Comment by majewsky | Hacker News Reader

Comment by majewsky | Hacker News Reader

I have a "BahnCard 100" [1], the German national public transit flatrate. My employer pays for it in lieu of a company car. I only have to pay income taxes on it, which comes out to about 170€ (200$) a month. For that price, I can use all trains across Germany as often as I want and also get free local transit (busses, subway etc.) in 120 cities, including the one where I live.

2020 is my first year with a BC100, so due to Corona I couldn't use it that much yet, but it's kind of mind-blowing to go to a train station and just be able to hop on any train [2] whenever I feel like it, no questions asked. When Corona has blown over, I will definitely make a habit of just exploring Germany every other weekend.

[1] https://www.bahn.com/en/view/offers/bahncard/bahncard_100-co...

[2] There are some rare exceptions, e.g. night trains require a reservation.

In Switzerland we have the equivalent called "Generalabonnament" (GA), which is quite a common thing for people to have. It's steep in price, but often time it evens out pretty quickly if you travel by train often - I have my GA since my apprenticeship about ten years ago. I looooove it, just a bit sad that during Covid train travels weren't possible as much.

One time train tickets were hideously expensive last time I was in Switzerland so this makes total sense if you live in the area.

A BC 100 is a pet dream of mine :D Unfortunately, as a student, the price tag is still quite a bit beyond me...

When you graduate and get a job, try asking for a BC100 in the salary negotiation. Roughly 4000€ per year is not that big of a price tag for the company, esp. since they don't have to pay Sozialversicherungsarbeitgeberanteile on it. And you only get to pay the taxes.

just taxes on it comes to $2400/yr? ouch

German income taxation is rather high. But to be fair, this figure includes income tax, health insurance, nursing care insurance, pension insurance and unemployment insurance. All those insurances are tied to income level in Germany, so when you have more income or pecuniary advantage, the insurance premiums scale up accordingly.

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