I knew about the toilet lady. When we came to the US, my little sister told my mother that she couldn't go into a public bathroom, because she needed 50 pfennigs, LOL! I guard my all my documents and account numbers.
Well, every time you use your debit card it basically tells the card reader your IBAN and SWIFT code, so I think it makes sense, that they are also printed on there in a human-readable way, because every time you're using that card, you're giving away that information anyway. Also, yes, the only thing an attacker can do to your bank account without your consent, if they only know its IBAN, is deposit money into the account. There is a payment method called "Lastschrift", though, which does not necessarily need you to give express permission for the other party to charge you some payment from your account, but you can have fraudulent "Lastschrift"-transactions reverted by your bank. This is why you should regularly check your bank statements / the account's transaction history.
I still value our public broadcasting services in Germany very highly. I think they are among the most trustworthy sources of information and high-quality journalism in Germany, especially in this age of the internet and social media where private newspapers are struggling heavily. So I'll gladly pay the fee for it. After all, it is still pretty cheap considering the amount of radio and TV stations you get for it.
I disagree with you since most öffentliche Rundfunks only share one sided Information controled by the chancellors party. In this case they are not allowed to speak too critical about SPD, GRÜNE, FDP. Last year it was Pro-CDU broadcasting. Its a law we learned in university. Der Rundfunk Staatsvertrag.
Why do all the GEZ excusers come out of their holes? ARD & Co. produced content is shoving down agenda down your throat like nothing else. Its pure propaganda. Yes theres a few gems among them but buried under heaps of trash. They could do with waaaaaaay less money but our politicians use it as a rent system for themselves.
@@TrangleC ….ich meine das ganz ernst. Ich kenne das tv in den USA sehr, sehr gut, und wollte sowas hier nie haben. Hier werden sehr viele gute inhaltliche Produktionen ausgestrahlt. Nicht nur die ARD und ZDF, sondern die ganzen dritten Programmen, sowie 3Sat, Arte, Zdf Neo, etc. Das meiste davon auch ohne Werbung. Ich zahle gerne für intelligente Inhalte
Die Qualität der eigenen Sendungen ist sehr gut, das gib ich zu... Aber wenn wir schon zahlen dann... 1. Bitte überhaupt keine Werbung mehr! Und 2. Bitte ALLE!!!! ausländischen Sendungen in beiden Sprachen damit der Zuschauer wählen kann, auf deutsch oder ov. Als Belgier finde ich es schrecklich das in Deutschland alles gedubt wird, deshalb gucke ich fast kein deutsches Fernsehen... Außer ab und zu mal die Nachrichten. Oder mal eine doku. Aber zdf zeigt auch oft richtig gute scandinavische (oder andere) serien, aber ich kann mir das nicht auf deutsch anschauen, das geht echt nicht! Und 3. 17,xx€ im ernst??? Netflix und amazon prime zusammen kosten nicht mal so viel!!
@@aphexart Dafür ziehen Netflix und co eine Menge an Daten. Das tun die Öffentlich-Rechtlichen nicht. Außerdem geht die GEZ nicht nur and die Fernsehsender, sondern auch an Radiosender. Leider schluckt der ganze Verwaltungsapparat der GEZ viel des Geldes. Aber ich zahle lieber diesen Betrag und bekommen unabhängige Nachrichten und Inhalte als nur privaten Scheiss.
Well, as a Dutch tourist I would say the biggest 'scam' in Germany is at restaurants where they often have two different sizes of drinks (wheter it is coffee, coke or beer) on the menu, and when you not explicitly ask for small, you get large (mostly half a liter / 0,5 L) wich I think is too much. In most restaurants they don't ask you if you want small or large, but in some (nice) restaurants they do.
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Why should I have a problem with handing out my IBAN...? As you mentioned, all that can happen is that someone sends me money. I have no problem with that.
once my IBAN got abused by someone who ordered from me on ebay. Instead of sending me money they used my IBAN to order stuff online. But as you can report unauthorized transactions to your bank there wasn't any real harm (except from reporting to the police and the companies that person ordered from).
On the toilet person: did you know that there are places where that person actually has to PAY in order to be allowed to sit there? This is the case for some of the now exclusive clubs. These people are freelancers and get tipped so well, that they gladly pay for the right to sit there.
A few things about public broadcasting that is always forgotten: You've got a lot of radio (75) and TV (around 20) stations. But not only that. You've got a whole package of different journalists, you've got the On-Demand services you can access for free, UA-cam channels that are basically just funded, but in the end they are pretty free to do what they want. Kurzgesagt, Simplicissimus, MrWissen2Go... They all do great jobs (even if they sometimes don't meet your political views, but I see those statement left and right on the political compass that they are biased, so I guess they are pretty decent lol). Artists are supported by paying them and getting them on shows (especially in this pandemic). Movies are getting funds by public broadcasting (not just those produced by them). They maintain big ass archives. They support whole orchestras. They fund competitions. They fund small local stations that - if they were private - probably wouldn't be able to survive (in long Term They won't be either since it's more old people relying on those). They are rarely allowed to play ads. The "mediatheken" are ad-free. The "funk" youtube channels are ad-free. TV channels are mostly ad-free. They maintain websites, Instagram pages for news and so on. And also: They pay their employees real goooood money. Sometimes even too much, especially when it comes to intendants and directors. In my opinion I'm pretty happy to have them. Since I'm a Student I don't have to pay for it, because I get Bafög, but before I payed it and was kinda mad sometimes. But in the end I realized how often I used something by them without even realizing. A quick Google search for news and you'll either get to a Private news outlet and their site is bombed with ads or it's behind a paywall. But everything covered by this broadcasting fee is "free" and openly available. If it's Tagesschau, Deutsche Welle or any other news outlet by the "ÖRR". But still I think at some points there has to be cuts made, because at some points it's literally overloaded. But I guess this will solve itself in the next decades, because a lot of their program is literally only watched by old people. But still despite those things. I guess it's better to have free operating and public funded networks instead of state funded networks like in Russia or the whole CNN/Fox News problem over there in the US
The best part is also, that they are free to report on anything they want, as long as it is true. They aren't bound to any political opinion and are only zencored by themselves.
@@Schatten-to6dz exactly. And they have correspondents in literally every place of the world (which is quite expensive to maintain as well) so we can get at least somewhat independent news.
I love the intro being called "Anfang" in the chapter selection! You could also use "Vorwort" as a particularly German reference to content-before-content. I'd love to hear you pronounce it too :D (And I'm starting with my thumb!)
Just a few things to add: - you are not obligated to pay the toilet lady. It's an on-top tip. Also always tip after you're done, so that you know how much tip the cleaning is worth. - you can always ask the ticket guys for their batch (Dienstausweis) and they need to show it to you. Of they don't have a batch, not pay. - the GEZ is not for every TV channel, just for ARD, ZDF and some 'local' channels like BR, NDR and a few more. It also pays some radio stations - the IBAN (international banking account number) itself is actually a combination of account number and bank number and the BIC is the international routing number. The IBAN/BIC system is very good, because it allows to send money internationally very easy with just the two numbers. For someone who lived abroad a lot I know the struggle of sending money around the world.
They used to do this in America. In the ladies room a woman would have tissues, sewing kit, women’s supplies and toilet paper and you were expected to tip.
Don’t tell them but I haven’t paid my GEZ fees for over a year since they didn’t reach out to me after my flatmate moved out who used to be the one officially paying (We of course split the cost). Still hoping the letter doesn’t reach me before I move out 😅 Also I do start counting with my thumb
I've lived in Germany for 2+ years, and generally the cultural differences from English speaking counties are vastly different. I had the same experiences as you guys did when I first moved here but generally its a safe countries, Perhaps you have already recorded a video but signing a rental contract for housing seems like a scam or is borderline scam as the landlords seem to be able to dictate any conditions. Great Video Guys!
When my mother and I went to the US we were shocked, that they just take off with your credit card at a restaurant when you pay and don't need any pin, tan or something else. Or that you slide your credit card through the order terminal at Wendy's and your real name pops up on the screen
You know we Germans also do not give our IBAN to everybody but if some institute needs it, it's totally common for us as we know they need it in order to get our money for their services for example. But of course it is still a sensitive information.
In Belgium we also used to have the TV tax, but it was integrated in our taxes in 2001. I don’t even think twice about giving out my IBAN number in everyday situations. I won’t post it on the internet though … The number in itself is no use to others because it can only be used by a two factor authentication or other encryption method. It’s very safe. Every European country has IBAN numbers now. Yours start with DE, ours with BE, Dutch with NL. The number structure following the letters is different in every country. You only need the BIC for payments to accounts with starting letters other than your own.
In Bath (UK) there are free walking tours for Jane Austen fans, sponsored by the Jane Austen Museum. And they're free, simply the end of the trip is the museum with annexed shop and (gorgeous) tea room so it's advertisement + education.
about the IBAN, think of it like your address. There is generally no issue giving your address to someone, and the same with your "money address", there is no problem giving someone your IBAN/ "money address". People don't get access to your house, just because they know your address, the same with your bank account, just because you give them the address to your account, doesn't give them access to it.
You usually need a TAN-code to send money via e-banking from your bank account to another. When e.g. a utility company wants to take money from your account, they usually need a "SEPA-Lastschriftmandat", which is essentially your agreement with only that utility company. Once they have that, they can essentially take any amount from your account every month. However, usually you can also take their IBAN-number to your bank and have them block it from withdrawing any amount for a certain time or even forever. Of course, you should only do that with suspicious withdrawals from sketchy companies.
To public toilets: You never have to pay for those toilets in restaurants. Restaurants in Germany have to offer a free toilet with only one exception: Sanifair. Sanifair is the monopole of the German Highway Tankstops/Reststops toilets. They have the exclusive permission to really charge you for the toilet. Yes, there is always a place to buy some food. Usually they have to offer a toilet for free, because of the restaurants like McDonalds or a bakery, but the government has good connection to the Car-Lobby
IBAN isn't a German thing btw. IBAN stands for "International bank account number". BIC stands for "Bank identifier code". Even US bank accounts have IBANs. The reason why we just give out our IBANs is that in case anyone puts a debit on your account, you can get the money back with just one phonecall. It's just way more secure and also a hell of a lot more convenient than that outdated abomination you call a check. Simple bank transfers are pretty much standard here, nobody (except insurance companies) uses checks anymore.
Not even my American bank has IBAN. I've asked them millions of times to implement their IBAN to make it easier to transfer the funds between the countries. Their excuse: "We are taking your suggestion into the consideration. Thank you for your feedback! We appreciate having you as our valued customer!"
Want to know how to survive the unique quirks of life in Germany from the frantic grocery store checkout line to choosing between kartoffelsalat or pommes?? Check out this video 😊 👉 ua-cam.com/video/XLDcuSeBT6U/v-deo.html
why choosing between Kartoffelsalat or Pommes? You can have both... oO
Well here in Vienna those undercover ticket controllers do put on a badge in the moment they reveal themselves which then clearly identifies them as ticket controllers therefore you know those are "real" and no scam.
@@michaelgrabner8977 Faschingsorden
yeah sure anyone can have my IBAN, come send me money djdjsjsjs
grocery store checkout line - go shopping at the right time. Go to the right store which is investing enough in cashiers. Aldi, Lidl - horrible! Edeka in the evening - no problem at all. If you do your groceries once a week, you might choose saturday 6pm, for example. Everybody's having dinner, so there are no lines at all. On other days, too, the lines are smallest at 8am, at 1 pm, at 6 pm - nobody thinks of it. The retired people and young moms are shopping between 10am and 12 , in the afternoon they go home after work or with school-children: early shift: 2pm, with schoolchildren 3pm-4pm, after work daytime: 4-6pm. So from 6 pm on, they all are at home, yet most of the grocerystores won't close before 8pm :-)
only scam I know in Germany are the beer prices at fairs like Oktoberfest... but that's for everyone, not only foreigners.
Soooo, therefore its not a scam but an accepted practice over the last 100 years ;-)
ohh there are quite a lot of scammers in germany, mostly shit like phone, tv, internet services. my grandma was sold a very expensive internet contract by 1&1, fun fact my grandma never owned a computer and the prick who sold it to her knew that.
@@tommerker8063 True, but those scams aren't specific to germany.
Those scams happen pretty much everywhere.
Subscription type scams (aka shady contracts) and scams based on exploiting the goodwill of our elders are a widespread source of anger in the US and Germany.
@@peterpan4038 ohh yeah for sure, i think it's still worth mentioning
BS.. Ask dor standard pint in NY... You will pay more for for the pint than for the liter in Munich
So, what are things you think is weird about each other?
Americans: Toilets
Germans:America in general
Germans: Like what? What's so weird? Oh....germany is somehow superior? Is that what you're implying? In what way? Don't just make statements without any proof.....
LOLLLL
Hahahaha so true xD
(I'm from Germany)
@@brucemarsico6 the hell dude?
@@IDontKnowHowToNameMe The 'hell' what? You don't know how to name yourself? You also don't know how to explain yourself! Get back!
The toilet ladies in restaurants do NOT have to be paid. Giving them something is a voluntary tip. The plates that sometimes stand there are just an invitation to pay a drinking fee. If you are a guest in a restaurant, the toilet visit is basically free. From users who are not guests at the same time, the restaurants can charge a small fee of 50 cents to 1 euro. Whether they do or not varies locally. In my experience, rather not.
Yeah, I usually mostly do pay when I experience a very clean bathroom and get the feeling that the cleaning person is doing a good job. But I refuse to pay on purpose if I experience a dirty toilet or no soap and hand drying paper, etc. You might catch a mean look from the cleaning person - but I refuse to reward bad service. And you're not obliged to pay it. Every public business has to provide a toilet for its customers and they can't charge you for it. The money you're expected to pay is basically just a tip you're giving to the cleaning person (which most of the time aren't part of the staff). Only sometimes on toilets in large train stations you have to pay upfront because there's a turnstile on the entrance.
Back in the days (a long time agoooo....) it was NOT custom to give tips for toilet use in germany.
I don't know who started it - but somebody thought they could save money on cleaning personal... and then everybody followed the trend... and germans being germans... just excepted it, instead of boycotting it. 🤷🏻♂️😒
Right, I never HAD to pay but for me it's a nice gesture.
The really bad thing is: the Toilettenfrau won't get the tips. She only gets the appreciation. In my eyes it's theft. But some court said it's ok. :-( The salary is really awful. Guess it doubled with introduction of minimum wage. Might have even doubled with US minimum wage.
@@frauantjeshayday-farmen9517 The federal minimum wage for tipped employees in the United States is $2.13 per hour.
A bad joke that is, if you ask me.
drinking fee - Trinkgeld = tip
it does sound very funny. Please don't use drinking fee again, otherwise english speakers will think we have alcoholics sitting in front of the facilities :-)
If someone sits in front of the bathrooms, you can pay after using it. That way you can change your price based on the condition of the bathrooms.
That is how I do it. The person is there to keep the toilet clean. I go in first, see if it is clean or not. If everything is fine, I give 50 cents or 1 Euro. If it is not okay, I won't pay anything. It is that simple.
Nice tip! 😊
If you feel this situation as a scam, then you can't even go for a coffee in the US. There, everyone who serves you is underpaid and can only survive through your donation/tip.
@@emilwandel LOL I at first read "I was tipped afterwards", which made me think: Wow, he must have done extraordinary business!
@@bordeaux1962 That's not entirely true. Waiters and Waitresses in the US are the only ones who really make the vast majority of their money on tips, baristas and workers in fast food make the actual minimum wage (which is still too low imo but that's a different topic, they actually make the minimum unlike waiters...) so tips for people like baristas in a coffee shop don't need to be tipped, and there's no societal expectation that you tip them. For those professions, tips are just an extra thing you can give if you don't wanna deal with the change or if you just wanna be nice or if you were really satisfied.
If you are asked in public transportation for tickets by "undercover" clothed people, you are totally allowed to asked (friendly) for their license. Normally they have a lanyard with a authority card with ID, Barcode and the local transportation service on it (Munich = MVG/MVV, Hamburg = HVV, Berlin = BVG, etc.) ...
"Allowed to ask for the license/badge"? No, they're pretty much required, atleast within the RMV (Rhein-Main), to show them or have them clearly visible on their clothes before they ask for your ticket. That's why my typical answer to the infamous "Fahrkarte bitte" is usually "Ausweis bitte" whenever they're "undercover". No license = No ticket. And yes, I've also seen 2 in uniform in the S-Bahn asking for tickets but only using the device on the personalizes tickets with name and picture with a very bright light as if they've taken pictures of the ticket, so even the uniform is not a guarantee that they're officials.
To be fair though, almost all encounters within the RMV were very friendly. The RFID chip on my ticket wasn't readable twice within the last 2 years and instead of a fine I was told to head to the next official counter to get it fixed.
There are of course some who are not as friendly but they're usually the young/new people who are on a bit of a power trip. Simply go to their colleague, who's usually a senior and much friendlier, and everything should be fine.
@@Kiramitsuoka I once went on the bus to go visit my father after school (I was maybe 9 years old). Unfortunately, the tickets given to us by the school did not actually allow travel to the city (which we didn't know) and when I handed my ticket over to the guy, he was just basking in having found a 9-year-old "criminal" and handed me a 40€ fine in a way that everyone on the bus noticed (no one stepped in or even said a word). He also felt the need to lecture me about this bad behaviour and bla bla bla... I was too afraid to explain the situation - and he never asked anyway or gave me a chance to.
I have hated these people ever since - they're not human.
I never had to pay the fine, btw. My father made one phone call where he didn't sound too happy and the thing was settled.
@@srccde That's what I meant, there are some who are just on a power trip and they have an easy way with children because they can't really defend themselfs in such high-pressure situations. Most of them really are fine people but some are just there because the police didn't want them but they just want to feel powerfull. At least that's how they usually appear to me because as soon as you actually start to argue with them they call their colleagues to "overpower" you, just don't stop to argue now. I've been in a situation where the guy wanted to touch my ticket which I was against because of the pandemic. He started his power trip, called his colleagues to silence me, I told them that he refuses to hold his device against my ticket which I don't want him to touch because of the pandemic going on. They all agreed to my reasoning, held their device to my ticket, scolded the guy and went on.
@@srccde Not sure if they work for provision or if they are not allowed to waive it but I had literally a 2 year backcatalog of my monthly tickets (it was the 5th january my first work day, you may only travel on the first weekday of the following month) and he didn't care. Got it waived eventually but yeah, pricks is what they are.
This is the same for the police, if you are unsure you can ask the "ID".
One scam that used to be a thing, targeting senior citizens, mainly, are "Kaffeefahrten": Flyers advertising bus day-trips to popular tourist destinations for a ridiculously cheap price, often including free lunch and coffee & cake. Before getting you there, there will, however be at least one stop at a sales event by their "special partner", where shrewd sales people contort you into buying overpriced "bargains", mainly household items.
Or special "healthy" bedware.
They sometimes don't even go to the designation when they haven't sold enough.
Usually used by elder people. I remember a group of my fellow university students participating. During the special sales event, they made sure, nobody bought anything by asking sassy questions ;)
They do it in Mexico all the time,usually stop at jewelry stores, foreigners love their silver.
And they are all inclusive u don't have to be old to get taken advantage of 😄
Wow! We haven’t come across this one ever. Always sad when, in particular, the elderly are targeted…
@@PassportTwo everyone is targeted, the elderly are not mentally delayed, am not old,yet this excuse is
On the issue of public toilets, I use a wheelchair because of my MS. When in Europe, I pay a once-only fee of €25.00 for a special key which is usable in special 'disabled' toilets in cities, on train & metro stations, and in parks in many EU countries. These are generally very clean, door and flushes are automatic, there are hoists for those severely challenged, and even changing "beds" for the incontinent with aides, at times. I have never seen these in the US.
I think you shouldnt have to pay for it but glad that those toilets are well equipped and clean
Are you able to use the key a couple years later? No, right?
@@tabbeyah5351 not sure, but it seems this key is more like a safety deposit. Of course, many people with disabilities are not going to get 'better', so you likely won't return the key and get your deposit back.
Ok thats great though that you can use it throughout the years
It's a requirement for all businesses in the US to have a bathroom for people in wheelchairs. It has railings and a taller toliet, but that's it. It's also free.
I always had to laugh when US-Americans in their vlog say: "Yes, you have to pay for German restrooms, but therefore they are clean." I hate going to a German restroom, i despise the smell and I am wondering how much more gross can a US restroom be?
It's much worse, trust me. By the way German restrooms where you really pay (on the Autobahn) are fairly clean.
What's so horrendous about the US restroom is the MASSIVE gaps between doors and stalls as well as between stalls and floors. Privacy? Hahaha. Oh, god, I hate that when anyone peek in through the gap or go under the stall to grab your stuff. Not to mention the perverts toeing in underneath the stall for the anonymous blow jobs. Thank god for German restrooms that give us lot of privacy.
@@InTeCredo ya…none of this really happens in American bathrooms but I still do love the privacy the German bathrooms offer 😂
@@PassportTwo Actually it depends entirely on when and where in both countries. When I first went to Germany in the 1950's, the little old ladies not only sat outside, but also carried on their cleaning duties darting in and out of customers' way with their mops and buckets. And my tip to travelers in the U.S is always look for for the lobby of a very good hotel with restrooms adjacent, and stop worrying about those "gaps." No one in a decent, busy place is interested in peeking, because everyone is usually in a hurry. The odd exception can be found in both countries, even today in sketchy places in Germany.
@@InTeCredo You are worrying about things that never happen.
Those undercover ticket conductors have to identify themselves with a identification card of the company running that public transportation. If in doubt ask them to show it if they aren't already doing it anyway. Also you only have to show the ticket to them and not hand it over.
Sharing your IBAN and Bic is like giving someone your Homeadress. Sure someone could show up but they'd still need the Key to get in the House. Even IF someone got a hold of you Debit Card and your Pin Code and everything. As you Pointed out youd still need a Valid Tan number which usually are fingerprint validation on Phone Apps. Even if all this Fails and People have access to your account you can usually just call your Bank and they have the card Blocked within Seconds.
Nevertheless I don't feel well with online payments. Got used to it because of covid, but still don't like it at all!
@@frauantjeshayday-farmen9517 use a credit card or pay pal or similar service, than you have addditional security. I once had my card cloned somewhere in the Balkans, likely at a gas station and soon after that trip got a call from my provider, asking if I was in China - someone tried to use my cloned card data and they got it immidiately. Some credit cards have the benefice of a relatively cheap and usually good travel insurance. Ask your bank about it.
A copy of my card it what I'm most afraid of. I am checking the bank-automats for manipulations (if something seems wrong, I'm using another one) - and I'm storing the card behind the coins, so that it can't be read out. That's quite a simple trick. Btw. I don't use credit cards - to me they are making no sense, as I don't go for far away holidays. I prefer to know the relation between having and spending.
@@aasphaltmueller5178: Credit cards are uncommon here. They are usually for the more wealthy and not everyone will be able to get one.
@@denisenova7494 Ah, OK; Here they became rather common in the last 20 years, not at least to pay in the Internet
The toilet person doesn’t necessarily have to be an employee of the shop, restaurant or mall. Sometimes, they are self employed and just get a permission by the shop owner and keep those 50 cents or whatever amount as tip. The fee is not enforceable. There are only few exceptions to this like on resting areas on the Autobahn. But even there you‘ll get a coupon that you can use as a supplemental for paying your coffee or things like that.
Americans are so used to tip the waiter, but can not tip the toilet lady?
they often even pay the business a fee in order to do the job
@@insideAdirtyMind Have you ever seen a bar's restroom in the US? They might be cleaned once per day either just before opening or right after closing... at least in the few times I was in the US of A ...
Honestly, the Public Radio / Television fee definetely feels like a scam. I am a German and a student living in a student dorm and we don't even have Television connection here. Only wifi. And I still have to pay for it...
But there are definitely quite different opinions about the subject depending on who you ask.
You can get everything in the "mediathek" using your internet connection. The System of public (Öffentlich rechtliche) broadcast companies is to ensure independent journalism. No one owns the german public TV and radio stations, so they cannot simply be forced to drop anything, because a major advertising client is against it. they are controlled by a "rundfunkrat". This "Rundfunkrat" consists of representatives of (almost) all groups of the german population to secure it's independence. In contrast to american tv stations which depend on advertising or state tv like russia.
i mean you could just use your wifi to open the mediathek instead of youtube and access all their television programs so...the only aspect i agree on would be how unfair it is for students and generally low-income, and that single households have to pay a lot more than a family of 6 because you pay per apartment not per person
Giving out my credit card details makes me feel way more uncomfortable, than my IBAN, and I get the impression that you get asked for that a lot in the US or online.
This is very true. I wanted to buy a lot of things that were only available outside the EU and every one of these shops (legitimate shops, mind) asked for credit card info. It got to the point that I now use single-use pre-charged cards for this.
In a nutshell there is basically no harm that can be done to you by just knowing your International Bank Account Number.
Actually you should rather worry about your date of birth than about your IBAN.
Yeah, that's used as a password all the time. Someone could cancel your contract with your electricity provider when they know your birthday.
@@petraw9792 Gimme your full name, address and birth date and i may be able to cancel almost your whole life with a bit of effort. Compared to that your bank account number is totally useless.
@@petraw9792 Fortunately nobody knows my birthday is on 12th July 1988.
@@vandamme6379 That's good for you
Funny thing about the "Rundfunkbeitrag" (Household fee for TV): Few years ago, as it still was called GEZ ("GebührenEinzugsZentral" = Central agencie for collecting fees) one had to pay fees for accessing the Internet, even if the PC didn´t have a Internet Connection whatsover. Reason was "you have a device that you COULD connect." As this is obvious deceiving any logic, it still was german law. So many males in germany went up and ask the state "sooooo...in the lower half of my body...I have a device, I COULD make children with...do I get "Kindergeld" (state money you get for raising a child) for just owning such a device...?"
I know a similar joke. The wife of a fisher, since her husband is not going to fish that day, takes the boat (with all the fishing gear on board) and sits in the boat calmly, in the lake, reading a book. An officer comes and wants to fine her for fishing in the lake, in a forbidden zone. "But I was not fishing!" "Yes, ok, but you have all the items needed for fishing. So I will fine you". And her answer is "So I will sue you for rape" "But I never touched you..." "No, but you have all the items needed for raping..."
I'm enjoying your videos!
I enjoy these videos too. And also your reactions.
🖐👴
@@f.s.2869
Same, hahaha
Mission accomplished
🖐👴
@@f.s.2869
same
I love your videos, Ryan 😄 keep up the good work!
In the UK nearly everyone is required to pay a TV licence fee of £159 per household per year (around $222). This pays for the BBC, in lieu of advertising.
The BBC is a trustworthy news provider and offers intelligent entertainment as well.
The BBC also gets extra money from The Netherlands and Belgium, BBC One and BBC Two are available on cable in those countries, rest of Europe only had the international version of BBC
wtf? 4real? are ppl ok with that? edit, didn't see that its per year, so its similar. still do ppl oppose to it?
My understanding is there are some significant differences between the TV License rules in Germany versus in the UK - specifically the license in the UK is required only if you actually watch live TV as it is being broadcast. I've heard in many situations in the UK it can actually be legal NOT to have a TV license - such as if you only use streaming services that are NOT live, use a DVD player and/or video game console and do NOT tune to live TV.
scam #1
you are actually not obligated to pay, they just guilt you into paying
Yes, it's just a tip.
Very important about the fee for television ("Rundfunkgebühren"): most Germans who think of the fee in a negative way actually don't have very much knowledge about it. They think it's just for television and radio only but that's not the case. In fact there are also other media like for example UA-cam channels who do research about important topics like politics, corruption, medicine and also education (sex, drugs, alcohol, bullying, addiction, etc). These videos are usually very reputable, independently researched and understandable for the vast majority of people. This is not a scam, it's IMPORTANT. It's not some random sh** controlled by the government! Not at all.
@carnelian.weasel must be very sad in this conspiracy theory world. Educate yourself. The organisations that are payed from the "Rundfunkgebühren" often criticize politics, the state and the system very intense. In fact they often let scientists speak, reveal illegal affairs in politics and industry and draw attention to more unknown problems and their causes in society, also they piblish their information sources. And if you would think about it you would notice that it makes sense. Because they will definitely get payed, no matter what they produce. Conspiracy ideologists (they are not theorists because there is nothing scientific about it) on the other hand wouldn't make a lot of money if they would tell you what you can read in a library in an educational book. Instead they spread fear and misinformation because that's best paid. What newspaper would you rather read, something like "scientists identify complex molecules responsible for protection of vaccines" or something like "the rich meritocracy is trying to kill everyone and only YOU special super intelligent human are able to find out and survive"? When 99% of scientists say A and 1% says B, what do you think who gets payed a lot to twist facts? The 99% with a normal life or the 1% that suddenly own a house in the carribean and just bought a new car? I don't understand why people don't trust someone who dedicated their life to the research of viruses but they trust a vegan Nazi cook that told people to give them money and fled into a foreign country with one prognosis after the other proving to be wrong (this really happened in Germany!). Strange thing, isn't it? Maybe you should do some research about "Rundfunkgebühren" and also the well researched psychology behind conspiracy ideologiesideologies (inferiority complex, loss of control, wanting to be special, lack of logical thinking etc).
@carnelian.weasel and nobody ever said that. If you would be well educated on this toppic you would know that the most media that is influenced by corporations and industry is private instead of "ÖR". And you would also know that the different " ÖR" also criticize each other if they think someone did something unethical. And you would notice that independent scientific media often says the same as the "ÖR". And maybe you would also know that "ÖR" publish their information sources so you can double check if you want to. So if you would be well educated you would know this and wouldn't call people naive because they say and actually explain that/why "Rundfunkgebühren" aren't a scam and actually important.
Go away GEZ shill, you are fooling noone! GEZ is theft!
@Mircea N. true, if you haven't watched any tv in years and then watch almost anything on ard/zdf the agenda is so blatantly obvious its sickening.
I'm German, so I start counting with my thumb.
Concerning IBAN and BIC. Bic is only needed for transnational transactions, within Germany IBAN is sufficient as it contains DE (for Germany) 2 digits (verification number) 8 digits (BLZ = Bankleitzahl = Bank identification number), and 10 digits (account number with leading 0s to fill in between the BLZ and account number.
I normally don't disclose my IBAN if not necessary - for safety reasons. But there are a lot of institutions that require disclosure like Finanzamt (IRS), health insurance, phone, and mobile phone providers, and every debtor you allow to withdraw money from your bank account (which is a really safe option for payment as any money withdrawn without proper authorization can be ordered back within a few weeks time). Btw: using cheques is so 1990.
I don't think cheques have been used much in Germany since ca. 1975.
Dito
Your perspective is absolutely fascinating.
Matter of fact, when I visited a fast food chain for the first time in the US, the meal they gave me was so massive that I was worried they might charge me much more than I had planned :D
Glad you enjoy!
That’s so funny to hear 😂 I wonder which restaurant it was? 😅
@@PassportTwo It was a Five Guys actually. The size of the beverage was shocking! 😃
@@horbuchasmrkanal2774 isn't the soda in Europe about a liter at five guys? So I'm curious how large it was in the US
@@dutchgamer842 it was like 2 or 3 liters, like totally obscene!
@@horbuchasmrkanal2774 Yes , have been to the USA , meal portions are enormous compared to here in Australia ..even on a cruise the buffet portions they got were enormous , no wonder obesity is a problem
I would rather be st unease when giving my credit card to some waiter who walks away with it the US way, where you do not see what they do with it, rather than telling somebody my IBAN. As you said, if he wants to deposit something on it, he is free to do so. He cannot withdraw anything from it without any additional authorization.
people cant do anything with your iban
Here in Berlin, housing scams have become extremely common, and mainly target foreigners desperately looking for an apartment before they get here and start their new job or university program. They try to get people to send them money in advance, before they see the place or get the contract or keys. Usually they pretend to be temporarily abroad, often in London for some reason. Other times they use a fake airbnb page.
That's not actual German people doing those scams is it?
@@vitocorleone8323 I have no idea about the nationalities of the scammers, but it is not as though all Germans are honest and upright, especially in today's dire housing market. I have lived here almost 40 years, by the way.
Once talked to one that said he is in London and needs to send the key... coincidentely I was in London the weekend after so I siad lets meet.. no answer after that lol
@@Tokiodrift
They were afraid of being robbed by someone shady from the internet, who pretends to want to rent an apartment. 😁
I almost fell for that many years ago... I'm german btw
German person here, the Rundfunkgebühren at scam 4 are actually really controversial and there are many people who want to abolish this. The main problem is that we are in Germany and we germans are best at taking 20 years for a simple decision like this.
You don’t have to pay the toilet people. It’s more like a tip ( Shops/Restaurants might asked for a fee if you don’t buy anything though). In fact this used to be a criminal system. The cleaning staff was payed poorly and wasn’t allowed to keep the money. The money was collected by their bosses and the system was used for money laundering, if I remember correctly. Btw the toilets were horrible, especially on the autobahn. It got way better since sanifair took over.
We stopped at some free toilets on the Autobahn on our way to Berlin. They were absolutely disgusting, they had no toilet paper, no soap or paper towels to dry your hands. Next to the building, there was a burned-out car surrounded by police tape. You'd think the government would shut the place down in a pandemic! We high-tailed it out of there. I've never been happier to have a face mask and hand sanitizer in my bag.
@@AdZS848 o yes, a totally free toilet is a place nobody should attend if anyhow possible. At least not as a woman, as we have to sit down. This kind of toilets will be known by smell from far away! 🤮
@@frauantjeshayday-farmen9517 The women's toilet is usually much worse than the men's precisely because most women actually DO NOT SIT DOWN on a public toilet (understandable, but the result is disgusting).
@@INT41O Well... let's say... I've three boys, and when they refused to use a toilet at a train station - not even standing! - I took a look, as no other person was there. Let's say - it looked like as if everybody had used it with his eyes closed. And it had been used for months without cleaning. Most women just are trying to make a second toilet seat out of toilet paper. Which makes the average women's toilet a little more neat - but still most disgusting.
6:05 you can of course always ask the ticket controller for ID proving he is who he is. If he isn't legit, he will come up with some excuse why this isn't possible, or stop bothering you straight away.
They always flash their ID cards when they bellow out, "Fahrkarte, bitte!"
@@InTeCredo But nobody really checks that ID. A friend of mine once used his military ID to conduct a check. Everybody showed their tickets, nobody even glanced at the shown ID. In hindsight, that was risky for my friend, as he was a cadet at that time, not just enlisted. He could have been in serious trouble if somebody had reported him.
@@thiloreichelt4199 Well, if you really try, you surely can scam people here. But why would you? What are you gaining by taking a look at everybodys ticket? A friend of mine bought a DB-backpack on ebay and placed it to have the logo shown very obvious. When the ticket controller got to him, he just pretends to sleep and was never bothered, since CB-employees are allowed to use the trains for free. That is what I would call scamming, but being a fake controller? That's just - weird!?
Usually, when someone sits in front of a public toilet with a plate in Germany, you give them a tip afterwards, based on the cleanliness of the toilet. So, you're not really paying a fee for using the toilet in that case, you're tipping the cleaning staff, and you're not required to do so. Please note that that's just the case in Germany, it might well be different in other countries.
The IBAN is not a German thing. IBAN is short for "international bank account number" and it's a unified numbering system for bank accounts in Europe. It contains the bank "routing number" as well as the "account number" and some additional verification data to detect potential typos. The BIC is the "bank identifier code" and is a global standard. However, for transactions inside Europe, it's pretty much superfluous, since the IBAN already contains all relevant information about the bank and account.
As for secrecy: The IBAN alone is not enough to take money from your account, just like a street address alone isn't enough to clear out your apartment. Still, I wouldn't just throw my IBAN around without good reason, just as I wouldn't publicly proclaim my address to everybody.
I am a german and i have a fun fact for you about the toilets. In germany going to the bathroom is a fundamental right and nobody can say no even if you don't pay. If they actively prevent you from going you can sue them for assult. Even teachers can't deny it they have to grant you access.
I hate to admit, but my view on the Rundfunkbeitrag has changed over the years.
Ich wurde regelrecht mit den Dokumentationen unserer Sender verwöhnt, nur um feststellen zu dürfen, dass die Qualität um Lichtjahre besser ist, als die anderer Länder.
I don´t watch "Das Erste" or "ZDF", but I love e.g. ZDFneo, ARTE, BR Alpha (especially when Bob Ross is painting)... Wenn ich was neues lernen oder tiefer in die Materie eines Thema dringen will, dann weiss ich, wo ich suchen muss...
BTW watching your videos also spoils me with professionalism and quality (in other words: Keep up the great work)....
Alleine für den Deutschlandfunk und dessen Mediathek würd ich schon 20 Euro im Monat bezahlen.
He said Its a scam and He is right about it
@@sikckaputten So how do you justify being OK with forcing other people to pay for your entertainment? I don't want to pay for this crap, not 20€, not 15€, not even 1€!
@@INT41O I really don't give a shit what you think.
I'm happy to pay those few Euros every month, because it's good value from my point of view.
If you don't like it, I don't care.
@@sikckaputten Good for you! Must feel great being an asshole.
As a German having lived in a number of countries - the biggest "scam" that always gets me back home is that still most apartments you rent come without kitchen. So either you have to bring your own or pay the previous tennant crazy amounts of "Abstand".
This one is true, but if yout think about it you will agree that it has a major, good reason. We like to design our kitchen in our personal style anyway. The next one is that no one likes to get something used .If you talk with the Person wich lived in the flat before, its usual to speak about the old kitchen because we don´t like to take it with us and the most people would be happy about getting anything back. (In rare cases its also possible to get it for free because we are simply to lasy to throw it away. Mostly it doesn´t fit to the next Flat anyway)
A big difference should be that its usual to live in Flats in Germany and Austria. Its very expensive to buy an own house. (Actually its gettin worse year for year)
The most missunderstood thing is that tourists often think that its our lifestile to be like the people on Oktoberfest but that specific case is a thing of tradition in bavaria and tyrol but not in the whole Country. (Austria, Germany). Please don´t expect that from any german or austrian if you don´t want to look like a stupid tourist for them. Its a very unconfortable situation and a rather rude thing for us. Also to ask about private things like how much someone earn is a no no. In germany/austria we are also not shouting agressively what we want to say. We're not usually rude either, but it's obviously a cultural difference to be more direct when something doesn't suit you. We also express criticism relatively openly (mostly) but sometimes it seems rough to us to, depending on the dialect.
And the biggest failure would be to make a joke about 2nd. World War and Nazis...Thats not a good topic for a discussion. The reason is that everyone suffered in this time and the people were often not as much included in this war as you might think.
The "neo-nazis", as we call them, are also a mostly negatively viewed group of people who tend to belong to the poorly educated part of society (me personally at least). Most people are very open-hearted towards others. So If you don`t intend to offend anyone, just don´t talk about it.
I have traveled to Spain by car very often over the past 14 years. Usually 3 times a year. In 2007 it was still the case that German rest stops and toilets on the autobahn were quite clean. In France, on the other hand, they were shabby, old and dirty at the time. The toilets were just a hole in the ground in France back then. Back then I tried to stop there only once and drive through France as quickly as possible. From 2011/2012 they started not only to put all rest stops in order, but also to completely rebuild them. In just 10 years they have rebuilt all the rest stops there, in a really beautiful design, so that I really enjoy stopping there again. In Germany, however, nothing happened and has fallen far behind France, so I'm happy when I leave Germany. The French even completely renewed the carriageway during that time
hmmm, actualy a lot has changed. The majority of german highway bathrooms are in the Serways systems and very clean but not free. You have to pay 70cents and you get a 50cents coupon.
@@rigeus Therfore I am an owner of a RV since 6 years... no hassle anymore... at least with the overpriced toilets ;-)
5 Things in Germany that feel like scams to Americans:
Food
Clean Air
Rules
No Guns
Less Aids.
i only just noticed the you put quotation marks for every "scam" in the chapters, with the exeption of the Rundfunkgebühren (GEZ)
hilarious
Thank you for the non-ocd inducing disclaimer graphics! I appreciate it.
The vast majority in Germany consider the amount of the "Rundfunkbeitrag" as too high and the independent national tv channels (ÖRR), that a paid by the "Rundfunkbeitrag", as not unprejudiced, although they are obliged to be neutral by an contract between government and the ÖRR. One guy (Georg Thiel) is arrested for four monthts since he declined to pay for the ÖRR. Furthermore Germany has got the most expensive national broadcasting in the world (about 10 billion Euros per year).
Nontheless the ruling parties don't take measures against the ÖRR since the legal measures a hard to carry out and they fear bad reporting by the ÖRR.
The most known tv hosts of the ÖRR say that the increase of the Rundfunkbeitrag is appropriate because "the German population needs high quality journalism and well researched news due to more and more fake news coming up". But in my opinion they like to disregard that we mainly pay for entertainment shows and political talk shows which do more political framing than political information.
Well, I might not be cool with all of ÖRR, but I strongly have the feeling, that I will not be a victim to right wing international media moguls.
Just to see Fox gives me a great thank to God feeling that we do have such a great ÖRR which us in fact kind of owned by us citizens.
There might be downsides, there might be room for improvement. But I for nothing in the world I would change this.
@@mijp 1 Euro per person just taken from normal income tax would be more than enough to do that! 20 million a month (!) should be enough funding.
@@Citizen5000 Ah yes, then tjink about it again, thinkmof all the towers needed, satalite links, maintenance, energy, cameras, technic, stuff, staff. .. Reporters not included.
Well....
The GEZ (TV payment) is a hot topic here in Germany. You essentially only get out of paying if you get certain social payments (welfare, student support/bafäg or gov. pension). Even if you're handicapped you have to pay (if you have the RF marker in your handicapped ID, which you only get if sight and/or hearing is impaired, you get a discount...).
Every device that is capable of recieving TV signal, radio signal or has internet access is considered a billable device, so you would have to proof that you don't have a cell, TV, PC or radio in order to avoid payment and usually the GEZ will still harrass you for years.
Interessantes Video - viele von den Sachen wären mir wahrscheinlich gar nicht aufgefallen! Auch der Reim am Anfang und die Animation in der Mitte waren wieder ein Highlight :) - Daumen (Quentin Tarantino lässt grüßen ;) )
you don'T have to pay anything to those people sitting in front of toilets. it's completely voluntary. first of all the cleaning personal gets a "normal" wage.
2nd: they are not the ones who can keep the money, it goes to whoever "runs" the toilet.. most of the time this "tactic" is used by department stores which sell all kind of consumer products. restaurants have to offer toilets for free by law and still some fast food chains try to place people in front of their toilets.
when it comes to restaurants there are some exceptions e.g depending on size of the place or if it is just a snack stand (Imbissbude), but in general restaurants have to offer free toilets
Restaurants have to offer free toilets, but only to their customers. In many restaurants, however, toilets are also free to non-customers. The general rule is: If you can get something to drink in the place, they need to provide free toilets for the customers. And you are not obliged to pay these in-front-people at all, that's correct. They are placed there to force customers "a little bit more" to paying, by means of guilty conscience. Their main job is to watch for "trashy" people to stay outside the restrooms.
The german IBAN consist of the county identifier, DE. The next two digits are for error correction. The following 8 Digets are Bank routing information, The rest of the digits are your actual Account number.
It is possible to fetch money direct from your Bank account. But your Bank has to reverse the transaction within 6 weeks. So check your bank statement at least once every month.
Die deutsche IBAN????? Die schwachsinnige vor Dummheit nur so strotzende IBAN ist eine Erfindung der US-Amerikaner die sie aber selbst bis heute nicht nutzen.
"Seinerzeit von den USA vorangetrieben - die selbst die IBAN aber bis heute nicht umgesetzt haben - sind derzeit die Länder der Europäischen Union die treibende Kraft für die Benutzung der IBAN. Auch außerhalb Europas übernehmen kontinuierlich weitere Staaten diese Notation, insbesondere im Mittelmeerraum, im Nahen Osten und in Mittel- und Südamerika.[1]"
Quelle Wikipedia
@@maxmustermann8167 in Spain we also have it, but with ES instead of DE
@@maxmustermann8167 Die englische Wikipediaseite zur IBAN sagt, dass sie entwickelt wurde, um Zahlungen innerhalb der EU zu ermöglichen. Quellen dafür liefern keine der beiden Seiten, aber dass die IBAN hauptsächlich in Europa Anwendung findet und dass, (laut Wikipedia) das System zunächst vom Europäischen Komitee für Bankstandards (ECBS) eingeführt wurde bevor es ISO-Standard wurde, spricht dann doch eher für die zweite Version.
Außerdem sehe ich nicht, wie Sascha Albert hier überhaupt die Erfindung bzw. Entwicklung der IBAN irgendjemandem zuschreiben wollte, sondern vielmehr nur erklärt hat, wie es in Deutschland funktioniert.
@@chlks5891 Do solltest dringend an deinem Leseverständnis arbeiten. ich habe ja ganz klar zitiert und das Zität ist immer noch unverändert in den Quellenagaben zu finden.
Selbst wenn du das Zitat in die Eingabemaske einer Suchmaschine deiner Wahl setzten würdest solltest du fündig werden.
Du siehst also nicht wie man die DEUTSCHE IBAN die er explizit erwähnt irgendjemanden zuschreiben soll? Ernsthaft.
Er hätte auch einfach IBAN statt explizit DEUTSCHE IBAN schreiben können was eine unmissverständliche Zuordnung darstellt.
@@maxmustermann8167 Vielleicht solltest *Du* etwas an deinem Leseverständnis arbeiten, denn aus meinem Kommentar geht ziemlich klar hervor, dass ich deine Quelle tatsächlich aufgerufen und gelesen habe, auch wenn ich das nicht noch einmal explizit geschrieben habe. Der Punkt war, dass keiner der beiden Wikipedia-Artikel irgendwelche Belege anbieten für ihre Version der Entstehungsgeschichte der IBAN, die Variante der IBAN als europäische Entwicklung jedoch deutlich plausibler erscheint. Auch außerhalb von Wikipedia lässt sich mit einer kurzen, oberflächlichen Suche (weil es mich letztendlich auch nicht wirklich interessiert) die Frage des IBAN Ursprungs nicht wirklich beantworten, aber das bisschen, was sich so finden lässt, legt ebenfalls das ECBS nahe. Vielleicht aber hat die USA die Übernahme der IBAN als ISO-Standard vorangetrieben, wer weiß.
Und ja, "IBAN" statt "deutsche IBAN" hätte gereicht, aber mit nur einem Hauch von wohlwollender Interpretation spricht er vom System das in Deutschland genutzt wird, nicht vom System das in Deutschland erfunden wurde.
The "SEPA direct debit mandate" where the IBAN is communicated is secure.
If Amazon, the electricity or internet provider etc. books something wrong (something not ordered, too much, double etc.) or criminals book something..... - no problem!
One click in internet banking and the money is back in the account. 💵 💶👏
That's true. But you have to look at your bank protocols. And sometimes I cannot be 100 % sure if my wife ordered something or not. Most of the time, I just assume it is correct (if it is a shop which I know).
@@andreaseufinger4422 Don't you each have your own account?
@@andreaseufinger4422 I mean... worst case you ask "Honey did you buy an 800$ item from this and this?" and if she says no you cancel it
@@Apokalypse456 I agree. But I won't ask for any items around 20 €. That's where scam is possible. The 800 € item won't get unnoticed.
You both are great! Love how you spread joy!
Thank you so much!
In the bus/streetcar here, when your ticket was controlled, they show you their member-card of our local bus/streetcar company with a foto of them.
Meanwhile I recognized them when they come to check the tickets.
One time I was checked two times by the same controller, one time on the way to a grocerystore, the second time on my way back.
I have a monthly ticket.
They check so many people in a day no wonder they don't recall everyone's face.
I am very impressed how most people checking the tickets on regional or national trains almost never check your ticket twice as they make their tours.
I tried to carefully follow your instructions. First I gave my IBAN to the next toilet person. Then I tried escaping the ticket officers which they did not appreciate. And tipping the GEZ didn´t help to get me out of jail.
About thinks that feel like scams, when my father visited the US for the first time in the early 80th he went to a restaurant with some ppl, but when it came to the paying he did what he always did. he rounded the check to the next dollar as tip and wanted to leave, but the waiter started to talk to my father angrily. His english was and is really terrible but after a while he understood that tried to "scam" him for more tip. some time later the manager called the police and they explained to him that he can´t just dogde the 10-15% tip without any reason. So no scam at all and he was very carefull to tip correctly after that ;)
I have to say…that sounds very strange…a tip in the US is also by no means required and the police can’t get involved to force your to tip. Even though tip is customary and everybody does it, it is by no means law to give a tip and it is still at the end of the day, a tip 🤔
@@PassportTwo well, i wasn´t there myself so i can´t 100%% say it has happend exactly that way, but thats how he tells the story. my guess is that the police calmed down the situation and explained to him that the staff didn´t try to scam him
@@PassportTwo Well... even though it is not mandatory I think we can agree that there is a huge difference between a tip in the US and other industrialized countries.
@@PassportTwo
Maybe he still misunderstood and it wasn't about a tip, but about taxes. In european countries it is common for the displayed price to also be the total price you pay at checkout, but in america you usually pay the price + additional taxes being charged on checkout. I don't know if that also applies for restaurants in the US, but I assume if you don't speak english, your first thought might be scam if people charge you more than what is displayed on the pricetag
One thing that is funny is that in recent years telephone scams have become more common in Germany. What is funny about that? The funny thing is that it is almost always people speaking English with a heavy Indian accent.
They are trying to pull the usual preying on old people scams, but in a language that most old people in Germany don't speak.
My elderly father gets such phone calls all the time and he always hands me the phone when I am in his apartment, telling me: "There is that woman jabbering gibberish at me again." and then it is always someone with a thick Indian accent claiming they are from the Microsoft customer service and have detected problems with my father's Windows operating system. (My father doesn't even know what a operating system is.)
always funny when they speak english with indian accent and start by saying that they are from microsoft germany (but have any random phone number shown, once even from australia. next they say that they found a virus on your computer, followed by the question whether you have a computer. just like scam emails, they probably do obvious errors on purpose to (time consumingly) deal only with "simple" or old people who don't notice these errors and thus also believe other parts of the scam.
@@Anson_AKB Yeah. The whole thing seems very self-defeating to me. The only people clueless and demented enough to fall for such a scam are very unlikely to actually speak English good enough to even understand what the telephone scammers are saying.
Fun Fact: Actually the US were pushing on the implementation of that international bank account system back then, but they haven't introduced it themself.
The IBAN is a combination of the routing number and the bank account number. BIC is only necessary for money transfer outside of the EU, within the EU the IBAN is sufficient and the BIC not required.
The first two letters of the IBAN identify the country, DE for Germany, AT for Austria and so on. Back in the days before that system we had two separate numbers like in the US, one to identify the bank and one for your account. Like it is still in the US. And they also added an error checking number, or check digit to that system so if you got a wrong number in this whole bunch of numbers the computer system will show an error message. It makes international money transfer easier.
Americans: Sure you can have my credit card and take it with you to the back of your restaurant!
Also Americans: I don't want to give them my IBAN number!!
American shops never take the credit card anywhere, but restaurants do in order to get it to the terminal at the cash register. In a shop you are already at the cash register and usually there is a terminal for you to use yourself, or they do it in front of you.
@@emjayay thank you for that helpful comment...
German here:
Whoever US-American feels "scammed" by bathroom-fees in Restaurants or public places, well same feelings as we have when being forced to pay extra when going paying at any US restaurant :D
"Why do they look at me when I don't pay 20%(?) more than the bill says?!?"
@IBAN: Usually you only give that out to service-agencies like insurance or utility companies out of laziness.
Most those companies are fine if you pay the monthly dues by wire-tranfser yourself, just do it on time and prepare to get embarrassed when you miss it...
If you allow those companies to "cash in" those amounts themselves (called: "Einzugs-Ermächtigung") you don't have to worry about missing it :D
And if you check your account and notice that they cashed in too much you can go to your bank and demand it payed back as soon as possible!
I'd NEVER shop anywhere in a ordinary store when they'd demand "give me your IBAN"- "No I won't." They get my debit card-transfer and that's it :D
As a dual citizen, I totally get what you mean. I'm usually not that concerned when it comes to my IBAN, cause it's just customary over here, but I'm very protective of my SSN, cause it's customary in the US.
Now, I do think your SSN is something different from bank account and that you definitely do want to keep as secret as possible! 😊
@@PassportTwo yes, but the German equivalent- the Steuer Identifikations Nummer- is not something we keep tooooooo private, cause you can't do that much damage with it 😅☝️
@@rebeccaj5336 The German equivalent of the US SSID (=Social Security Identification Card/Number) is actually the "Sozialversicherungsausweis /-nummer". In the US this ID/number is also (mis-)used as a general identification method for people, since *the US does not have a general citizen ID* (=Personalausweis). That is why keeping your US-SSID secret is very important to prevent identity theft. The German SSID is only used by (**surprise**) the public social security systems, like public health insurance, public unemployment insurance and all the others. The German IRS (Finanzkontrolle Schwarzarbeit) also use that SSID to discover black labor and social security fraud.
You are referring to the German federal tax payers´ ID, which is pretty new and only facilitates handling of peoples´ yearly tax statements. Prior to the introduction you received a new tax payers´ id every time you moved into another tax office district (Finanzamtsbezirk).
The bathroom thing: You do it wrong. First go in and do your thing. After that, put money on the plate on your way out. See it as a tip and choose the amount depending on whether you were satisfied with cleanliness etc. If the toilet was disgusting, toilet paper or soap is missing, I do not tip at all.
I start with my thumb 👍
The US has the Walmart greeter's and we have mostly an older lady in front of public restroom.
And if I pay them something i expect a clean restroom and if that's not available for my opinion, i definitely complain about it.
If you are not sure about a restaurant, check out their toilet's first it could be clue about the rest.
I am German and I still feel scammed when there is someone sitting in the bathroom demanding money xD
There is a nightclub in Dortmund (Lightrooms) And there was a toilet lady for years. Don't know if she is still there, but she yelled at anyone coming in and sayed that you don't give enough money. Once I saw someone drop her 20€ and she still wasn't happy with him xD
I’m German, so start counting with my thumb, but currently live in Australia and felt scammed just this week. Everyone started talking about filling out the census and I was like ok, no idea what that is but as people said they got it via mail, I thought only citizens got it but not foreigners on a visa. But then on the deadline day of that census, I got a message from an international friend asking me if I filled out the census because they would start fining me for not doing so after the deadline. So, I filled it out but as a German was shocked about all the private information I had to provide that wasn’t even de-identified. Surely, the next day we discussed this in the office where I learned that Germany is an oddball not having censuses. We apparently had them before I was born and also one EU census in 2011 but at that time I lived in the USA. So fair to say, I never heard of a census until this week (at age 32) and that they are common place in other countries 😅
In contrast to Australia, Germany has a registration requirement and operates population registers. For a census, the state queries the registers, not the residents. After all, they have already communicated the information that is required from the residents to a registration office. With regard to information about residents, this is also sufficient for the EU-wide census standard that has been agreed. Therefore, nobody in Germany was interviewed for the EU-wide census 2011 and nobody will be interviewed for the 2021 census.
We don't have a census in the Netherlands either. Everyone is registered at their place of residence. After World War Ii I think less information is gathered because in 1940 the Germans could easily find all the jews because religion was registered...
I was shocked when they asked my religion at the einwohnermeldeamt. That's private! I didn't know about church tax yet. I'm a born again pastafarian so no thanks. Not supporting the anti-LGBTQ squad.
@@jinde75 Behind this cooperation between the state and religious or ideological communities, which at first glance seems strange, is a wise idea. Religious or ideological communities with a large number of members who are loyal to the Basic Law and who are set up to be permanent and representative can apply for the status of "corporations under public law" in Germany in order to enjoy a number of privileges. The service that the state collects their taxes for them is one of those privileges that they can avail of, the tax exemption for donations is another privilege and the state allows them to give religious instruction in schools as well as special regulations in labor and social law. These communities for their part support the state in the sense of the formation and maintenance of a canon of values by promoting peace, law and values and for their part recognizing the state monopoly of violence and punishment. In addition, these communities have to accept it when citizens have a different or no faith and the state enacts secular laws.
Recently, only six of the many religious or ideological communities that have the status of "corporation under public law" used the service of the collection of so-called church taxes by the state, four collected their taxes themselves and 19 waived taxes.
Haha. There is actually an ongoing census right now across Germany. 🤣Every homeowner and most tenants have received a letter and either need to fill out an online form or have an census interviewer coming to your home. My interview appointment is tomorrow.
Another thing about the undercover ticket staff, they are required to have identification on them, showing they are legitimately ticket checkers, so if you are in doubt you can ask them to show you identification.
Honestly i agree with paying for TV and Radio on principal. However it really should be paid by already existing taxes and not a nebulous "extra" fee that definitely feels like a ripoff.
taxes can be spent for anything, and thus tv/radio would depend on how much the government gives to the stations, possibly depending on how favorable their reports and news selection are. to be separate, it is a separate fee and no part of taxes.
It could be made easier, though. Most watch television through cable, why can't the cable company bill you for it and forward the money?
@@barvdw because a lot of it isn't actually cable TV. Most young folks watch UA-cam channels like strg_f, reporter, Y-Kollektiv and others. It's not just cable TV and radio.
I agree with paying for public broadcast, it's a good thing. However it's too much and the apparatus around it is way too big. I mean just google the amount of households in Germany * roughly 18 per month. It's almost 9 Billion annually plus they do advertising so even more money. Meanwhile ProSieben/Sat1 has an annual revenue (not profit) of 4.5 Billion. RTL globally has 6.6. Sorry but that doesn't calculate in my world, it's a scam.
7:09
That´s because, if in germany, you advertise something as free, and tell people it´s free, and then you take money, you will have to pay a fine at least. If you do it in a fashion that scams more than one person and do it frequently, you´re probably going to jail.
That was awesome folks. It is a lot of fun when I take people for the very first time to Germany to see their reactions to the "toilet ladies" or "men" lol. As always it is great to see your content week after week. PS, yes the tv fee is a scam lol lol. BTW again, I start counting with my thumb when I count on my fingers lol lol. :).
Maybe a little tip for everyone who’s unsure about trusting the person: ask for their identification papers. If you’re to afraid handling this in German ask for a translator. Almost all companies have at least one person who speaks English.
Good thing about all the laws we have here, they’ll protect you as well.
The IBAN splits in 4 parts: (As you can see at 12:30 :D )
1) First two characters encodes the land of the bank.
2) Next two characters is a checksum.
3) Next 8 digits are the old BLZ (Bankleitzahl; is mostly represented in the BIC nowadays)
4) Last 10 digits are the old Kontonummer (account number) with leading zeros if the old number was shorter than 10 digits.
That second toilet looks like one of the municipal automatic toilets - they clean themselves leading to that strange moisture and smell - and since they used to be vandalized pretty often (like phone boxes back in the day) they take money for admission. - From Hesse btw ;)
Its a good sport to ask to see the badge of those undercover ticket checkers and inspect if its still valid (find the years of validity). This might slow progress enough so not everybody's checked before the next escape opportunity at the next station.
Haha, taking one for the team! 😅
I once rode a tram in which some very young and young dressed people suddenly started to check tickets. The passengers were totally irritated. You could tell immediately who in the tram drove without a ticket. Because for once they had all fallen for the camouflage too and were now in a panic. Especially since a lot of these ticket inspectors were scattered all over the tram. I had never seen so many fare dodgers caught during an inspection. - Only one escaped for the reason you mentioned.
On the one hand, I found this particular camouflage clever from the tram company. But these guys now all looked to me like deceitful traitors to their age group. That reminded me of old documentary films in which hordes of Nazis attacked fellow citizens and kidnapped them. - - - But don't worry, I didn't forget that in the tram it was just about the tram company fighting the fraudulent use of its services. - - - But still ... That was really unsympathetic.
Guys... I am 32 years old... the only time I had to give my bank number to someone was when I began to work...
Where do you give your bank account number??? If you are asked for a SEPA, DONT DO THAT! if you still do it, it is your own fault... every company who wants to have your bank number for a SEPA also HAVE to offer (by law) another possibility to pay them regulary, like GEZ, they also give the possibility to transfer them the money every month yourself, or every 3 months...
Dont act like you have to give your bank number...thats not true... please get someone who knows the german language and can translate all the papers you get for you, because obviously you don´t have such a guy...
#4 DEFENETLY is a scam! Also, you should add almost every phone and or internet-service in germany.
Jap seh ich auch so
The public broadcasting services are an important part of the media landscape, though (at least when it comes to journalism).
@@crashingflamingo3028 I don't think so
I didn't know you still have to pay for radio and tv in Germany. We used to have the same in The Netherlands but we don't have that anymore for at least 20 years. I'm surprised Germany still has it.
German TV has a lot of documentaries and good quality cultural etc. broadcasts that are uninterrupted by advertisements. That's worth it to me.
Same here in New Zealand. I'd rather not watch TV, with adverts, for free than not watch advert free TV for a price. Either way I'm not watching TV.
that toiletthing is a development. it started as a tip for clean bathroom. and most times there was just a plate for the tip without any person sitting there. only in very high class places there was an old lady sitting there.in that time it was ok, if you had not the right coins or if you are a kid, not to pay.
it changed , what nobody noticed at the beginning the bosses of the cleaning ladys or teams, took this tip for themselves and because more people pay something there is sitting someone now.
As a european, I hate it when they charge you to use the bathroom. It feels like they should pay me to use their bathroom instead of peeing at a tree in front of their door.
Team Thumb!
The "toilet lady" thing seems to be a relatively recent new development. I never encountered anything like it in Germany during my childhood and teen years in the 80s and 90s. The first "toilet lady" I ever encountered was in my mid-20s.
One of my aunts used to own a cleaning company. Their biggest customer was a shopping mall in the city of Ludwigsburg. As long as my aunt and uncle were running the cleaning operation there, there was no "toilet lady". They just had a regular cleaning crew member take care of the toilets twice a day and nobody was charging extra for that. Then they retired about 8 years ago and dismantled the company because their daughter didn't want to take over and a Turkish company took over the shopping mall and since then there are "toilet ladies" there too.
In the area where they live (I'm from the same town) this was already popular in the 90s in a lot of restaurants.
@@BlueFlash215 With "they" you mean my aunt and uncle and that you are from Ludwigsburg?
If you say so, I can't prove you wrong, but it is a strange coincidence that not one of the restaurants I visited for like the first 25 years of my life had "toilet ladies".
Also, if that would have been a common thing, why wouldn't the shopping mall management have told my aunt to do it too?
@@TrangleC no, sorry. I mean Passport Two.
But you are right in a certain way. It felt very localized to certain areas. I definitely can tell that there were a lot of places we visited that had no cleaning ladies
@@BlueFlash215 Ah, OK. So I misunderstood.
I'm 54, and I know these toilet ladies as long as I am using toilets. Grown up in Munich, grandparents in Kaiserslautern - you can't go so far with a small child without rest and restroom
I like the German system of bathroom tickets in Rest areas on the Autobahn. You put 70 cents in a machine and you can access the bathroom (usually very clean!!), you also get a 50 cents voucher for your food and drink purchases at the Rest area shop. So in fact you ony pay 20 cents, and you find clean bathrooms....
Hi I'm from Iran and I see all day in my country, that for restroom u should payed.like germany but it not for all of Iran.I mean some of restroom is free. But some of them u should pay for them.and i love your video's and I wish for you best dream.(sorry if I have a mistake in my text my English is not good. Goodbye 👋)
As a german, i can say i never pay for using the restrooms. It's almost always not mandatory, so if you're a grumpy old bavarian like me, you just don't give them anything. Nobody ever says anything when you don't pay this stupid imaginary fee.
The habit of Tipping an unmentioned amount of money in various places is purely american. So a system where you have to pay a fixed price, is much more obvious to everybody.
However, it happened to me only in America so far, that I have been asked for a tip, if not tipping. This unspoken requirement seems to be much more mandatory.
It's not like you have to pay for the use of streets or things like that ;-)
Where I live in germany it has become less common for someone to sit in front of the bathroom but if there is someone, you usually tip afterwards and if it's not clean I am not gonna do it.
I start with my thumb when counting with my fingers :) BTW, I loved the video. I lived in Germany for 7 years, as a military dependent and then as a military wife, so I knew about the toilet lady. When we came to the US, my little sister told my mother that she couldn't go into a public bathroom, because she needed 50 pfennigs, LOL! I guard my all my documents and account numbers.
So glad you enjoyed! 😊
Haha, that’s so funny about the bathroom! 😂
Well, every time you use your debit card it basically tells the card reader your IBAN and SWIFT code, so I think it makes sense, that they are also printed on there in a human-readable way, because every time you're using that card, you're giving away that information anyway. Also, yes, the only thing an attacker can do to your bank account without your consent, if they only know its IBAN, is deposit money into the account. There is a payment method called "Lastschrift", though, which does not necessarily need you to give express permission for the other party to charge you some payment from your account, but you can have fraudulent "Lastschrift"-transactions reverted by your bank. This is why you should regularly check your bank statements / the account's transaction history.
I still value our public broadcasting services in Germany very highly. I think they are among the most trustworthy sources of information and high-quality journalism in Germany, especially in this age of the internet and social media where private newspapers are struggling heavily. So I'll gladly pay the fee for it. After all, it is still pretty cheap considering the amount of radio and TV stations you get for it.
Trustworthy? That's a big laughter! They are nothing but lying mouthpiece of Covid-Tyranny. I won't pay GEZ for the bullshit about the pandemic.
I definitely agree with you!
Here you see @@InTeCredo proving Berhard's point.
I disagree with you since most öffentliche Rundfunks only share one sided Information controled by the chancellors party. In this case they are not allowed to speak too critical about SPD, GRÜNE, FDP.
Last year it was Pro-CDU broadcasting. Its a law we learned in university. Der Rundfunk Staatsvertrag.
Why do all the GEZ excusers come out of their holes? ARD & Co. produced content is shoving down agenda down your throat like nothing else. Its pure propaganda. Yes theres a few gems among them but buried under heaps of trash. They could do with waaaaaaay less money but our politicians use it as a rent system for themselves.
TV license fees are common in europe, and those are just a form of tax. I would prefer them to be included in the "general" income or payroll tax.
Thank heavens we have decent public television in Germany!!!
Are you being sarcastic? Please tell me you are joking.
You are Troll!
@@TrangleC ….ich meine das ganz ernst. Ich kenne das tv in den USA sehr, sehr gut, und wollte sowas hier nie haben. Hier werden sehr viele gute inhaltliche Produktionen ausgestrahlt. Nicht nur die ARD und ZDF, sondern die ganzen dritten Programmen, sowie 3Sat, Arte, Zdf Neo, etc. Das meiste davon auch ohne Werbung. Ich zahle gerne für intelligente Inhalte
Die Qualität der eigenen Sendungen ist sehr gut, das gib ich zu... Aber wenn wir schon zahlen dann...
1. Bitte überhaupt keine Werbung mehr!
Und 2. Bitte ALLE!!!! ausländischen Sendungen in beiden Sprachen damit der Zuschauer wählen kann, auf deutsch oder ov. Als Belgier finde ich es schrecklich das in Deutschland alles gedubt wird, deshalb gucke ich fast kein deutsches Fernsehen... Außer ab und zu mal die Nachrichten. Oder mal eine doku. Aber zdf zeigt auch oft richtig gute scandinavische (oder andere) serien, aber ich kann mir das nicht auf deutsch anschauen, das geht echt nicht!
Und 3. 17,xx€ im ernst??? Netflix und amazon prime zusammen kosten nicht mal so viel!!
@@aphexart Dafür ziehen Netflix und co eine Menge an Daten. Das tun die Öffentlich-Rechtlichen nicht. Außerdem geht die GEZ nicht nur and die Fernsehsender, sondern auch an Radiosender. Leider schluckt der ganze Verwaltungsapparat der GEZ viel des Geldes. Aber ich zahle lieber diesen Betrag und bekommen unabhängige Nachrichten und Inhalte als nur privaten Scheiss.
Well, as a Dutch tourist I would say the biggest 'scam' in Germany is at restaurants where they often have two different sizes of drinks (wheter it is coffee, coke or beer) on the menu, and when you not explicitly ask for small, you get large (mostly half a liter / 0,5 L) wich I think is too much. In most restaurants they don't ask you if you want small or large, but in some (nice) restaurants they do.
Why should I have a problem with handing out my IBAN...?
As you mentioned, all that can happen is that someone sends me money. I have no problem with that.
once my IBAN got abused by someone who ordered from me on ebay. Instead of sending me money they used my IBAN to order stuff online. But as you can report unauthorized transactions to your bank there wasn't any real harm (except from reporting to the police and the companies that person ordered from).
@@martin1042 yeah that can happen,but its one call and its deleted
On the toilet person: did you know that there are places where that person actually has to PAY in order to be allowed to sit there?
This is the case for some of the now exclusive clubs.
These people are freelancers and get tipped so well, that they gladly pay for the right to sit there.
A few things about public broadcasting that is always forgotten: You've got a lot of radio (75) and TV (around 20) stations. But not only that. You've got a whole package of different journalists, you've got the On-Demand services you can access for free, UA-cam channels that are basically just funded, but in the end they are pretty free to do what they want. Kurzgesagt, Simplicissimus, MrWissen2Go... They all do great jobs (even if they sometimes don't meet your political views, but I see those statement left and right on the political compass that they are biased, so I guess they are pretty decent lol). Artists are supported by paying them and getting them on shows (especially in this pandemic). Movies are getting funds by public broadcasting (not just those produced by them). They maintain big ass archives. They support whole orchestras. They fund competitions. They fund small local stations that - if they were private - probably wouldn't be able to survive (in long Term They won't be either since it's more old people relying on those). They are rarely allowed to play ads. The "mediatheken" are ad-free. The "funk" youtube channels are ad-free. TV channels are mostly ad-free. They maintain websites, Instagram pages for news and so on.
And also: They pay their employees real goooood money. Sometimes even too much, especially when it comes to intendants and directors.
In my opinion I'm pretty happy to have them. Since I'm a Student I don't have to pay for it, because I get Bafög, but before I payed it and was kinda mad sometimes. But in the end I realized how often I used something by them without even realizing. A quick Google search for news and you'll either get to a Private news outlet and their site is bombed with ads or it's behind a paywall. But everything covered by this broadcasting fee is "free" and openly available. If it's Tagesschau, Deutsche Welle or any other news outlet by the "ÖRR". But still I think at some points there has to be cuts made, because at some points it's literally overloaded. But I guess this will solve itself in the next decades, because a lot of their program is literally only watched by old people. But still despite those things. I guess it's better to have free operating and public funded networks instead of state funded networks like in Russia or the whole CNN/Fox News problem over there in the US
Deutsche Welle isn't funded by the Rundfunkbeitrag. It is funded by taxes.
The best part is also, that they are free to report on anything they want, as long as it is true. They aren't bound to any political opinion and are only zencored by themselves.
@@Schatten-to6dz exactly. And they have correspondents in literally every place of the world (which is quite expensive to maintain as well) so we can get at least somewhat independent news.
Most of the 18,36 euros are waisted on questionnable "entertainment" and administration. Not worth at all to pay it.
@@Ecstasia1 This was so several moons ago, my impression is that those international correspondents are decreasing in number and quality.
I love the intro being called "Anfang" in the chapter selection! You could also use "Vorwort" as a particularly German reference to content-before-content. I'd love to hear you pronounce it too :D
(And I'm starting with my thumb!)
Glad someone caught that 😊
Just a few things to add:
- you are not obligated to pay the toilet lady. It's an on-top tip. Also always tip after you're done, so that you know how much tip the cleaning is worth.
- you can always ask the ticket guys for their batch (Dienstausweis) and they need to show it to you. Of they don't have a batch, not pay.
- the GEZ is not for every TV channel, just for ARD, ZDF and some 'local' channels like BR, NDR and a few more. It also pays some radio stations
- the IBAN (international banking account number) itself is actually a combination of account number and bank number and the BIC is the international routing number. The IBAN/BIC system is very good, because it allows to send money internationally very easy with just the two numbers. For someone who lived abroad a lot I know the struggle of sending money around the world.
U pay to hold your new born child in the us and call this scam XD wild…
They used to do this in America. In the ladies room a woman would have tissues, sewing kit, women’s supplies and toilet paper and you were expected to tip.
Don’t tell them but I haven’t paid my GEZ fees for over a year since they didn’t reach out to me after my flatmate moved out who used to be the one officially paying (We of course split the cost). Still hoping the letter doesn’t reach me before I move out 😅
Also I do start counting with my thumb
Nun, ich fange mit meinem Daumen an zu zählen. 😀
Paying in Germany for radio and television is indeed absolutely not a scam...it’s just a complete ripoff 😅😅😅🤮😱
I've lived in Germany for 2+ years, and generally the cultural differences from English speaking counties are vastly different. I had the same experiences as you guys did when I first moved here but generally its a safe countries,
Perhaps you have already recorded a video but signing a rental contract for housing seems like a scam or is borderline scam as the landlords seem to be able to dictate any conditions.
Great Video Guys!
@4:06 AFAIK, paying them is optional. :)
@6:54 Not really. There is something free as in free of charge.
@8:57 Definitely a scam. ;)
When my mother and I went to the US we were shocked, that they just take off with your credit card at a restaurant when you pay and don't need any pin, tan or something else. Or that you slide your credit card through the order terminal at Wendy's and your real name pops up on the screen
You know we Germans also do not give our IBAN to everybody but if some institute needs it, it's totally common for us as we know they need it in order to get our money for their services for example. But of course it is still a sensitive information.
In Belgium we also used to have the TV tax, but it was integrated in our taxes in 2001.
I don’t even think twice about giving out my IBAN number in everyday situations. I won’t post it on the internet though … The number in itself is no use to others because it can only be used by a two factor authentication or other encryption method. It’s very safe. Every European country has IBAN numbers now. Yours start with DE, ours with BE, Dutch with NL. The number structure following the letters is different in every country. You only need the BIC for payments to accounts with starting letters other than your own.
In Bath (UK) there are free walking tours for Jane Austen fans, sponsored by the Jane Austen Museum. And they're free, simply the end of the trip is the museum with annexed shop and (gorgeous) tea room so it's advertisement + education.
about the IBAN, think of it like your address.
There is generally no issue giving your address to someone, and the same with your "money address", there is no problem giving someone your IBAN/ "money address".
People don't get access to your house, just because they know your address, the same with your bank account, just because you give them the address to your account, doesn't give them access to it.
You usually need a TAN-code to send money via e-banking from your bank account to another. When e.g. a utility company wants to take money from your account, they usually need a "SEPA-Lastschriftmandat", which is essentially your agreement with only that utility company. Once they have that, they can essentially take any amount from your account every month. However, usually you can also take their IBAN-number to your bank and have them block it from withdrawing any amount for a certain time or even forever. Of course, you should only do that with suspicious withdrawals from sketchy companies.
Great video, as always. You both really rock!
To public toilets: You never have to pay for those toilets in restaurants. Restaurants in Germany have to offer a free toilet with only one exception: Sanifair. Sanifair is the monopole of the German Highway Tankstops/Reststops toilets. They have the exclusive permission to really charge you for the toilet. Yes, there is always a place to buy some food. Usually they have to offer a toilet for free, because of the restaurants like McDonalds or a bakery, but the government has good connection to the Car-Lobby
IBAN isn't a German thing btw.
IBAN stands for "International bank account number".
BIC stands for "Bank identifier code".
Even US bank accounts have IBANs.
The reason why we just give out our IBANs is that in case anyone puts a debit on your account, you can get the money back with just one phonecall.
It's just way more secure and also a hell of a lot more convenient than that outdated abomination you call a check.
Simple bank transfers are pretty much standard here, nobody (except insurance companies) uses checks anymore.
Not even my American bank has IBAN. I've asked them millions of times to implement their IBAN to make it easier to transfer the funds between the countries. Their excuse: "We are taking your suggestion into the consideration. Thank you for your feedback! We appreciate having you as our valued customer!"
We know it’s not just a German thing, we know what it stands for, and not all US banks have IBANs 😊
@@InTeCredo Well, that would be one reason to find another bank.
@@PassportTwo That's just so hilariously backwards...