When coming to Germany and settling in your apartment or house, sooner or later the question arises how to move around in your city, in your region and overall, in the country.
Surely, you can use taxis, but over time it risks being pretty expensive.
In this article, we’ll look at the options of using the public transportation systems in Germany and of having your car (if it is not offered by your company as a company car).
Let’s start with a car and costs related to it.
When you buy a car in Germany (either a new one or from the secondary market), you need to register it with the traffic authorities (Straßenverkehrsamt) and with the documents you’ll get from them you can let produce the registration plates. In case of a new car, this registration procedure can be even taken over by the car shop/ agent.
Keep in mind that you can drive in Germany with your original driving license only for a limited period of time after which you have to get a German driving license. Depending on the country of origin, it can be just a simple change of the driving license, or you might need to do a driving test or even a theory test before the change.
As you probably understood from the previous articles, certain areas of your life are to be covered by insurances when living in Germany or in the EU. This is also the case with cars. You have to have automobile liability insurance in order to cover the damage you might cause to others when driving your car. When registering your car with the traffic authority, you need to bring along the confirmation from the insurance company that your car will be insured from day one of the registration. Without this confirmation, registration will not be possible.
Not mandatory (but highly recommended, especially in case of new cars or expensive cars from secondary market) are the partially comprehensive insurance (Teilkasko) and fully comprehensive insurance (Vollkasko). The partially comprehensive insurance is usually included in the fully comprehensive one, if you select it. They cover damage to your car, not to third parties. Usually, the partially comprehensive insurance covers damage from natural events, like hail, collision with birds and animals as an example (depending on the insurance company, certain animals can be excluded or offered only in the fully comprehensive insurance), while the fully comprehensive insurance covers damages caused by yourself (for example, you bumped against a wall and damaged your car when parking), by violence (someone tried to break into your car and damaged the door) etc.
The car insurance is calculated based on different factors: the estimated driven kilometers per year, your driving experience (since how many years you hold the driving license, were there any damages regulated in the last years etc.), the car type (the insurance uses statistics of regulated insurance cases for this particular car type in the last years) etc. The insurance premiums can vary significantly from one company to another. It absolutely makes sense to compare the proposed rates before signing a contract with an insurance company. Here again, the comparison portals, like check24.de or verifox.de can help you to select the most suitable one.
Another cost to be considered when planning the purchase of a car is the taxes you will need to pay for this car. The taxes are calculated based on the strength of your motor and the kind of the fuel your car needs (petrol, diesel, electricity, hydrogen…) as well as the environmental standards the motor meets. Usually, the car tax is charged once a year directly by the responsible authority (you might need to provide the direct debit authorization to them).
Instead of a car purchase, your employer might offer you a company car (just check with your company, whether you could be eligible to have one). Usually, these cars are leased and often the insurance and taxes are also covered by your employer. If you are not eligible to have a company car but you have your own side business, your side business might need a car as well. In this case, a car leasing contract to your own side business might make sense as well as a valid alternative to a company car. The leasing rates and other expenses related to the car can then be deducted from the revenues you generate within your side business activities and reduce your taxes. On the other hand, you would need to tax the personal use of the company or business car with your personal tax rate. Usually, it is taxed by 1% of the car’s list price value per month. There are more complex scheems to define the personal taxes based on the driver’s logbook, but you need to fill in the book correctly and without any failure else the tax authority can decline to accept it. The tax topics in regard to car taxation can be better covered by your tax advisor.
Looking at the public transportation in Germany:
There is an extensive federal railway network operated by Deutsche Bahn as well as regional transportation companies. In nearly every region, there are transportation associations operating buses, trams and local underground trains or regional trains (S-Bahn).
Usually, the regional associations operate based on the zones and calculate their prices for one-off tickets according to the number of zones you need to travel through from your starting point to the destination. There are also monthly or annual tickets you can purchase for a certain number of zones. Due to a high number of different regional transportation associations in Germany, it would not be possible to mention all of them in this blog article. But if you wish to get help around this topic (independently where you are in Germany), feel free to contact us or to book one of our available sessions, and a Singabiz representative will be glad to assist you.
Deutsche Bahn has different types of tickets: from savings options (Sparticket) which you can buy upfront and which are non-changeable, non-refundable and fixed to a certain train connection up to more expensive fully flexible tickets.
On top, Deutsche Bahn offers also saving cards called BahnCard. Depending on the type of the BahnCard you select, you can have from 25% to 50% discount on most tickets (BahnCard 25 or BahnCard 50). The most expensive BanhCard 100 offers you 100% discount on all trips with Deutsche Bahn without surcharges. Furthermore, they are offered separately for the 2nd class or the 1st class. Holding the BahnCard 50 for the second class does not allow you to get any discounts if you wish to travel in the first class. In other words, you would still need to pay the full price if purchasing the first class ticket.
Holding the BahnCard, you can also register to BahnBonus, a loyalty program of the Deutsche Bahn. When in the program, you earn BahnBonus points for every ticket you purchase with Deutsche Bahn and can use them for free tickets (even international train tickets) or purchase other gifts.
From a certain level of expenses with Deutsche Bahn (certain number of earned BahnBonus points) you are elevated into BahnComfort status which allows you more comfort during your trips, like free access of Deutsche Bahn lounges even if travelling in the second class).
Certain BahnCards and tickets of the Deutsche Bahn include a so-called „city ticket”. This is the option which allows you to use local transportation (like buses and trams) in the city of your departure and the destination in order to get from your home to the railway station or from the railway station to your final destination without the need to purchase local tickets on top.
When travelling in Germany, certain train connections allow you to earn even the Miles&More miles as the Deutsche Bahn is a so-called intermodular partner of Lufthansa for travels within the country.
Important to mention: the public transportation in Germany is rather well developed in bigger cities and conglomerations. If you prefer to live rather in a country-side, most probably, you would not avoid the necessity of having a car.
As you can see, the topic of the transportation in Germany is a bit complex and can be superficially touched in a short blog article, but we will be glad to assist you in depth. Feel free to contact us or to book one of our consultation packages.
