Post: #1

In all of my travels, Germany has been one of my least favorite destinations. The women there are ugly, and the men stiff, humorless robots. The people are such rule-following automatons, that I often want to punch them in the face. So it's with some joy that I can now reveal how fellow Americans can beat the German Deutsche-Bahn train system.

Over the course of your travels, it's likely you will travel through Germany, as it's in the center of Europe and borders many other countries. German trains are fairly nice, but expensive. Going between 2 major cities, like Frankfurt and Berlin, will cost well over 100 dollars if you don't want to plan ahead.

So here's the trick: BUY YOUR TICKET ON THE TRAIN USING AN AMERICAN CHIP-WITH-SIGNATURE CREDIT CARD

All long-distance German trains (IC, ICE, EC, etc) must sell tickets on the train, and must accept credit cards. These are full-price tickets, often with an added service charge. No local German would ever do this...they would think it's crazy, and instead buy tickets in advance online, at a discount.

In fact, I think buying full-price tickets on the train is such a rarity that Deutsche-Bahn has not properly updated their computer system. Here's the key: European credit cards are almost always CHIP-WITH-PIN. American credit cards are almost always CHIP-WITH-SIGNATURE. The Deutsche-Bahn credit card machines cannot properly process American credit cards without PINs. They will spit out a form for you to sign (go ahead and sign), and print out a valid ticket, but your credit card will never be charged.

I discovered this trick by accident 2 years ago, but I've now used it many times, saving over 1000 dollars in travel costs.

So the next time you're in Germany, and a train conductor is thinking how he's just charged another silly American a full price ticket, feel free to give a smirk back

Post: #2

This should probably keep working until the end of the year when America does away with signatures on credit cards and goes full chip and pin. All my credit and debit cards expired this year and the new ones I have are all chipped.

I'm curious is this works on other automated train systems. Gotta use it while it lasts...

Post: #3

This was not the refugee joke thread that I expected.

Post: #4

@beast - Most US-based credit and debit cards with chips are chip+signature and not chip+PIN

Post: #5

Too bad I have chip. Though took a couple subway rides in Berlín without getting caught.

Post: #6

@elcid

Yeah I know that. It's just a matter of time before the US system goes online. From my post, the US will eventually be going full on with that system by the end of the year. Although, you'd think you would see more hubbub about it. Might take longer for Americans to set their pin numbers on their CCs.