Germany

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MONEY
38
Banking
continued from page 36
CREDIT CARDS
If you apply for a credit card in
Germany, you will probably find that the
amount you have run-up is deducted
from your account automatically each
month. After all, Germany still is very
much a cash-based society, as it has been
since the traumas of the rampant inflation
of the 1920s.
But the credit card revolution has been
slowly taking hold in the country, with a
range of entities from the railways
through to department stories offering
credit cards. Don't be surprised, though,
if small restaurants or shops refuse to
accept credit cards.
HOW TO OPERATE YOUR ACCOUNT
If you are receiving a regular income in
Germany, you will need to open a
'Girokonto' (current account). You will
probably have to supply your employer
with your account number and
'Bankleitzahl' (sort code) so that your
salary can go directly into your account.
You will also need to know your IBAN
number and swift code. Every account in
the European Union's 25 member states
should have an IBAN number. This is
aimed at facilitating international payments
in Europe. Consequently, an IBAN
and sometimes Swift code is important
for money that is being sent from an
employer based in another EU country.
If you want to operate multiple accounts
then you should ask your bank what is
the cheapest way to do this; it might be
as a system of sub-accounts connected to
your main ‘Girokonto’. You may have to
set up a 'Dauerauftrag' (standing order)
to pay regular bills such as rent, telephone,
electricity or to pay off a loan.
To set up a standing order, you need to
give your bank the account number and
sort code of the account a payment is to
be made to, as well the name of the
recipient and the address of the recipient's
bank. The payment is made via an
'Überweisung' (transfer). This is the most
common way of paying bills.
Paying bills by cheque or credit card is
very unusual, so one early banking lesson
- whether you intend to do your
banking over the counter or online - is to
get up to speed with the 'Überweisung'
form.
There is one small point that's important
to remember when filling in forms and
writing numbers in Germany. Always
reverse the usual Anglo-US conventions
for points and commas. Thus what you
might write as EUR 2,500.00 appears in
German as EUR 2.500,00. The same holds
in spoken German - for example, 'drei
komma fünf Prozent.'
BANKING BLUES
The German banking system is emerging
from an era of rigorous cost-cutting,
which has meant, among other things,
that many banks are scaling back the
number of local branches they operate.
One thing this means is that when you
open your account, you might find that
you are encouraged (to put it mildly) to
set up an online banking account too, or
to use the customer service machines or
the bank's telephone banking services for
all your banking business rather than
deal with a real person at the counter.
To use telephone banking you will also
need a special code from the bank. You
can set up an online account with online
banking software or simply with the
bank's online banking website using a
normal browser. But several internet
providers, including AOL and T-Online,
also offer online banking services which
link you to your bank.
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