How to Pay Your Bills In Germany

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Depending on the particular bill, or how your bank account is set up, the primary ways of paying bills in the U.S. fall under sending a check, direct deposits, or using a credit card.  In Germany, your options are far more limited, and the actual payment itself is taken out of your hands.

When you register for a given service (i.e. paying your rent, phone bill, or for a streaming service account), you will have to provide your bank account information, in order to set up an automatic transfer (see here for more information).  At a given date each month, based either on the start date of your contract or as set out in your contract, a money transfer will be completed from your account to the account of the company you have to pay.  Unlike sending a check or some direct deposit systems, this payment is initiated by the company you are paying, not on your end.

The good news about this system is that you can't forget to pay most bills, as the automatic payments will always come through as long as you have your account.  On the other hand, you really need to make sure that the given account always has enough to pay the bills you need to pay, as changing from account to account that the company will take the money from is sometimes a more involved task than you might think.

If you are paying for a recurring service on top of whatever bills or rent you may be paying, if you decide to end your subscription, double check that you have actually closed your account, and that you have some sort of confirmation that you have ceased using the service.  In the event that a service continues to take money from your account after the fact, this confirmation will be what you need in order to get your money back (although this is an altogether rare occurrence).

In general, money transfers are the sole way you have to pay bills.  For those coming to Germany to study, you may be surprised to know that you have to have your bank account open in order to transfer even the student fee and deposit for your student housing in most cases.  The system is set up to reduce issues with missed payments (unintentionally or otherwise), and can remove worries about keeping track of paying bills each month.

DON'T FORGET TO DOUBLE CHECK THE AMOUNT YOU'VE PAID EACH MONTH IS CORRECT!  THE COSTS SHOULDN'T CHANGE WITHOUT WARNING!