The Deutschlandticket
Unlimited travel for €49 a month
The 'Deutschlandticket' costs just €49 a month and gives you unlimited travel across Germany.
It's a subscription sold by calendar month, so be sure to cancel it in good time to avoid being charged for future months.
The only mode of transport excluded is intercity express travel (i.e. ICE, IC and EC trains). Otherwise, you can use it for all local transport (buses, trams, suburban trains, underground, etc.) and, if you don't mind the more leisurely pace of regional mainline train connections, for travel all around the country too. From Cologne to Dortmund, for instance, it only adds about 20 minutes to the journey time. For the longer trip from Berlin to Dortmund it does, however, add around 3 hours.
How to subscribe for the Deutschlandticket
The Deutschlandticket is sold both centrally by Deutsche Bahn and locally by every regional transport operator in Germany. Some sales outlets accept payment only by direct debit, while others also accept payment by card. Some are well geared up for English speakers, while others are not. No matter where you buy it, it is valid nationwide.
Having looked around at the various websites and apps, I'd recommend using either the RheinBahn or RMV apps, which are largely in English and which accept payment by card.
The RMV app
Enter a dummy address!
Although the RMV app is one of the best I could find in terms of being adapted for English speakers, you do still have to use a workaround when it comes to entering your postcode and address!!
It's not geared up to accept non-German postcodes or addresses. So, I got around that by entering the address of the Berlin Olympic Stadium!
Postcode: 14053
Street: Olympischer Platz
House: 3
The app was quite happy with that.
Later on, when it came to setting up a payment option and entering my credit card details, it happily accepted my UK address and the credit card details were duly verified by my UK card issuer.
Registration confirmation in German
When they translated their app into English, they forgot one thing: the page that tells you your registration has been confirmed!
At the end of the registration process within the app, you'll be sent an e-mail asking you to click a button to confirm your registration. That takes you to this page:
But have no fear! You don't need to do anything. It just thanks you for registering and invites you to utilise all the benefits of your 'My RMV Account'. They sign off by wishing you a good journey.
You can now return to the app, login and subscribe for the Deutschlandticket.
The Rheinbahn App
A number of fans have found and successfully used this app, which has several benefits:
- It's in English (although you might still find the odd word of German here and there)
- It accepts UK postcodes and addresses
- It accepts payment by DD (Sepa), credit card or PayPal
- It has an easy 'Cancel' button to stop it auto-renewing
However, if you have an older phone with a relatively small screen, you could find it unusable!
When you first download the app and go to buy the Deutschlandticket, you should see this:
However, it appears that on smaller screens you can't see any part of that message below the words "My tickets". So, you are unable to tap on the lower yellow section and proceed. I've raised this apparent issue with RheinBahn and await their reply.
If you can see the whole message, though, you can proceed with the purchase of the monthly subscription and select when you want the D-Ticket to start, e.g. in June.
All-important timing!
Just like arriving into the box to meet a cross, timing is all important here! The Deutschlandticket is an ongoing monthly subscription: sign up too early or cancel too late, and you'll end up paying for months you don't want!
The RMV app lets you choose to have your subscription start right away or from the start of the next month. So, for vailidity from 1 June, you can set this up at any time from 1 May. The Rheinbahn app lets you select validity to start immediately or as of several months ahead.
To stop the Deutschlandticket automatically renewing for the following month, you must activate the cancellation process by not later than the 10th of the current month. So, to stop it renewing for July, you must do this by 10 June. Or to stop it renewing for August, you must do it by 10 July.
All too confusing?
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Disclaimer
The information on this site has been put together with great care. However, I'm only human and humans sometimes make mistakes. Please therefore double-check for yourself anything that you are relying on. And please e-mail me at the address shown on the Legal page if you spot any errors or omissions. All prices shown above were as found online in December 2023.
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