I’ve talked before about the different payment methods available in Germany, although the acceptance of credit cards is slowly growing – even our local supermarket now accepts them.

But for many smaller shops in town centres, cash remains the method of choice which means that at some point visitors and ex-pats alike will need to visit a cashpoint.

Cashpoints are located in the branches of most banks and often at petrol stations, but the charge for using them varies depending on where your bank account is. (more…)

There’s no escaping the fact that banking is a major business in Germany.  There are no end of banks available – the large ones like Deutsche Bank, the consumer-orientated ones like Postbank, regional Volksbanken and Sparkassen, and even a number of private banks.

Some of them are interested in the normal current-account type of customer, others are more into mortgages, and others still into investment banking.  Many even sell each other’s products.

So it’s not unusual for someone to have accounts at more than one bank, and if these are in some way interlinked, keeping tabs on everything gets really complicated – to the point where there is a big market for personal finance software. (more…)

We may have stopped paying with the Deutsche Mark 8 years ago, but every now and then I see a shop that still accepts the old currency.

My latest sighting was in the pedestrian precinct in Oberursel:

And apparently this shop is not the only one in the town!