I'm a simple emigrant and I don't like debts

Therefore debt collectors have always been something from the criminal and marginal world to me. Before moving I thought that only enthusiasts of microloans or participants in gang feuds dealt with them. Also in Tyumen my parents paid all the adult bills, and I spent only on glitter. To my surprise, in Germany debt collectors are a normal thing. Almost every respectable company selling services or goods has a contract with a debt collection agency. The first time I ran into this a few years ago, when I still didn’t have a black belt in German. Then I didn’t know two things: the favorite model of selling services in Germany is a subscription, and checking physical mail here is a must. So I bought a year-long discount for train tickets and after a year of using it I forgot about it. One fine day I returned from a trip and found letters in the mail from Deutsche Bank and from the collectors. It turns out my discount had automatically been extended for the next year, and I hadn’t paid for it. And within a week, while I was away from home, my "debt" of 50 euros had already been handed over to the collectors. Then I wrote them a letter and explained everything and paid only for the discount card itself and a couple of euros for the late payment. They left me alone after that. But I know stories where, because of an invoice for a couple of euros or even cents, people receive bills for tens of euros in penalties, and of course it’s not about the money at all—it's just unnecessary hassle that irritates. It’s good that with local debt collectors you can talk to them and clarify things. Have you ever dealt with collectors? Picture: Tax office: “Final warning” Me: “phew, maybe they’ll finally leave me alone” #useful #money