1/10/2020 TOP FREE CREDIT CARDS IN GERMANY!Germans are not huge fans of credit cards but the Corona crisis has changed this a bit! Out of safety concerns, paying contactless with cards is getting more and more popular. In Germany, some banks call debit cards for some reason credit cards! Unlike debit cards, credit cards have typically a limited amount that you can spend monthly and pay back at the end of the month. There are many types of cards in the market but two cards stand out of the crowd. Amazon credit card If you shop at Amazon, then it makes sense to get its Visa credit card as it gives you extra points every time you shop at Amazon more than elsewhere. It's free for the first year but if you are also a prime member, then it's free forever and you earn even more points. In any case, there is a free initial credit to get you started with shopping ;-) You can learn more and apply for one here. Payback American Express Card This card has the advantage of being free forever! You also earn extra payback points when using the card. It has also an extended return protection for products purchased with the card. American express is not widely accepted in Germany like Visa or Mastercard though! You can learn more and apply for one here. CategoriesAll Family Finance SELF DEVELOPMENT SHOPPING Archives October 2020 Discover more articles22/9/2020 How to pay less for simply the best!Almost everyone wants to buy the best products in the market. Finding the best is not easy though! You have to do some research prior to every purchase. However, some testing agencies in Germany decided years ago to help customers make informed decisions before buying a product or a service. The good news is: according to their investigation reports, the best products are not necessarily the most expensive. So, you get to save money as well ;-) There are 2 main rating agencies in Germany. The oldest and most respected is Stiftung Warentest. It is a consumer organisation and foundation involved in investigating and comparing goods and services in an unbiased way. It was founded on 4 December 1964 by the Federal Republic of Germany as an independent foundation under civil law. It is based in Berlin. Stiftung Warentest is self-financing, selling its own magazines test and Finanztest (annual circulation around hundreds of thousands copies), books and special magazine issues, and also investigation results as paid-for content on its own website. The foundation also receives a subsidy from the Federal Ministry of Nutrition, Agriculture and Consumer Protection. This is a compensation for the fact that it does not carry any advertisements in its publications because this could compromise its independence. The classification of the evaluation results is based on the marking system used in German schools. This results in the following categories for the overall verdicts on the quality of goods and services:
The second agency is Ökotest is a consumer magazine that belongs to the media holding company of the political party SPD. It has been published monthly by the publishing house of the same name since April 1985. It’s based in Frankfurt. Unlike stiftung warentest, it doesn’t use exact numbers in its ratings verdicts. Many merchants advertise heavily any products rated highly by the agencies. They often print the rating seal directly on the product label or near the price tag. Wise shoppers should always look out for those seals and also follow the news for new ratings reports that are made publicly available for FREE, occasionally. Follow us on facebook to get updates on such reports ;-) Also, check out the video below for our handpicked recommendations of products rated highly by those agencies. CategoriesAll Family SELF DEVELOPMENT SHOPPING Archives October 2020 Related ArticlesGermany has so many supermarkets and the offers are huge! Finding the best deal is not always easy! To help train our memories, we started to keep track of grocery prices in mind! It actually worked better than expected! We now never pay for overpriced products. We just know that they are just cheaper around the corner or they will be on sale some time soon. So we usually wait until our favorite products go on sale and then buy a bulk of them (It's always a good idea to stock up especially in the days of lockdowns and Corona). Check out the video to learn more and subscribe to our youtube channel for deal alerts, recalls, and more tips. CategoriesAll Family SELF DEVELOPMENT SHOPPING Archives October 2020 Related ArticlesPoint cards are a great way to get rewarded for shopping. They are free and widely accepted. In Germany, there are two main card: Deutschlandcard & Payback. Deutschlandcard is accepted at EDEKA & Netto among many others while Payback is accepted at REWE & DM and many more. Both cards have mobile Apps and can be integrated into other Apps as well. For example, Deutschlandcard can be added to the Netto App for earning points easily. Similarly, Payback info can be added to the DM App. Earned points can be redeemed for gift cards and more. Check out the video below to learn more. CategoriesAll Family Finance SELF DEVELOPMENT SHOPPING Archives October 2020 Related ARticles |