5 Random German Things America NEEDS! 🇩🇪

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After moving to Germany and living in Germany, we learned how there are some things that go against the stereotype of Germany being a bureaucratic nightmare! In fact, life in Germany can actually be EASIER at times than life in the United States. 😊
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❤️Aubrey was a Speech-Language Pathologist and Donnie was a graphic designer, but we both had a dream to #travel the world and experience cultures. After three years of being married and dreaming about if something like this great adventure would be possible, we decided to quit the rat race and take on the world. We sold everything we had, quit our jobs, and took off! After 9 months of aimless and nonstop travel, we now get to fulfill our dreams of #LivingAbroad as #expats as we move to #Germany!
00:00 - Anfang
1:46 - Thing 1
5:47 - Thing 2
8:23 - Thing 3
12:05 - Thing 4
14:03 - Thing 5
18:40 - Bloopers

[@PassportTwo]

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[@Koxi73]

I'm a 51y old Austrian. I have never seen a real check in my life

[@idnwiw]

Austrian too - the first and the last time I have seen a check is in a Columbo episode. I was really surprised they are still around over the pond

[@manub.3847]

Okay, that could actually be the case, since you were still schoolchildren at the beginning of the spread of ATMs and withdrawal options, even in other EU countries. Since around 1983, ATMs have slowly spread throughout Germany and Europe and replaced the use of cards and EC checks with the possibility of EU-wide withdrawals with the EC card (now debit card). The checks themselves only stopped in 2002. Some credit institutions still issue standard checks* today. These checks can only be cashed at the issuing bank, otherwise you can only submit the check to be credited to your account. This is often not possible with purely online banks or time-consuming and complicated..

[@Moonchild0]

As a fellow Austrian the only thing that comes to my mind that might be similar like a check is "Überweisung" (cash transfer) with a formular 🤔 That actually is common for rent; gas/heating and water bills. But usually you use "Lastschrift" (direct debit) via SEPA (=Single Euro Payments Area; it's a standardize cashless payment transactions in Europe). That's far more easier because you don't have to fill out the formular over and over again on due date. It's an agreement with the company, that you have a contract with, can automatically deducted from the customer's account on the due date 🙂 (yes, you have to check if they don't deduct more than they should.. because it happens; during Covid times it happened more often than not)

[@PassportTwo]

Haha, so crazy we still use them in the U.S. to this day 😅

[@sebastianr1204]

I got some checks. But rarely. 29 years old in Germany.

[@micmupfel]

I am 30 years old and the only time I got a check in Germany was when I won a small amount of money in a contest. Even the young woman at the bank was surprised and had to ask her older colleagues for help.

[@PassportTwo]

😂😂

[@PassportTwo]

I also just remembered that in the US, we also typically get our tax returns as a check that we have to deposit. 😅 So we also see one at least once a year in this way. In Germany, this is typically direct deposit, right?

[@micmupfel]

@@PassportTwo Yes, the tax return is deposited directly to your bank account. Also a demand for back taxes is usually transferred via automatic debit.

[@hartmutbohn]

I am 57 yo now. When I was 19 and moved out (1985?), I was issued my 1st (and only) checkbook. I used maybe three or four of them in the coming years, and never ordered any new checks. Even in the 1980s everything was done by bank transfer (Dauerauftrag, Einzugsermächtigung, Überweisung,...).

[@culnaurion]

Similar to me. I was 14 when I got me first checking account in the mid 80's and received a checkbook which I ended up never using at all. Edit: at my cuurent job I'm indeed had to handle checks again until a few years ago as one of our customer still used crossed checks to pay their invoices.

[@brom0198]

Mindblow for Americans: In Germany, you can give out your bank information like IBAN, Account holder name and institute name and nothing happens. When a company sends you a letter, they'll include those informations at the bottom.

[@MiciFee97]

Because its not a credit card. With creditcards you usually just have to put in the card holder number etc and you pay. But you wouldnt be able to pay something with just knowing my iban

[@brom0198]

@MiciFee97 Yes, but you also need the security code, account holder name and expiring date.

[@PassportTwo]

Yup! Talked about how strange that was for us in another video a while back 😊

[@solaccursio]

what can you do if you have my IBAN number? well, you can send me money! I have no problem with that😂😂

[@piekay7285]

20 year old German here: I‘ve never seen a check in my life

[@hansmeiser32]

I'm 55, I had and used checks when I was your age.

[@lotematu2812]

I am 18 and like my grandmother showed me her old check book when I was like 10. It was the only time I saw a check book.

[@solaccursio]

@@hansmeiser32 I am Italian, I'm 56, and same... I used checks when I was your age 😁

[@Erlinator]

German accountant here, 32 years old. In our department we do have one customer who pays with check (us-company of course) and we do not even have the POSSIBILITY any more to pay with checks as it is so outdated😂

[@PassportTwo]

Along with rent, we also get our tax returns from the government in the form of a check mailed to us that we then have to deposit 😅 Is your tax return direct deposited or something else?

[@Niederrheiner74]

German working at a bank here, and I personally used my last check about 25 years ago :-) In business, I saw the last one about 10 years ago. It is now actually not possible for private customers to deposit checks in their accounts any longer, and it is also impossible to receive check books. For companies, it is possible, but the fees are prohibitive, so nobody uses checks any more. I always wondered why they are still so popular in the US.

[@PassportTwo]

I also wonder why 😅 I also don't know why the US sends out our tax returns as a check every year! How is that done in Germany? 🤔

[@amjbraun]

Tax returns come as direct deposit to your bank account in Germany. You just have to put the account information in the tax form.

[@PassportTwo]

WAY better of a system! 😂

[@SHP72]

We have one "Steuerpflichtigen" in my Finanzamt that is paying only with checks. He is comming 5 times a year to us.

[@meinnaame6988]

Like car tax: You must agree and sign for, that the DMV (in Germany the customs) may take the car taxes (Kraftfahrzeugsteuer) directly from your bank account on due day, or you will not get license-plates. You MUST sign that form.

[@SirFreedom05]

I'm working at a Tax office in Germany. In Regards to documents having to be sent by mail instead of digitally. This is being done because the government and other institutions can't guarantee that your information on these documents will be safe / visible to others who aren't supposed to see them.

[@nriamond8010]

The most iimportant thing about the nutriscore: It only compares similar food items to each other. That way, you can see which of the frozen pizzas is the healthiest. It is NOT meant to compare frozen pizza with apples, though, it only shows _relative_ health information, not how healthy a product is in general. So there is a lot of potential for misunderstandings, even without companies trying to trick the system. I think that should be communicated much wider. (at first glance, it might not sound like a good idea to only compare similar things but then, if you rate products for "general" health, you can't see which frozen pizza is healthiest - and let's be honest, no one eats an apple instead of pizza anyway ...) I've never heard any good arguments for the excluded tax for local businesses in the US (I understand it for only shops but then you can calculate the tax at the checkout). I mean, here in Europe, there are different prices in the different countries and it's not a problem. The American system is madness! I'm turning 40 this year and have never used a check. I think I saw my grandma write one when I was a child in the early 90ies. Back then, it was already quite an old-fashioned form of payment. Oh, and my word would be "bureaucratic", too! It's so complicated in English.

[@Cera3]

regarding NutriScore: I once saw two different packages of juice, on with a B and one with a D. the one with B had 20% more addded sugar in it - but in form of concentrated fruit instead of white sugar. (:

[@halbeliebe]

I am 38, I filled out checks in my life - when I was an exchange student in South Dakota. I have never used them in Germany or seen them used or heard of them being used.

[@LoFiAxolotl]

never went abroad before that? Travel Cheques were one of the most common forms of currency you would take when travelling

[@blackboardmonitor3307]

​@@LoFiAxolotlNot within Europe. I remember my parents getting traveller's cheques expressly for a journey to the USA in the early 80s. And I myself (52) also only ever used them as an exchange student in the US.

[@thiloreichelt4199]

I think I remember checks being used in Germany - up to the 90s. Later, I encountered checks very rarely. Generally with the helpful suggestion that this gives the liberty to use any bank account you want - so you can keep it out of the books and later "accidentically" forget it in you tax statement.

[@defender4004]

@@blackboardmonitor3307I‘m also 52 and I remember using traveler cheques within Europe. I also remember using euro cheques in shops. For those who don’t know - euro cheques in combination with your bank card guaranteed the receiver up to 400,- DM per cheque. Wether there was enough balance in your account or not. These cheques wouldn’t bounce.

[@PassportTwo]

I also just remembered that in the US, we also typically get our tax returns as a check that we have to deposit. 😅 So we also see one at least once a year in this way. In Germany, this is typically direct deposit, right?

[@BirteBohling]

Bank employee here: we don't even have the technical ability anymore to process cheques. That stuff was already outdated 20 years ago when I started working in finance. Now it's ancient. The US is 20-30 behind us with everything bank related, it's a pain dealing with their outdated system on an everyday basis at work.

[@autinerd]

Also the topic of credit cards, many US credit cards still only have a magnet stripe, while here more and more credit cards don't have them anymore because of the security issues.

[@PassportTwo]

😂 I can imagine it is annoying to work with such outdated tech when you haven't used it in decades! I was even just reminded how we typically receive our tax returns by check and have to deposit it. I thought it was pretty high tech how our bank allows us to deposit the checks on their mobile app until I moved to Germany and just saw these were obsolete 😂 Are tax returns just direct deposited in Germany like everything else?

[@mrheisenberg83]

@@PassportTwo Just a direct bank transfer from a government account to yours. Easy, fast, cheap, reliable.

[@autinerd]

@@PassportTwo haha 😂 yes, in your tax declaration you have to enter your IBAN etc. and you will receive the returns via direct transfer. A lot of stuff here in Germany also works via direct debit, such as insurances, car taxes etc.

[@PassportTwo]

Man, that's so much better, efficient, and saves on the paper 😅

[@saintklaus5770]

The last time I wrote a check was in the mid-80s, and after that I only wrote traveler checks (in the USA, they were needed there). Love and peace from Hannover, Germany. Klaus

[@Edda-Online]

Since you have mentioned „the house of madness“ and Asterix and Obelix: you might have fun with the song „einen Antrag auf Erteilung…“ by Rheinhard May. Obesity: I have heard products e.g. toast in the US contain much more hidden sugar than in Europe (where it is bad enough). Europeans obviously consume a lot of products with hidden sugar (because they sell ), I assume Americans do even some more. Correct me if I am wrong, but from what I’ve heard cooking with fresh ingredients is more ingrained in European culture than in American.

[@marrykurie48]

I guess this might be hard to understand for an american ^^. But the song is very cool, in my opinion.

[@Edda-Online]

@@marrykurie48 True, I was thinking about sugessting to get the text to read it as well, but once in my life I tried to keep it short. :-) I have tried to improve my listening skills with his French songs - no chance, even with the ones I know the German text.

[@marrykurie48]

@@Edda-Online Try refreshing your french skillswith an online learning programm. It's worth it. I've started it during the corona times and am surprised how far I got with it ;-). I can understand a lot now. Even Tim und Struppi in french. Les adventures de Tintin.

[@gerdaschulze2333]

Ages ago, between 1965-1968, I lived in San Francisco and worked for a wholesale company selling jewelry and silverware. Every 2 weeks my boss sent me (20 years old German immigrant) with a bunch of cheques to the company's bank in the financial district in Montgomery St. There I waited for about 5 min., received all the cash for our employees and walked back to our office (about 20 min). Then our boss would count the individual amounts for each person and hand it over.

[@benjaminjakob1906]

My parents used to pay with cheques when I was I child (in the 70s und 80s). They were called „Euro-cheques“ long before the Euro but to signify that they could be used throughout Europe during vacation to get foreign currency from a local bank or of course in the home country for shopping. I remember the maximum amount was 400DM (Deutsche Mark) for which the cheque was guaranteed for and accepted. Sometimes in these times payments of companies to customers were made by sending a cheque by (snail)mail which could be credited to your bank account or redeemed in cash.

[@mickimicki]

I seem to remember these Euro-Cheques were the original reason to have an "ec-Karte". The cashiers in the shops could compare the signature on your ec-card with the signature you put on the check, if you wanted to pay with check. (My mother used to pay with euro-cheques a lot in the 80s because she didn't like to carry around lots of money, and it was even hard to get money before ATMs were everywhere. Banks closed around 4 pm most days of the week, so some working people had to leave work early just to be able to visit their bank.)

[@Zeppelinschaffner22]

The only cheques I ever saw are the big novelty ones on TV

[@conniebruckner8190]

yes, same here. Usually to show how much money a person won, or an organisation managed to raise...

[@PassportTwo]

Surprised Germany doesn’t use giant IBAN numbers or something instead 😉

[@Zeppelinschaffner22]

@@PassportTwo well, it's an easy way to show how much money you won. Though nowadays they don't even do that anymore. They now have these see-through briefcases with stacks of cash

[@insulanerin7601]

German, 50, I never wrote a cheque in my life ... to me, cheque sound like pony express instead of email ...

[@misterdschi]

Same here (52), only ever used checks when i studied in France in the late 90s 😂

[@roschue]

Ich bin 55, in den 80ern und 90ern hatte ich noch ein Scheckheft mit Eurochecks. In Verbindung mit der Euroscheck-Karte (EC-Karte) hatten diese eine Garantie bis 400,- Mark (gleiche Nummer auf Scheck und Karte). In Geschäften ging es damals nicht anders, bei höheren Beträgen schrieb man einfach mehrere Schecks. Ich erinnere mich noch, dass ich 1999 auf Rhodos etwas mit Euroscheck bezahlt habe. Mit der Einführung des bezahlens mit Magnetstreifens in Geschäften kamen die EC-Schecks dann aus der Mode. Aber der Name der EC-Karte hat sich bis heute umgangssprachlich erhalten. Korrekt heißt sie jetzt Girocard.

[@florianlb777]

Hey - I’m also from Rheinland-Pfalz. Nice to hear you like it here. Our state is often just marked as „boring“ 😄 I’m 31 and I have to confess that I’ve never seen a real check in my whole life 😅 And after asking my parents - they haven’t seen one neither.

[@Sebastian-ww6qf]

As a twenty-year-old German, I have never seen the check in person

[@LoFiAxolotl]

You maybe/probably will at some point.... most health insurances (private and public) when you get back pay if for example you stopped smoking they will send you a cheque, also some insurances do that when you get money back for example for teeth cleanings etc cheques are not that uncommon but of course compared to the US in the 80s and earlier it's still very uncommon

[@thomasoutdooradventure7999]

I`m over 40. I never used Check by my self. When I was a child my parents use Check to get cash in foring european countries.

[@LoFiAxolotl]

@@thomasoutdooradventure7999 Travel cheques were super common yeah

[@michaausleipzig]

Same for me as a 38 year old 😅

[@Thorium_Th]

@@LoFiAxolotl I've never heard of that from anyone and none of my insurances sent me money by check ever. I pay my insurance premium via automatic bill payment and get money transferred back on the same account. I know checks only from American movies.

[@kilsestoffel3690]

I filled exact one cheque: my first self bought furniture when I moved out 30 years ago.

[@reinhard8053]

The US taxation is a problem for some people with dual citizenship. I knew one who had problems even getting an account because the banks don't want that stress. He was told to write Canadian in the douments to get an account (!). At least that's what he told me. He would get rid of that citizenship if it wasn't that complicated and expensive. I needed to sign several documents at banks that I'm NOT effected by US taxes.

[@flesby]

I never filled out a check (I am 42 years old) I think my parents occasionally did so back in the 80s or early 90s - this stuff really died out some time ago.

[@Edda-Online]

Relates with me! I am close to 60 years old and I have used some in my youth. But, I think most of my friends didn’t use cheques at that time, because we were still students not having much money to spend. So, usually we have paid in cash. As soon as debit cards with pin were available banks have stopped providing cheques. It is so strange they are still a thing particularly in the USA.

[@juliaclaire42]

I would say, you missed the game by ten years. I remember writing some ec- cheques in my youth. And being the only person in my family who had a bank account that was able to handle a Verrechnungsscheck (sent in by mail by an insurance company).

[@derradfahrer5029]

Thing 5 (I know going into details like this would be out of scope for this video, bit still...) : Even private insurance in Germany work a bit different then in the US. Practically you can visit any doctor, the amount they charge and the procedures they offer is still based on the catalog used by the statutory insurances (Leistungskatalog). From there the only thing you have to watch out for is the price factor, like 1.7x, 2.3x, 3.5x. Your private insurance often only covers up to a certain factor. The doctor will then send the bill directly (or through an third party company like "PVS" - acts like a collections agency) to you. You then pay the doctor and send the bill to your insurance. Often you also have a clause with your insurance where you get money back, if you don't submit any bills. This is like a deductible. You pay your bills through out the year, collect the statements, and then add them up in the following year and decide if you want to submit them to your insurance or get your no-claims bonus (Beitragsrückerstattung). For some private insurances and/or if you have planned large operations can also get a costs projection and submit it as a sort of prior authorization to your insurance to assure there is not issue and have the reimbursement within days - even before the due day of the bill.

[@seanthiar]

Thing 5 - You missed one major thing about the healthcare. In Germany when you are sick and there are different methods to help you the doctor decide which has the best chance and lowest risk helping you - In the USA the doctor has to ask the insurance and the insurance decides if a the doctor is allowed not to use the cheapest method. Until this is not decided the doctor has to wait with treatment for the decision......

[@Jupue]

They WHAT? This doesnt make any sense

[@Herzschreiber]

the last time I saw a check was in 1985 or '86 I guess. And it was NOT for paying the rent, but a very special Birthday present to a very special person :D

[@isitramt]

The last check I saw in Germany was a payback from an insurance. It was a really unecessary hazzle to get the money on the account. Happened years ago.

[@insulanerin7601]

As I'm with an online bank, I honestly would not even know how to get a check into my bank account ...

[@isitramt]

@@insulanerin7601 This was our problem. We have an online account too. There was a step-by-step instruction on the website of the bank. But: never again, I would refuse to take such a check again since you have to pay a high service fee to your bank for accepting the check since it's no standard for them.

[@thiloreichelt4199]

That unneccessary hazzle might open some liberty concerning the taxes.

[@leDespicable]

@@insulanerin7601 As another customer of an online bank: You have to mail the cheque to the bank

[@Edda-en3es]

Wie geht's Aubrey und dem Kleinen?

[@PassportTwo]

Sehr gut, danke 😊

[@ohauss]

I can tell you precisely when I last handled a paper check - in 2003, at the end of my four year stint in the US! I was already baffled in '99 when I got there that I had to pay everything by check rather than establishing a bank draft.

[@lordofnumbers9317]

The part with NutriScore was very funny.👍❤

[@michaausleipzig]

I have never in my life used a paper check. I have no idea what they look like and I wouldn't know what to do with it. 😅🤷‍♂️

[@deniskramer3562]

As far as I remember, I have written a check exactly once in my life. That was at the beginning of the 1990s for a car I bought.

[@piekay7285]

Deductables are a thing for some private insurance companies in Germany, but they work the other way around: if the insurance had to pay nothing, you get some of your money back

[@perhonen28]

The last time I saw a check was in the 90s. They weren't common anymore even back then.

[@arnoldpfusterschmid1108]

The last time I've used a cheqeue (I'm living in Austria) was in the early 1990s but they became obsolete within mid 1990s, when shops started to accept payment by cards. Taxes are included in the price tags here in Austria/Germany, but in the US, I've been able to bargin a discount at Sears/J.C.Penny for a couple of Levis jeans.

[@mpanzi01]

I am 57 years old. I know checks. There have been "euroschecks" - which were the most common checks for "regular" use while shopping. They had an insurance - if you got one of those checks, the bank paid it for sure, it could not bounce. They have been endet in 2002 (just googled it). We still have checks and they still can be and are used in special occasions. E.g. if you buy a car or a house you can use them. They can be signed by the bank, so it is sure, that the money will be paid out.

[@arnodobler1096]

11.30 That's what we call full commitment!👍😂

[@Edda-en3es]

Hey Donnie, deine Aussprache von "Quark" ist ja mittlerweile absolut perfekt 👍😁 Tolles Video, wie immer. Faszinierend, dass Deutschland tatsächlich auch Dinge einfacher machen kann als andere ^^ Dass man die Mehrwertsteuer nicht extra berechnen muss, finde ich auch sehr gut. Im Internet gibt es öfters Geschäfte, die das anders machen. Dann ist man beim Zahlen immer regelrecht geschockt und fühlt sich irgendwie manipuliert und über's Ohr gehauen. Apropos: Mach doch mal ein Video über deutsche Sprichworte. Es gibt sooo viele und oft seeehr lustige 😄

[@ChristianRichardBauer]

I am German turning 40 this year and I never saw a real cheque in my life - only in American movies.

[@nellitheretrogamer8666]

Ooo, ooo, I want to answer that check question! Here in Finland, I've seen a check only once. That was in 1985 when I was selling Girl Guides Christmas Calendars. I sold them to our neighbors, in other words, I was selling them to my friends' moms (which is what everyone did). One of them didn't have cash and said that she'll write a check. I didn't know if that would be acceptable, but she said that she's pretty sure that it is. Then when I met with the other Girl Guides and we all brought the money we'd got, there just happened to be one person who was an adult and she said that she knows what to do with the check. The rest of us didn't know. Then during the 1990s, I went to California for a language course. I was going to stay there for several months so that it was practical for me to have an American bank account. Getting one was easy, because there was a lot of us foreign students who started at the same time of the year, so a local bank came to our campus and we all opened bank accounts with them. They gave me an ATM card and a checkbook. I only intended to use the ATM card, but later, I decided to buy an electric guitar that cost $1200 dollars. I asked the employees at the music store if they can take a check from me. They needed to discuss it and the answer was no, they can't take a check because I don't have a Californian driver's licence. My Finnish passport wasn't valid identification from their point of view, they would have needed an American driver's licence number or something like that. So the one time in my life I actually might have wanted to pay with a check, it wasn't possible because of bureaucracy :D

[@antonnurwald5700]

I am 44 years old and i vaguely remember when i travelled abroad with my parents as a kid, they packed a kind of cheque in case we couldn't get cash at a bank or something. Or sometimes a "Verrechnungsscheck" would be used to handle refunds, but that is all dim memory, i might as well be imagining it. I never paid with a cheque in my life.

[@picobello99]

29 and Dutch here. The only time I've ever seen a check was last summer when my Canadian friend showed me her pay check - an actual physical paper check - after I told her I had never seen one before 😂

[@verapapp-bongartz8799]

I saw a paper cheque in the 70s. My parents used to use them.

[@InsertGreatChannelName]

Never saw a Check

[@dagmarszemeitzke]

8:10 The last time I saw a papercheck was the last century

[@herbie1975]

49 year old swiss here. The only checks I have seen in my country have been business related (international) during my apprentice in the early 90is. The only check book I ever had, was during my stay in Canada (never used a check though😂). I guess that check book is still somewhere in a memory box😊

[@knallerjohn4531]

Im approaching my 30's and i've never even seen a check outside american media. I've also not really used cash for the better part of 10 years. I only carry cash to tip lieferando drivers, because the in app tip often doesn't go to them.

[@sihocolus]

12:06 there is actually one thing in Germany that you have to Pay attention. Many Drinks that has a "Pfand" symbol near the Bar Code, that symbolizes Bottles with a U shaped Arrow means this Bottle costs additionally 25 Cents. That isn't clearly displayed correctly on the price tags, especially for Foreigners visiting Germany for the first time. So if you buy a drink - let's say one of these Cheap 1,5 Liters Ice Tea Peach-favor drinks you can get on almost literally every Supermarket in Germany for 79 Cent, you have to pay additional 25 Cent Pfand for the Bottle, so in the end you have to Pay 1,04€ for one bottle 1,5L IceTea Peach. And if you buy a Full Sixpack (since usually this exact IceTea in every supermarket has been transported in a Plastic Bag like foliage that you can rip open in the supermarket, if you want to buy just one bottle), you have to Pay 4,74€ plus 6 x 0,25€ (1,50€) equals 6,24€ for one full Sixpack. Of course you can give it back to a "Pfandautomat", a Vending Machine that scans your Emptied Bottle of the Barcode, and prints a "Pfandbon", that btw looks similar to a "Kassenbon"* - (*a check of all groceries you bought, probably similar you get one after purchasing all your groceries in an American Supermarket - but the Pfandbon only shows what kind of bottle, how many of them, and what endprice is printed on it) - with this you go on a checkout and the cashier scans the Bon, where you get your money back. You can even buy Groceries only relying on Pfand Bottles. Since they can be given back to almost every Supermarket and Drink market (they're literally Supermarkets but specialized to Drinks, like the "Getränke Hoffman") you could see them as second Currency in Germany. Please consider that only German Pfand Drinks can be scanned successfully. For example, If you bring a Coca Cola 0,5 Can that has been bought in France, it won't be recognized as Pfand Can unlike the German Counterpart. Since the Ofand Machines won't scan the Bottles very existence, but only their Bar Code. Also putting filled Bottles won't also work, since there are weights right under the belt in the scanner area. So if it's too heavy, it won't be scanned. If it's too light (for example you try then to just lift and hold it above the belt to scan it) won't also help. That not just to counter scam attempts, but also protects the personal only rooms from a Shitshow that could happen if a full bottle really gets scanned and pulled into the Shredding/crusher module that shreds/crushes the bottles to make enough room for them in the Containers behind the machine. You don't want to be wittnes in a Room where a coca Cola bottle under full pressure blasts off from a crusher spilling around that shit everywhere.

[@gandalfmerlin6964]

Cooles Video!😀

[@PassportTwo]

Danke 😊

[@andersl7912]

I am 45 years and german. I remember in my school time (i think i was 15) i worked as a paperboy for 2 Weeks. For this I got a paper check to get my money. This was the only time in my live i ever used a paper check.

[@gf1191]

52 y.o. German here. I filled in my last check in the late 1990s. It was one of the already mentioned "eurocheques". I always had one hidden in my car as "emergency money", working even during a brownout at night at the end of the world 😂 But ... I still receive one check every year. An insurance company pays out a part of their profit to their clients. It's less than 20€ each year. I have to fill in a (paper-) form from my bank, sign it and then send it along with the check by mail to my bank and in less than 10 days I'll find the money added to my account. But: The insurance premium I have to pay annually, is paid by direct debit. So the insurance company knows my bank account number. Well ... I won't ask!😂

[@meinnaame6988]

Hi! I am born in 1970 and I remember, when we went on vaca in Portugal, my dad used to order "Eurocheques" at our local "Sparkasse". But ONLY for that single purpose! And the last time I remember seeing him writing a EC wasin the late 1980s. Since the 1990s he used "Eurocard" (i.e. the European version of Mastercard, then they dropped that weired name) for visiting the U.S., inside Europe we used the EC-Card function wich got implemented in most customer cards for withdrawl cash from atms. I myself signed my last American Express traveller's cheque somewhere in MN in 1993. I never had a checkbook or signed cheques for payments in Europe. (And yes! It is quite a story to tell about crazy Americans with their drive thru banks, where they put cheques into a little air-pressure tube and get cash a few moments later...- and I was so glad I took pictures, or nobody would believe me!!)

[@silkehagemann8677]

Paying rent by cheque is extremely outdated. Even back in the 1970s my parents paid it via Dauerauftrag (regular monthly bank transfer).

[@PascalGienger]

Cashier's checks are even weirder - those are guaranteed checks as the bank moves the funds to a special account which is owned by the bank. You see then people handing over a $800,000 check on paper (!) to close on a house.

[@asmodon]

Last time I saw a cheque was in 1989 when I saw my father pay that way at the supermarket.

[@hartmutbohn]

My favorite mistyped word (which I have to use at work on a daily basis is "fodler" - erm - "folder".

[@jonathankolberg2706]

Regarding checks, I've never seen one in my life

[@PassportTwo]

Another note connecting two things in this video, is that we typically also receive our tax returns from the U.S. government as a check that has to be deposited 😅 I'm fairly certain this is done by direct deposit in Germany (and I'm assuming in other countries as well), oder? 🤔

[@gerdaschulze2333]

Yes, direct deposit into your bank account, and you get the tax report from your Finanzamt in the regular mail. We have been doing our tax declarations online for years now in Germany via Elster, a device installed by the Ministry of Finance which is working quite well. Would you believe... The application for the Kindergeld should have been done by the hospital while Aubrey was there for birth, would have saved you some paper work. Re beaurocracy: our little village in the very far so. east of Bavaria near the borders of Czek Rep. and Austria has an admin. coop. with the next smaller town and we are able to do around 50 tasks online via website. But for very urgent matters we WhatsApp our own mayor.

[@NilsNone]

The nutriscore compared similar products with each other. It says nothing really about the healthyness of the food. So it compares frozen pizza with other frozen pizzas, the healthiest of the bunch gets an A and the worst gets an F or something like that. It doesn't compare pizzas with Pinapples even though to some people they fit together nicely...

[@christianvorwerk8551]

58 year old German here.... The only people who might still use cheques for payment are large businesses for paying their invoices just because the reimbursement of cheques takes a few days and these few days that it takes to charge them to the bank account can be used as a cheap way of crediting. (not to mention that banks mostly take some sometimes large fees for imbursing them for the effort being much higher, so it could happen, that even companies may refuse to accept them just because the processing of the cheques is not justifying the effort. The other thing that I even doubt anyone outside business world has even heard of are bills of exchange. (German "Wechsel"). Think of cheques with a due date on them, and being possible to be used as "self written bank notes" if the due date is long enough in the future.... Otherwise: there is a ruling of EU commission as of late, that all payments by direct bank order in European swift system must be processed instantly without delay. So press the send button on your computer to send money from Lithuania to Spain, and the Spanish bank account should have received it in minutes rather than days.... Just note: that's a European thing, not just German....

[@jhdix6731]

I'm 47, an the last time I saw a regular cheque must have been in the early 90s (Apart from those oversized ones you still see on TV charity events sometimes). I for myself never actually wrote a deposit cheque, but i do remember that I used some AMEX traveller's cheques once, on a trip to London in 1995.

[@chrisk5651]

Bourgeoisie! I used to have trouble spelling it.

[@leDespicable]

The first and last time I ever saw a paper cheque was two cheques that I received from a couple from my extended family (don't ask me how exactly they're related to me), once for my confirmation at church, and once for my 18th birthday. The first one I just gave to my dad so he could cash it and wire me the money, the second one I had to send by mail to my bank to cash it, since it's a bank without physical branches.

[@NeurosenkavalierEmilSinclair]

28 y/o here - I only know of checks from old movies. Usually you pay by initiating a monthly payment in your online banking; some older folks like my grandparents did it in person in a bank but I've never seen a check irl.

[@csrschaki]

Aha Passierschein A38 nice🤣

[@StrategosKakos]

I saw a check back in I *think* 1987, when my parents paid at a car dealer's for our new car. Never seen a check since and never written one. I would definitely need the instructions on how to use it.

[@nebelungnebelung2737]

I only saw and used checks when I spent half a year in usa as a student :D

[@AzraelIbliz]

never even had a check in my hand or saw one pysical xD

[@Thorano]

Around 2000 in Denmark, I got a new bank account and the bank automatically sent me a debit card and a checkbook (which I found odd). Never used a single check. On the other hand, in 1994ish I did a one week internship at a local bank in which I handled a lot of checks from clients. Basically you just put a stack of checks in a special machine, and then enter the amount written on each check.

[@dksilber9500]

I'm from Germany and I will hit the fifty this year. I personal never used a cheque but I can remember when I was a child my mother filled out so called Euro-Cheques for getting cash from her bank account on another bank than her local one.

[@juergenkosel9867]

The one and only time I used a cheque, was 1993 when I got payment from the Bundeswehr

[@jamesharrison2374]

Co-pay can be $25.00-80.00, then wait for the bill to come. Moved back to the US in 1998, yet we rarely wrote checks.

[@Andreas_42]

I never ever have signed a cheque myself. Last time I saw one in private use, it was a traveller's cheque my parents used in the 1980's, and I learned about the Eurocheque while opening my first bank account and getting a Eurocheque card, most times refered to as EC card. But since mine already had the functionality of a debit card I saw no need in ordering cheques. In 2013 I was working in a troubleshooting team who was tasked to evaluate a process for canceling the bank accounts of US citicens after the USA enforced it's 2010 FATCA law internationally. Those customers who did not provide account details to where to transfer their money to, received a cheques by mail.

[@_Yannex]

I (44) experienced 3 payment systems in my life. The GDR Mark, later the german DM until the Euro today and I've never seen one person who's using a check.

[@hamamatsucho]

Working for an online shop with an aging traditional mail order clientele still regular see cheques coming in from our french customers by mail. Personally having received at most a handful of collect-only cheques from companies for reimbursement of some kind. The last of those well over 20 years ago now but never written one myself.

[@kiliipower355]

Very often used in US series/films! And i can't count how many times I've heard that and they weren't old series/films. When people get a payment reminder, they call and say: >>The cheque is in the post

[@Stefan556]

Last paper check? Maybe in the early 1990s.

[@Saiberion]

The only time i learned that something like cheques exist in Germany was in school about 25 years ago in a subject about economics. I have never seen it used a cheque since i opened my own bank account. Payments are either done by directly writing the money between bank accounts, paying with your card or use the card the withdraw money to pay in cash. My card even worked overseas in Australia in many shops if i wanted to, and it was not a credit card

[@melvinpjotr9883]

The last time I saw a paper check was, when the IRS sent me a COVID refund - via US treasury check!! My German bank did not know how to take it. Fortunately I have a US bank, otherwise I would not have been able to cash it in ...

[@SilberRegen]

I vaguely remember my mother paying with a check at a supermarket in the mid 90s. But it wasn't long before she switched over to card.

[@meene3096]

Last time I saw a Check in Germany was beginning of the 90s.

[@dagmarszemeitzke]

16:59 You only have to pay the 10€ a day for hospital stays for 17 days in a year. Every hospital stay in combination with a pregnancy/birth is free

[@chrisk5651]

Goose hunt?!?!?! Goose chase!!!

[@christiankolle4873]

Last check? I think in the early 90s.

[@michaelebeling5158]

the last time I saw check was about 25 years ago when I was on vacation with my parents, and they paid for some things with traveler's checks

[@joseppedaia3673]

1. The closest thing in 30 years to a check is/was a paper template for wiring money instead of online banking. Many wont even know how to fill out these... That was younger people pre IBAN-standardization were mad confused :D 2. Nutriscore: As a base rule one can think of the nutriscore as a rating for that food as a meal. An apple (although not being labled) would probably get a bad rating, because of high sugar and unbalanced nutrients (with respect to it as your only food source). But in generally an apple is considered healthy food. Funfact about the nutriscore. Once a company (or brand, im not sure) decides to label ONE product they have to label EVERYTHING. thats to prevent only labeling the good stuff. Nice catch from the rule makers 3. Health care: my german ass was so confused during my first vet visit. A vet(erinarian) in germany is called "animal doctor". Its kind of obvious that you have to pay them, but I never paid my doctor befor and I never learned to (the action itself is of course the same as everywhere else). Like described it was always this "enter the room, go to the desk, anounce yoursefl, go to the waiting room, see the doctor, take your coat, leave". Do I pay at the desk, CAN I pay at the desk, do they send me the bill, whats the norm on WHEN to pay the bill...

[@mrhyde2152]

34 years and saw a check about 8 years ago the first time and never again. It was from my Co-worker from Bulgaria so not even a german check.

[@jaredsynn9490]

Weird, every visit to a doctor's office I've ever had in the US required payment up front, whether copay or out of pocket. You just leave when you're done unless you need to make a new appointment on the way out. You're definitely right about receiving random bills for months after you've been seen. The price of your healthcare in the US is not even remotely based on the cost to provide it (materials, labor, and rent), it's based solely on what the insurance companies are willing to pay, and if insurance decides to lowball the company and not pay enough to cover their expenses, then they pass the insurance company's savings on to you-- in the form of a bill to cover the remaining amount.

[@73bbl38]

The last check I saw was also the last I issued in 2010.

[@nicolaiwichmann790]

The only checks i even heard of being still used are travel checks... And even those i never used or saw😂

[@klopferator]

I've never written a cheque, but about 20 years ago when I was in the Google Adsense program with my website, the first payout was sent to me by Google in the form of a cheque that I had to cash in at my bank. By that time even my parents hadn't used a cheque in over 10 years. About the prices including the tax: It always amuses me to read responses by some Americans on reddit or youtube who are completely convinced that it would never be possible to do that in the US. "Every state has different taxes!" Yes, but stores aren't hopping over the border. "But there are different tax rates for different products." Same as here, makes no difference. In the end it mostly comes to "The price is printed on the package in the factory and not in the store", and apparently the staff in the stores can't be trusted with the equipment to put the prices on the products themselves. (I mean, you don't even have to, you could just have epaper labels on the shelves and update them via wi-fi and don't bother with putting the price on the product itself.) But it is quite funny to see some Americans defending a practice that is only beneficial for the retailers (who can advertise with threshold prices despite actually demanding more money) and not for the customers.

[@37683769]

I have done Elterngeld 100% online (without printing) last week! But was new 😀

[@LoFiAxolotl]

I have never encountered actual Bureaucracy in Germany... i had to apply for unemployment benefits shortly before COVID... i went to the Arbeitsamt they gave me a form that i filled out right there... then i had a quick talk with a Lady and in the same week i already had the money... I mean if that is what Gogol was so pissed off by i don't get why he was so grumpy (Gogols stories often feature dystopian views on Bureaucracy)

[@ArekuMizuhara]

I only saw a check in my finance education lesson that I had in school like 20 years ago. I have never filled a check to make any payment.

[@gubsak55]

If you are privately insured in Germany (by a non-German insurance company) like we are, it is not that easy and cheap to pay. My wife is getting chemotherapy treatments and pays just over 5000 euro every 3 weeks, but as the insurance company has accepted full payment for this, we get all the money back. For other treatments, we get only 85 % refunded (if it is not critical) or even less if they think the dentist or doctor is overcharging.

[@butenbremer1965]

Meinen letzten Papierscheck (genannt Euroscheck) hatte ich im Jahr 1997 in England ausgestellt.

[@leiocera2433]

8:15 I'm 19 and I've genuinely never seen a paper check in persona. I only know it from good ol' 'mericun movies

[@Kivas_Fajo]

Born in 71 and haven't seen or used a cheque all my life.

[@DerMilko]

I never saw a check. Until I was 20 I thought the checks only existed in the USA and I thought, that they never exist since the 90s or so

[@helloweener2007]

Last time I saw a cheque? 10 Years ago. My old landlord used to send cash cheques when yoiu had a psoitive balance at the end. Two Times I wone some money, like 20 EUR and I got it by bar cheque. One time I used a cheque for my university. I was late with paying the fee and I had to pay it at their bank. So I went to their bank, gave thme money and they gave ma a cheque for them and I gave the cheque to the university. Something like this. I know they could not take cash for whatever reason. So over all 4 or 5 cheques in over 15 years.

[@ClaudiaG.1979]

When i started to work back in 1995 my boss gave me and all my other coworkers a check. He said some workers had complained they didnt receive their salary on the first of the month. Some banks are slow when it comes to a banktransfer to another bank e.g from sparkasse to Volksbank. But the check didnt solve the issue. After giving the check to my bank it still would take 4-5 days until it finally arrived on my account. My boss was off the hook because he gave us the check on time.

[@kiliipower355]

Oh yes, the "good old days" I started my training at the beginning of the 80s. Back then, there were colleagues who waited almost 2 weeks for their money. Not because the boss didn't pay on time, but because it went through several banks until it arrived at the small village branch. There were some who mourned the "Lohntüte".