108
This is either a scam, or a legitimate error by the sender [more likely a scam, just due to statistical likelihood, though details are unclear]. Either way, the money isn't yours, and eventually you will need to pay it back, when the problem is discovered.
Don't wait for someone to contact you. Lodge a formal notice with your bank (ie: in writing, with ...
79
Logistics of borrowing in a different country aside, financially if the reason the interest rates are higher is because inflation is expected to be higher, you might be trading smaller interest payments for the depreciation of your mortgage payment in the foreign country.
So let's look at this scenario:
the balance on the mortgage is 10,000,000 XYZ (where ...
64
As indicated in comments, this is common practice in the US as well as EU. For example, in this Fox Business article, a user had basically the same experience: their card was replaced but without the specific merchant being disclosed. When the reporter contacted Visa, they were told:
"We also believe that the public interest is best served by quickly ...
41
I am Swiss but I will attempt to answer this as good as possible:
1 Storage
You get a bank account. Done. A bank account doesn't get you a lot of interest, but it is a safe way of storing the money and you'll have access to it at any time.
2 Bureaucracy
Germany is a little more bureaucratic than Switzerland but a simple bank transaction should be enough.
...
34
I am from Germany and occasionally avoid Umlauts because I use a non-German keyboard layout. So I might share some experience here.
Usually, the German financial institutions are ok with ue, ae, oe, sz/ss in upper- and lower-case variant. In the wild, even minor variants of the account holder name seem to be ok. What's most important is the IBAN, and the ...
30
I'm currently living in Germany and can borrow a substantial amount of money at almost no interest, effective 3.4%.
Do you know what you are allowed to use that money for? A mortgage for a home in Germany? Different purposes cause different interest rates and conditions, e.g. a mortgage is cheaper than a consumer credit, which in turn is cheaper than a ...
23
The big risk is that there is a major shift in exchange rates.
As pointed out in D Stanly's answer exchange rates can shift in the long term due to differing inflation rates in the two countries but more importantly for you they can also shift rapidly and unpredictably in the short term due to political/economic events.
So suppose there is an event that ...
23
I'm from Germany as well and I tried to collect as much information as possible the last month. However, the subject is very complex and depends on a lot of factors.
From what I heard so far (having friends working at big banks), it's typical to have a mortage lasting for 30+ Years. So I'm pretty sure you could afford the house with your current income, ...
22
Since the transaction was not your bank's mistake (but a decision by the Indian government) why should your bank bear the cost of the unsuccessful transaction?
Your bank charged a fee for a service that you were willing to pay for. You might be able to negotiate a full or partial refund, and I have done the same with my own bank for fees that I didn't feel ...
22
Chances are umlauts are ignored/implicitly converted anyway.
SWIFT symbols
It is important to remember that cross-border payment form can only be filled in with SWIFT symbols. If illegal symbols are used, the system will give an error message and it will not be possible to confirm the payment.
SWIFT symbols include the following:
SWIFT symbols
...
18
Could this be some kind of weird (and honestly really badly thought out) scam
If 2 months have gone by and you haven't got a phone call / email; this looks less likely like a scam. Scammers don't wait for such a long time and put so much money with every chance to loose it.
It looks more like an error from Sender; i.e. incorrect account number quoted. The ...
18
Given your specific situation, being debt free and in Germany where there are supportive social structures in place for potential unemployment etc, I would consider the following:
Depending on your industry and how easy it is to get a new job if suddenly let go, have a small emergency fund. Nothing fancy needed especially if you live in a city where public ...
15
I'm almost in the same situation as you.
Here is what I'm doing.
Get enough cash on hand to handle every likely emergency.
I hold 10.000€, which can keep me afloat for several months, with unemployment insurance well over a year.
Buy ETFs each time you have above 3000€ saved up. I buy these:
HSBC S+P 500
C.S.-MSCI PACIFIC
UBS-ETF-MSCI EMERGING MARKETS
...
14
Two main questions you need to consider:
1. Interest rates
What are interest rates like in Germany right now? You need to be comfortable with the payments at the current rate and also at potentially up to as high as 15%. As a VERY rough rule of thumb, every 1% on the interest rate means an extra $100 / month / $100k borrowed (using $ as a "generic ...
13
First, save up at least 3000 EUR and put it into a Tagesgeld account. That's your emergency fund for when you need money quickly.
Second, allow yourself some luxury. Have fun, do some travelling. You've earned it.
Third, investing. There are many options and opinions, but I favor putting the same amount each month directly into stock index funds or ETFs with ...
13
This is scam. No one offers commission for a purchase manager.
Once you start communicating there are different ways this will proceed. All of them you will lose money
13
There are a lot of differences between being a regular employee ("Unselbstständig") and being a freelancer ("Selbstständig") in Germany.
With regular employees, the insurances for health, care, pension and unemployment are all compulsory and are shared between employee and employer. They are handled similar to income tax: as percentual deduction from your ...
12
There is no reason why that wouldn’t work, and there should be no additional cost just for living abroad. However, the bank may bill you more for actions that actually cost more, such as sending replacement cards to you.
You should notify the bank of your new address soon, because if they find out that your old address is no longer valid (due to a returned ...
11
I'm assuming you are a US citizen. If so, then yes, the IRS can seize your bank account if you owe back taxes.
Yes. Regardless of where you live, the IRS can file a lien against
your assets regardless if the assets are located in the US or in a
foreign country.
....
The IRS can levy assets such as wages, bank accounts, Social Security
...
11
Here's the general order of things:
Keep 3-6 months of expenses in a savings account for emergencies (lose your job, car accident, mauled by dingos, etc.)
Pay down all your debt as fast as possible.
Make sure you're contributing ~15% to your 401k, IRA, or similar personal retirement account.
Invest everything else into a brokerage account for long-term ...
10
This is not a problem. SWIFT does not need the Beneficiary Account Currency. The settlement account [or the Instruction amount] is of interest to the Banks. As I understand your agreement with client is they pay you "X" EUR. That is what would be specified on the SWIFT along with your details as beneficiary [Account Number etc].
Once the funds are received ...
10
I'd worry about being robbed or losing the money en-route. Is it likely? Probably not. But wow, I wouldn't want to lose serious money in one shot. I have fond memories of the time I was serving as treasurer for a non-profit organization and I was taking $30,000 in contributions to the bank. As I walked across the parking lot with all that money in my brief ...
9
I'm currently living in Germany and can borrow a substantial amount of money at almost no interest, effective 3.4%.
Generally a Bank in Germany not give you a mortgage for property outside of the country as it becomes difficult to foreclose if delinquent.
The Bank may still give you a personal loan or loan against collateral. They may ask for certain ...
9
You are mixing up two different kind of taxes here.
What the craftsman pays and adds on his invoice is VAT. He adds this to every bill. The craftsman would have no way to know when and if you are eligible for any returns and if you reached the yearly cap (afaik ~6000€) already from other jobs.
You later deduct the total costs for work done from your income,...
9
If no will was written, the Gesetzliche Erbfolge is followed. It has different orders of heirs.
descendants
parents and their descendants
grandparents and their descendants
… and so on
The first order with living members is used, here the second order (§1925 BGB). That means his parents are each assigned half of his estate. Since they no longer live this ...
8
BTP are bonds offered by the government of Italy.
Bunds are bonds offered by the government of Germany.
German bonds (bunds) are thought to be the safest bond of all the government bonds in Europe.
The BTP/bund spread is a way to measure the risk of other bonds by comparing their yields to that of the German bund.
For example, if the yield on BTPs are 8% ...
8
I found a german article describing the legal situation in Germany. To summarize
The "Bundesdatenschutzgesetz (BDSG)
§ 42a Informationspflicht bei unrechtmäßiger Kenntniserlangung von Daten" Roughly Privacy Act: Obligation to inform on illegal obtainment of information governs this situation.
Credit card information is explicitly included in the law (§ 42a ...
8
It sounds like an error.
Most scammers ask for money, and need your details
If it was a more elaborate scam, where is the followup/sting from the first payment?
But even assuming it's an error, you should know that in the UK (and I guess many other countries?) if you receive money by error but treat it as your own /spend it, it's counted as theft and ...
8
FYI, houses should not be viewed as an investment unless they are directly generating income for you (e.g. rental, bed & breakfast). Good investments have low taxes and increase in value (to at least enough account for inflation).
Houses (at least in the U.S.) are subject to property taxes which generally run 1 - 3% of the value of the house. If you ...
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