Living in Germany

Opening a Bank Account

Credit Cards 

For inter­na­tion­al stu­dents in Ger­many, cred­it cards are avail­able but not com­mon­ly used—especially at the begin­ning of your stay. When you open a cur­rent account (Girokon­to), you will typ­i­cal­ly only receive a deb­it card, which is the stan­dard pay­ment method for every­day expens­es. Under­stand­ing the dif­fer­ence between deb­it and cred­it cards, as well as know­ing which cards are accept­ed where, will help you man­age your finances more con­fi­dent­ly dur­ing your time in Ger­many.

Ger­many still is a “cash coun­try”, and some shops or restau­rants do not accept cards. So, it is always wise to car­ry a cer­tain amount of cash with you, par­tic­u­lar­ly when vis­it­ing small­er towns, local mar­kets, or inde­pen­dent restau­rants.

Deb­it vs. Cred­it Cards

Deb­it cards in Ger­many (such as Giro­card or Deb­it Mas­ter­card) work by deduct­ing mon­ey direct­ly from your bank account. In con­trast, cred­it cards allow you to spend mon­ey and repay it lat­er. Because of this, many banks require proof of income or a good cred­it his­to­ry before issu­ing a cred­it card, which can make them less acces­si­ble for new stu­dents. As an inter­na­tion­al stu­dent, you may not yet have a cred­it his­to­ry in Ger­many, so it is worth know­ing that a deb­it card will cov­er most of your dai­ly needs with­out any issues.

Cards Issued by N26 & Sparkasse

With N26, you will usu­al­ly receive a Mas­ter­card deb­it card. It works well for online shop­ping and inter­na­tion­al pay­ments, but all trans­ac­tions are charged direct­ly to your account—there is no bor­row­ing involved. This makes it a sim­ple and trans­par­ent option for man­ag­ing your finances, espe­cial­ly when you are still get­ting used to bud­get­ing in a new coun­try.

Sparkasse, on the oth­er hand, also offers tra­di­tion­al cred­it cards such as Visa or Mas­ter­card. These allow you to pay lat­er, but approval may depend on your finan­cial sit­u­a­tion. Some stu­dent accounts include cred­it card options, although annu­al fees may apply depend­ing on the card. If you are con­sid­er­ing apply­ing for a cred­it card through Sparkasse, it is worth speak­ing direct­ly with a branch advi­sor who can guide you through the require­ments and find the most suit­able option for your sit­u­a­tion.

In most cas­es, a deb­it card is suf­fi­cient for dai­ly life in Ger­many. A cred­it card can be use­ful in spe­cif­ic sit­u­a­tions, such as book­ing flights, hotels, or rental cars, but it is not essen­tial when you first arrive. As you set­tle in and build a finan­cial his­to­ry in Ger­many, you may find it eas­i­er to apply for one lat­er.

Beyond N26 and Sparkasse: Oth­er Banks Worth Con­sid­er­ing

While this arti­cle focus­es on cards issued by N26 and Sparkasse, it is worth not­ing that Ger­many has a wide range of bank­ing options avail­able to inter­na­tion­al stu­dents.

Estab­lished insti­tu­tions such as Deutsche Bank and Com­merzbank offer com­pre­hen­sive bank­ing ser­vices with exten­sive branch net­works. For those inter­est­ed in eth­i­cal and sus­tain­able bank­ing, GLS Bank is a well-regard­ed choice. Volks- und Raif­feisen­banken, a net­work of coop­er­a­tive banks, are also wide­ly avail­able across the coun­try and known for their com­mu­ni­ty-focused approach. Explor­ing your options before com­mit­ting to a bank is always a good idea, as fees, ser­vices, and account require­ments can vary sig­nif­i­cant­ly.

Visa, Mas­ter­card, Amex, JCB and Union­Pay

Visa and Mas­ter­card are by far the most wide­ly accept­ed cards across Ger­many, whether you are shop­ping online, book­ing trav­el, or pay­ing at larg­er retail­ers.

Amer­i­can Express (Amex) is also broad­ly accept­ed; how­ev­er, its high­er trans­ac­tion fees mean that some mer­chants choose not to accept it. It is always good to have a Visa or Mas­ter­card as a back­up.

JCB and Union­Pay are becom­ing increas­ing­ly accept­ed in Ger­many, par­tic­u­lar­ly in larg­er cities and tourist areas. How­ev­er, accep­tance is still not uni­ver­sal, so stu­dents rely­ing on these cards should check in advance or car­ry an alter­na­tive pay­ment method.

Prac­ti­cal Tips for Man­ag­ing Pay­ments

As a gen­er­al rule, always car­ry some cash when explor­ing new areas. While card pay­ments are becom­ing more com­mon in Ger­man cities, small­er estab­lish­ments may still pre­fer or only accept cash. Addi­tion­al­ly, be mind­ful of poten­tial for­eign trans­ac­tion fees if you are using a card issued out­side of Ger­many for reg­u­lar pur­chas­es.

Key Points:

• Deb­it cards are the most com­mon pay­ment method in Ger­many — but cash is still king
• Cred­it cards are option­al and may require approval
• N26 focus­es on easy-to-use deb­it cards
• Sparkasse offers both deb­it and cred­it card options
• Visa and Mas­ter­card offer the broad­est accep­tance across Ger­many

Dis­claimer: This arti­cle is for infor­ma­tion­al pur­pos­es only. It does not rec­om­mend any spe­cif­ic bank. Please con­sid­er seek­ing pro­fes­sion­al advice before mak­ing any finan­cial deci­sions.

Trading Accounts in Germany

Inter­na­tion­al stu­dents in Ger­many can open trad­ing (bro­ker­age) accounts to invest in stocks, ETFs, and oth­er finan­cial assets. As long as you are over 18 and legal­ly reg­is­tered in Ger­many, this is usu­al­ly a straight­for­ward process. Most providers require a valid pass­port, a Ger­man address, your tax ID (Steuer-ID), and a SEPA bank account for ver­i­fi­ca­tion.

Invest­ing as a stu­dent might sound intim­i­dat­ing, but even small, reg­u­lar con­tri­bu­tions can be a great way to build finan­cial habits ear­ly. Many plat­forms in Ger­many are designed with begin­ners in mind, offer­ing low fees, intu­itive apps, and auto­mat­ed invest­ment options that require very lit­tle hands-on man­age­ment. Please note, that invest­ing always involves high risk.

Bro­kers

There are many banks and bro­kers to choose from, each with their own strengths. Three options that are par­tic­u­lar­ly well-suit­ed to stu­dents are Scal­able Cap­i­tal, N26, and Sparkasse.

Scal­able Cap­i­tal

Scal­able Cap­i­tal is a user-friend­ly plat­form that allows you to trade stocks, ETFs, funds, bonds, deriv­a­tives, and cryp­to ETPs. It also offers auto­mat­ed ETF sav­ings plans start­ing from small month­ly amounts, which makes it espe­cial­ly attrac­tive for stu­dents who want to invest con­sis­tent­ly with­out a large upfront com­mit­ment. The plat­form is avail­able via both app and web, and its inter­face is clean and easy to nav­i­gate even for first-time investors.

Scal­able Cap­i­tal offers a free basic plan as well as a pre­mi­um sub­scrip­tion that pro­vides unlim­it­ed free trades for a flat month­ly fee — a good option if you plan to trade reg­u­lar­ly.

One impor­tant thing to note: if you leave Ger­many for good, your Scal­able account may be closed, as the ser­vice is pri­mar­i­ly designed for res­i­dents.

Neo-Bro­ker: N26

N26 also pro­vides a sim­ple way to start invest­ing direct­ly with­in its mobile app. You can buy and sell select­ed stocks and ETFs with­out need­ing a sep­a­rate bro­ker­age account, which is con­ve­nient for begin­ners who want to keep their bank­ing and invest­ing in one place.

While the range of avail­able assets is more lim­it­ed com­pared to ded­i­cat­ed bro­kers, it is a low-effort way to get start­ed with invest­ing along­side your every­day bank­ing.

Sparkasse – Tra­di­tion­al, Reli­able, and Wide­ly Trust­ed

With Sparkasse, invest­ing is done through a secu­ri­ties account (Wert­pa­pierde­pot), often com­bined with the S Bro­ker plat­form. This gives you access to Ger­man and inter­na­tion­al stock exchanges and a wide range of finan­cial prod­ucts. It is a more tra­di­tion­al set­up and may involve more steps and high­er fees com­pared to dig­i­tal-first plat­forms, but it offers reli­a­bil­i­ty and the reas­sur­ance of in-per­son sup­port at your local branch. For stu­dents who pre­fer a more guid­ed expe­ri­ence, this can be a worth­while trade-off.

Tax­es on Invest­ment Income: Apply for a “Freis­tel­lungsauf­trag”

It’s worth being aware that invest­ment gains in Ger­many are sub­ject to a with­hold­ing tax of 25%, plus a sol­i­dar­i­ty sur­charge. How­ev­er, you can apply for a tax-free allowance (Spar­erpausch­be­trag) of up to €1,000 per year by sub­mit­ting a so-called “Freis­tel­lungsauf­trag” to your bro­ker. This is a sim­ple form and can save you mon­ey, so it’s worth set­ting up when you open your account.

Key Points

• Trad­ing accounts are avail­able to stu­dents aged 18 and above liv­ing in Ger­many
• You need a pass­port, Ger­man address, tax ID, and bank account
• Scal­able Cap­i­tal is a pop­u­lar low-cost bro­ker with ETF sav­ings plans and a free basic tier
• N26 offers sim­ple in-app invest­ing along­side your cur­rent account
• Sparkasse pro­vides tra­di­tion­al invest­ment ser­vices through a depot account
• Apply for a Freis­tel­lungsauf­trag to take advan­tage of your annu­al tax-free invest­ment allowance

Dis­claimer: This arti­cle is for infor­ma­tion­al pur­pos­es only. It is not invest­ment or tax advice, and does not rec­om­mend any spe­cif­ic bank or bro­ker. Invest­ing involves sig­nif­i­cant risk — please do your own research and con­sid­er seek­ing pro­fes­sion­al advice before mak­ing any finan­cial deci­sions.

Seeing a doctor

In Ger­many, most inter­na­tion­al stu­dents use a pub­lic health insur­ance – which is manda­to­ry when you enroll at your Uni­ver­si­ty.

The health­care sys­tem usu­al­ly fol­lows a step-by-step process, where patients first vis­it a gen­er­al doc­tor (Hausarzt) before going to a hos­pi­tal or spe­cial­ist. That means that, dif­fer­ent from most oth­er coun­tries, you don’t go to the hos­pi­tal in the first place, but most­ly you see a gen­er­al doc­tor first.

1. Vis­it the Hausarzt (Fam­i­ly Doc­tor)

The Fam­i­ly Doc­tor is the first point of con­tact for most health prob­lems. If you feel sick, you nor­mal­ly make an appoint­ment with a local doc­tor – often a small clin­ic, with only one doc­tor and a few recep­tion­ist and assis­tants.

At the clin­ic, you show your health insur­ance card, and the doc­tor will ask about your symp­toms, exam­ine you, and give treat­ment. The con­sul­ta­tion is usu­al­ly cov­ered by pub­lic health insur­ance.

For oral health, you go to see a den­tist straight away, with­out going to the Fam­i­ly Doc­tor.

2. Refer­ral to a Spe­cial­ist

If the prob­lem requires spe­cial med­ical care, the Fam­i­ly Doc­tor may refer you to a spe­cial­ist doc­tor. This refer­ral is called an “Über­weisung.” Spe­cial­ists include der­ma­tol­o­gists, car­di­ol­o­gists, ortho­pe­dists, etc.

The spe­cial­ist will pro­vide more detailed exam­i­na­tions or tests.

3. Hos­pi­tal Treat­ment

Hos­pi­tals in Ger­many are main­ly used for eri­ous ill­ness­es, emer­gen­cies, or surg­eries. Nor­mal­ly, patients go to the hos­pi­tal only after being referred by a doc­tor. Pub­lic health insur­ance usu­al­ly cov­ers most hos­pi­tal costs.

4. Emer­gency Sit­u­a­tions

If there is a seri­ous, life-threat­ing emer­gency, patients can go direct­ly to a hos­pi­tal emer­gency depart­ment (open 24 / 7) or call 112 for an ambu­lance.

In the Ger­man pub­lic health­care sys­tem, the usu­al process is:

Hausarzt (first con­sul­ta­tion) → Spe­cial­ist if need­ed → Hos­pi­tal for seri­ous treat­ment or emer­gency.

Health Insurance

Pub­lic health insur­ance is the most com­mon option for inter­na­tion­al stu­dents in Ger­many. It is avail­able to stu­dents under 30 years old who are enrolled in a degree pro­gram.

Pub­lic health insur­ance cov­ers many med­ical ser­vices, includ­ing

· doc­tor vis­its,

· hos­pi­tal treat­ment,

· pre­scrip­tion med­i­cines,

· pre­ven­tive check­ups,

· basic den­tal care, and

· emer­gency ser­vices.

Pub­lic insur­ance providers

Pop­u­lar pub­lic insur­ance providers include Tech­niker Krankenkasse, AOK, Barmer, and DAK-Gesund­heit. Many inter­na­tion­al stu­dents choose Tech­niker Krankenkasse (TK) because it offers Eng­lish sup­port and sim­ple online reg­is­tra­tion.

After enrolling into the Health insur­ance, you will receive your insur­ance card, which you have to show to clin­ic or hos­pi­tal, which then will bill direct­ly with the insur­ance com­pa­ny.

Safety

Ger­many is wide­ly regard­ed as one of the safest coun­tries in Europe, mak­ing it an attrac­tive des­ti­na­tion for inter­na­tion­al stu­dents.

Many stu­dents choose to study here because of the country’s strong edu­ca­tion sys­tem and gen­er­al­ly safe liv­ing envi­ron­ment. In Ger­many, crimes do hap­pen, and maybe more than 10 — 20 years back, but crime rates are rel­a­tive­ly low, and most inci­dents involve minor offens­es such as pick­pock­et­ing or bicy­cle theft rather than vio­lent crime. Uni­ver­si­ties and stu­dent areas are typ­i­cal­ly well-main­tained, secure, and sup­port­ed by effi­cient pub­lic ser­vices.

Gen­er­al­ly safe but stay vig­i­lant

Police pres­ence is vis­i­ble in busy areas and major train sta­tions, con­tribut­ing to a sense of secu­ri­ty. Uni­ver­si­ties also pro­vide sup­port sys­tems such as inter­na­tion­al offices, stu­dent coun­sel­ing, and emer­gency con­tacts to help stu­dents adjust and stay safe.

Nev­er­the­less, stu­dents are encour­aged to take basic pre­cau­tions. It is impor­tant to keep per­son­al belong­ings secure in crowd­ed places like train sta­tions, fes­ti­vals, and tourist attrac­tions. Occa­sion­al flood­ing in riv­er regions (like the Rhine Riv­er areas) do hap­pen.

Stu­dents should also famil­iar­ize them­selves with emer­gency num­bers, such as

112 for med­ical emer­gen­cies and fire ser­vices, and

110 for police.

Online Shopping

Many inter­na­tion­al stu­dents rely on shop­ping plat­forms to buy every­day items, like cloth­ing, elec­tron­ics, and study mate­ri­als.

Ama­zon — the lead­ing play­er in Ger­many

Ama­zon is by far the most pop­u­lar one because it offers a wide vari­ety of prod­ucts and con­ve­nient pay­ment options. Also the deliv­ery works the best and is reli­able. Ama­zon also han­dles the import cus­tom con­trol for­mal­i­ties.

eBay — afford­able prices

Anoth­er wide­ly used plat­form is eBay, which is espe­cial­ly use­ful for buy­ing sec­ond-hand prod­ucts. Many inter­na­tion­al stu­dents pre­fer eBay because they can find cheap­er items such as fur­ni­ture, bicy­cles, and elec­tron­ics.

Zalan­do 

For fash­ion and cloth­ing, Zalan­do is one of the most pop­u­lar online stores in Ger­many, offer­ing many brands and easy returns.

Taobao & Aliba­ba

Taobo / Aliba­ba is gain­ing pop­u­lar­i­ty fast with a huge selec­tion of items.

In addi­tion, Ger­man plat­forms like Otto (less pop­u­lar with stu­dents) pro­vide a large selec­tion of prod­ucts, includ­ing cloth­ing, elec­tron­ics, and home goods.

Climate

Ger­many has a tem­per­ate cli­mate with four dis­tinct sea­sons. For inter­na­tion­al stu­dents, under­stand­ing the weath­er is impor­tant because it affects dai­ly life, cloth­ing, and activ­i­ties through­out the year. The cli­mate can vary depend­ing on the region, but over­all Ger­many expe­ri­ences mod­er­ate tem­per­a­tures and reg­u­lar rain­fall.

In north­ern Ger­many (Ham­burg), near the North Sea and the Baltic Sea, the weath­er is strong­ly influ­enced by the ocean. Cities such as Ham­burg often have mild win­ters and cool sum­mers. The area can be windy and cloudy, and rain is com­mon dur­ing most months. Inter­na­tion­al stu­dents liv­ing in this region should be pre­pared for fre­quent rain and bring water­proof cloth­ing.

In west­ern Ger­many, includ­ing cities like Frank­furt, Dort­mund, Göt­tin­gen or Bochum, the cli­mate is rel­a­tive­ly mild. Win­ters are not extreme­ly cold, while sum­mers are warm and com­fort­able. Rain­fall occurs reg­u­lar­ly, espe­cial­ly near the Rhine Riv­er. Stu­dents in this region usu­al­ly expe­ri­ence mod­er­ate weath­er con­di­tions through­out the year.

East­ern Ger­many, where Berlin and Leipzig are locat­ed, has a more con­ti­nen­tal cli­mate. This means win­ters can be cold­er and sum­mers can be hot­ter com­pared to west­ern areas. The tem­per­a­ture dif­fer­ences between sea­sons are stronger, so stu­dents may need warmer cloth­ing in win­ter and lighter clothes in sum­mer.

In south­ern Ger­many, includ­ing Munich and regions near the Alps, win­ters are often cold­er and snow is more com­mon. This region is pop­u­lar for win­ter sports. Sum­mers are warm and some­times include thun­der­storms. Stu­dents liv­ing in south­ern Ger­many should pre­pare for cold win­ters and pos­si­bly snowy con­di­tions.

Each sea­son in Ger­many brings dif­fer­ent weath­er. Spring (April — May) is mild and rainy, with tem­per­a­tures grad­u­al­ly ris­ing. Sum­mer (June — August) is warm and pleas­ant, mak­ing it a good time for out­door activ­i­ties and trav­el. Autumn (Sep­tem­ber — Octo­ber) is cool­er with col­or­ful leaves and more rain­fall. Win­ter (Novem­ber — March) can be cold and dark, espe­cial­ly in Novem­ber, and snow is pos­si­ble in some areas.

Driving

Dri­ving in Ger­many can be con­ve­nient for inter­na­tion­al stu­dents, but it is impor­tant to under­stand the local rules.

You can use your home coun­try driver’s license for up to six months after arriv­ing.

After that peri­od, you may need to exchange it for a Ger­man license or pass dri­ving tests, depend­ing on your coun­try of ori­gin.

Ger­many has strict traf­fic laws and well-main­tained roads. In cities like Berlin or Ham­burg, the usu­al speed lim­it is 50 km/h, while some sec­tions of the Auto­bahn have no fixed speed lim­it, though 130 km/h is rec­om­mend­ed. Seat belts are manda­to­ry, and using a phone while dri­ving is pro­hib­it­ed.

Alter­na­tives, if you d0nt want to dri­ve

Own­ing a car can be expen­sive because stu­dents must pay for insur­ance, fuel, tax­es, and reg­u­lar vehi­cle inspec­tions car­ried out by orga­ni­za­tions such as TÜV. For this rea­son, many stu­dents pre­fer pub­lic trans­port ser­vices like those oper­at­ed by Deutsche Bahn, for exam­ple with Deutsch­landtick­et.

Most of our Apart­ments are locat­ed close to your Uni­ver­si­ty, so basi­cal­ly you don’t need to dri­ve to reach your Uni­ver­si­ty.

Deutschlandticket

The „Deutsch­landtick­et“ is an afford­able pub­lic trans­porta­tion tick­et that helps inter­na­tion­al stu­dents save a sig­nif­i­cant amount of mon­ey while study­ing in Ger­many.

It allows unlim­it­ed trav­el on bus­es, trams, U‑Bahn, S‑Bahn, and region­al trains through­out the coun­try. Because trans­porta­tion costs can be high, this tick­et is espe­cial­ly valu­able for stu­dents who need to trav­el reg­u­lar­ly.

Stu­dent dis­count

Many uni­ver­si­ties offer a spe­cial ver­sion of the Deutsch­landtick­et for stu­dents called the Deutsch­landse­mes­tertick­et. With this tick­et, stu­dents pay about €34.80 per month. In com­par­i­son, the reg­u­lar Deutsch­landtick­et costs around €63 per month in 2026.

As a result, stu­dents pay sig­nif­i­cant­ly less for pub­lic trans­porta­tion and can save a con­sid­er­able amount of mon­ey while study­ing in Ger­many.

Valid in the entire coun­try

With this tick­et, stu­dents can trav­el with­in their city (for exam­ple Berlin, Pots­dam or Ham­burg) with­out buy­ing sep­a­rate tick­ets. They can also vis­it oth­er regions of Ger­many using region­al trains. With­out the Deutsch­landtick­et, stu­dents would often need to buy indi­vid­ual tick­ets for each jour­ney, which can quick­ly become expen­sive.

By pay­ing a fixed month­ly price, inter­na­tion­al stu­dents can trav­el as much as they want using local and region­al trans­porta­tion.