The German Word for it is: "Bankeinzug" or "Lastschrifteinzugsverfahren" which is a veeery long word <g>. The idea behind it is to avoid the costs that credit card companies charge. If I give somebody my account data and give him or her the written permission to charge my account, this person has only to pay the bank for imbursing, which is a reasonable amount compared to the huge margins you have to pay when you use a credit card. And it works also between people who don't have a contract with a credit card firm.
To make this system work, you have to have the possibility to refuse the payment, if somebody got hold of your account data. The time limit is 6 weeks. HTH Cheers Adelheid -----Original Message----- From: John Forbes [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Dienstag, 9. M�rz 2004 21:18 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: OT: Germans and credit cards (was Re: What gear is on your "lust list" ? UK direct debit works the same way. In order to get people to trust direct debit, the banks had to give an unconditional guarantee that anybody whose account is direct-debited can recall the money. I presume that there must be some sort of time limit, but I've no idea what it is. The system works extremely well. I pay all my regular bills that way, and have done for years. Unlike a standing order, it works for variable amounts. There is no simpler (or cheaper) system. It's the US that is out of step here! John On Tue, 9 Mar 2004 20:00:51 +0000, Bob W <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hi, > >> Is it true, that everybody in the States has a credit card? >> I think diffusion is much less over here. >> I for example haven't got one, and I know very few people who do. >> They're expensive and you almost never really need one... except for >> foreign transactions - but since the Euro came, even bank transfer to >> other EU-countries and the UK is free now with IBAN & BIC. > > this low penetration of credit cards is something of a German > peculiarity. A few years ago I worked for a .com and was one of the > people involved in setting up the German website, in particular the > payment systems. For the .com and .co.uk we just did credit cards. For > .de we had to get involved in cheques, credit referencing, the rather > strange German version of Direct Debit, a very payer-friendly approach > to refunds, usw. > > For instance, with the German Direct Debit (I've forgotten the German > name for it), the customer (or someone claiming to be him - there's no > way to tell online) gives you his bank account number and details - no > card or signature involved over the net - and you, the retailer, take > the money and send over the goods. But, the customer has the right to > take their money back at any time up to some quite long time limit - > they can just phone their bank and the bank takes the money out the > retailer's account, no questions asked. It's then up to the retailer > to try and get the goods back. So the retailer has to sign up with one > of the big credit referencing agenciees who, of course, charge good > money for chasing people who do this kind of thing. > > We found some of the things we were expected to do quite horrifying. > It involved a degree of trust we would never have extended to the > English or the Americans. But, it seems that on average German > consumers are far more honest than we are. > -- Using M2, Opera's revolutionary e-mail client: http://www.opera.com/m2/
