Germany - Money Transfers

Money Transfer (Überweisung)
Money transfer between banks within Germany is very easy. All you need to do is fill out an Überweisungs slip with the details of the account you wish to transfer the money to and the account you're withdrawing the money from. Then you simply drop the slip in the box at a branch of the bank from which you are withdrawing the money, and within a few days the transfer will go through.

Generally all bills you receive will come with a Überweisungs slip with the payee details already filled out. All you then have to do is fill out your bank details and drop the slip in at the bank. With this sort of transfer you have up to 14 days to retract the payment. An alternative way to pay bills is by standing order Dauerauftrag or direct debit Abbuchung. The very first bill you receive from a company will have details of how you can arrange this type of payment.

Author's tip: Money transfers from overseas are trickier and take a lot longer. Instead of doing this, we have found it faster and easier to top up our overseas credit card via internet banking (this ensures that we are not charged hideous rates of interest), and then make a cash advance from the credit card account.

Useful Vocabulary
The following translations are for terms that appear on the Überweisungs slip:

Empfänger: Name, Vorname/Firma  = Payee: surname, first name/Company
Konto-Nr  =  account number
BLZ (Bank Leitzahl) =  bank institution number
Kreditinstitut  =  name of bank
Betrag   =  amount of money
Verwendungszweck  = reason for/name of payment
Kontoinhaber  =  drawer
Absender  =  drawer