If you are visiting Germany and would like to buy a Deutschland-Ticket for the train, you should pay attention to two things so that you are not surprised later: Firstly, the fact that it is possible to only pay for the ticket on a monthly basis. So if you only buy it on the 15th or 20th of a month, you only have to pay for the remaining days.
Secondly, you should be aware that this is a subscription model and that the railways state that you can only cancel by the 10th of the month. So if you buy it on the 11th or later, you automatically buy the next month too! That should be obvious if you only need it for a month. However, we will show you the procedure that is necessary to get out of the contract sooner.
Pay only part of the Germany ticket for the rest of the month
If you buy the Deutschland-Ticket via the official Deutsche Bahn app, you will be surprised at several things: On the one hand, you have to pay the full price, even if you are already in the last days of the current month. In addition, the payment method stored in the Deutsche Bahn account cannot be used, you have to enter your account details again – including the BIC, which is no longer necessary even for international transfers in the SEPA payment area. Normally the IBAN is sufficient. Also confusing: you can set a start date for the ticket: but that is irrelevant because it is valid for the whole month anyway. It is not clear why all days are available for selection here.
Here’s a tip: If you don’t book the ticket directly in the Bahn app but with any other transport association, you can save money if you only charge for the remaining days pro rata. This can be done, for example, via the Munich S-Bahn. Just click the green button here, then select the Deutschland-Ticket MVV (it has a different name, but is the normal Deutschland-Ticket). As you can see, only the remaining days are calculated – this saves a lot.
Cancel Germany ticket at the end of the month
Let’s come to the second problem with the Germany ticket: it can be canceled monthly, but only until the tenth of the month. If you want to cancel before then, you can proceed as follows (you can also try calling the subscription hotline on 030 – 720 22 736, hahaha): You register for the Deutsche Bahn subscription portal. No, it is not possible to view or cancel the subscription within the Bahn app (this may be different with apps from other transport associations). Here on the Bahn subscription portal you log in with the data of your Bahn account, with which you are also registered in the Bahn app. If you don’t have such an account, you have to register first.
You must then select the provider through which the ticket was purchased. Users who bought directly in the Bahn app with the same login data have a quick drink and should not be surprised: the number of the Germany ticket available in the app is not read out automatically and must be transferred manually. The subscription is then available in the overview.
Click the subscription details, then click “Kündigen” in the bottom right. After giving the reason for termination and the termination date, you are out of the subscription. Surprise: the cancellation can actually be made up to the end of the month, the Germany ticket already booked for the next month should become invalid (but is still available in our app).
Tricks with the Germany ticket will help you
The following tips summarized again: It is not true that the ticket always has to be paid in full and that it can only be canceled on the 10th of a month. Those who book with accommodating transport associations only have to pay proportionately. And if you cancel via the subscription portal and save yourself a call to Deutsche Bahn, where nobody answers the phone anyway, you can still cancel until the end of the month.
Because you have to enter the serial number of the ticket manually anyway, this is not necessarily less practical than buying it in the official train app.
But be careful: we can’t say whether things can be combined with the transport associations: the Munich S-Bahn may charge a proportionate payment for the first Germany ticket, but may have other cancellation modalities in the subscription portal! We are curious about your feedback.
