- 26 minutes ago
Why do Germans insure almost everything? This lively look at Germany’s insurance culture separates essential coverage from policies that may not be worth the cost.
Learn how mandatory health, care, unemployment and pension insurance work, why liability insurance is so popular, and what car, household, legal expense, accident and life insurance actually cover. The discussion weighs typical costs and practical reasons to consider each policy, while exploring Germany’s social welfare system and the appeal of financial security.
A witty guide to German insurance for newcomers, expats and anyone comparing insurance in Germany. Get a clear introduction to mandatory versus optional coverage, common German insurance policies, liability protection and deciding which insurance makes sense for your needs.
Learn how mandatory health, care, unemployment and pension insurance work, why liability insurance is so popular, and what car, household, legal expense, accident and life insurance actually cover. The discussion weighs typical costs and practical reasons to consider each policy, while exploring Germany’s social welfare system and the appeal of financial security.
A witty guide to German insurance for newcomers, expats and anyone comparing insurance in Germany. Get a clear introduction to mandatory versus optional coverage, common German insurance policies, liability protection and deciding which insurance makes sense for your needs.
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TravelTranscript
00:00When you have just moved to Germany, people will undoubtfully ask you, do you have life insurance?
00:04Health insurance? What about insurance for your washing machine?
00:07TV? Toaster? No? Why not?
00:10And you ask yourself, what the hell is wrong with these people?
00:14But don't worry, after this video, you will know why Germans love insurances almost more than they love beer,
00:20and which ones you really need, and which ones are total bullshit.
00:23What is this?
00:24You won't make video about insurance. You stupid or what?
00:29We all are, if you take the wrong one.
00:31Heh, I only have one insurance. Always have with me.
00:38Hmm, sorry bro, I'm pretty sure that's illegal here.
00:42You know what insurance company make with your money?
00:45Hier, biggest insurer in Germany, Allianz.
00:49They built a tower like that one, sit on top and make.
00:55That may be true, and this is exactly why we need to make this video, right?
01:00So they can't build as many useless towers anymore.
01:03Let's get started.
01:05All right, the average German has eight different insurances.
01:09Can you guess how many I have?
01:12You guessed right, I'm not a typical German.
01:15All the Germans watching this right now are going like,
01:18You crazy?
01:19In Germany, we have two types of insurances.
01:22The mandatory ones, and the voluntary ones.
01:25The mandatory insurances in Germany, which everybody has to have,
01:28is the health insurance, care insurance, unemployment insurance, and pension insurance.
01:34If you are an employee, you cannot option out of them.
01:38And let me tell you, those insurances add up to a lot of money each year.
01:43They don't have a fixed fee, but are relative to your monthly salary,
01:47and taken directly from it, without the money ever arriving in your bank account.
01:52So let's say your salary is 3,500 Euro per month, which is around the national average.
01:57You would have to pay more than 700 Euro in insurance fees per month.
02:01If you sum it up, that's eight and a half thousand Euro a year.
02:06That's a lot of money.
02:08But before you scream,
02:09We want the pension insurance to be optional.
02:11Just hear me out.
02:12If the state wouldn't make this insurances mandatory,
02:15and let's say something would happen to you,
02:18and you can't work anymore for the rest of your life,
02:20the German state would have to pay for all your living expenses.
02:23And they will, because we are a social state.
02:27Are you a communist?
02:28Are you a communist?
02:29No, I'm not a communist.
02:31I swear.
02:32Yeah, in Germany, if you can't work, or even if you don't want to work,
02:36the state doesn't let you starve to death.
02:38They give you a flat, a health insurance, and 450 Euro pocket money each month.
02:44Sounds pretty communist if you ask me.
02:46If you want to know more about a great welfare system in Germany,
02:48go watch this video right here.
02:50It's already a couple of years old, but still one of my all-time favorites.
02:55So, to finance this whole welfare state system,
02:58the country needs to have a lot of mandatory and high insurances
03:01to cover everybody's needs, even if you don't want to.
03:05Because you don't know what's best for you.
03:07The government does.
03:12But lucky for me, there are a few loopholes.
03:15You only have to pay all four mandatory insurances if you are an employee.
03:19And because I'm a YouTuber, which is basically a freelancer,
03:22I don't have to pay unemployment insurance.
03:24I guess because they think I'm already kind of unemployed.
03:27And no pension insurance, which is awesome
03:29and saves me a big chunk of money each month,
03:31I can buy some more sweet, sweet Bitcoin with
03:34and not having to lose everything to inflation.
03:38So, I told you earlier that Germans have on average eight insurances.
03:43Four, we did cover already with the mandatory ones.
03:46But then there's another four, they just get by themselves.
03:51Yeah, I don't get it either.
03:52But anyway, which ones are they?
03:54And are they making any sense for you?
03:57Maybe?
03:57The most common one is the
04:00Haftpflichtversicherung.
04:01Beautiful German word, I know.
04:02The Haftpflichtversicherung is a liability insurance,
04:05which 66% of all people here have.
04:08That means if you break something from someone else,
04:11not on purpose, of course,
04:12they will cover for you.
04:13I don't know a single German who doesn't have that one.
04:17Even I have it.
04:18But I only have it because it's mandatory to have
04:20if you want to fly a drone here.
04:22And I love flying my drone, you know.
04:24And I'm a good citizen who obeys the law, okay?
04:28A liability insurance costs around 5 euro per month
04:31and will save you a lot of money
04:33if you're a clumsy person or just very unlucky.
04:36If you're one of those people,
04:38you should definitely get one.
04:40All right, before we move on,
04:41I want to talk about something that you need much more
04:44than any of the following insurances.
04:46And that is a VPN client.
04:49Which brings us to today's sponsor,
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04:53It's technically not an insurance,
04:54but it ensures your online privacy
04:57and protects your data.
04:58Whenever you're online,
04:59whatever website you browse,
05:01your IP address is public.
05:03And that exposes you to advertisers,
05:06to hackers, to governments.
05:08You decide which one's worst.
05:10And this is exactly why you need a VPN client
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05:14NordVPN is one of the most trustworthy
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05:19There's no data logging.
05:20There's no day going by
05:21where I don't use it on my phone,
05:23on my computer.
05:24I don't want to be tracked.
05:26I'm German.
05:27I value my privacy.
05:28Remember Stasi?
05:29It's safe, it's fast,
05:31and it's just one click away.
05:33Let's see.
05:33Today, I want the internet to think
05:35I'm in Africa.
05:38Boom!
05:39I'm in Africa.
05:40Took me one second.
05:41And did you know that a VPN client
05:43can actually save you a lot of money?
05:45Most streaming platforms
05:46have different prices
05:48for different countries.
05:49So by simply changing
05:50your virtual location,
05:51you can save up to 90%
05:53on some subscriptions.
05:55So if you don't already have it,
05:56go to nordvpn.com
05:57slash radical living
05:58to get a two-year plan
06:00plus one additional month
06:01with a huge discount.
06:02And if you're still not completely sure
06:04if you need it,
06:04you can try it risk-free
06:06for 30 days
06:07with a money-back guarantee.
06:09You're welcome.
06:10Okay, back to insurances.
06:12The second most common one,
06:14which 65% of people have,
06:16is the KFZ-versicherung,
06:18the car insurance.
06:19But in Germany,
06:20if you have a car,
06:21you have to have car insurance.
06:23So it's not really voluntary,
06:25but having a car is,
06:27so...
06:28Depending on what kind of car you have,
06:30insurance ranges from only 10 Euro a month
06:32to more than 100 Euro per month.
06:34It really depends.
06:35Anyway,
06:36next on the list,
06:37with 58% of people being insured in,
06:39is the
06:40household insurance in English.
06:43This one insures all the stuff
06:44that is in your flat or house,
06:46but not the flat itself.
06:48So let's say someone breaks in
06:49while you're on holiday
06:50and takes all your stuff.
06:51Or there's a fire
06:52and your furniture gets damaged.
06:54This insurance will cover those things.
06:56So in my opinion,
06:57this one makes only sense
06:58if you have a lot of expensive furniture
07:00or electronics at home,
07:02or you generally live in a bad neighborhood
07:04with a lot of break-ins happening.
07:06You can get one from already 7 Euro per month,
07:08but if you don't have many valuables at home,
07:11it's not really worth getting it.
07:13Okay,
07:14next we have,
07:15with 41% of people being insured in,
07:18is the
07:19Rechtsschutzversicherung,
07:20which is a legal expense insurance.
07:23Germans love to sue people.
07:25Not nearly as much as Americans love it,
07:27but they do.
07:28For the stupidest reasons.
07:30Your tree's ranging 2 centimeters into my property?
07:34That's against the law.
07:35I'm not gonna ask you to cut it.
07:36I'm gonna sue the shit out of you.
07:39And because a lot of Germans are like that,
07:41the other Germans are scared to become poor
07:43and are all getting the
07:45Rechtsschutzversicherung.
07:46Legal disputes here are quite expensive.
07:48The fees for the lawyers,
07:50the court hearings,
07:51ranging sometimes over many years,
07:53can quickly add up to tens of thousands of Euro.
07:55For the
07:56Rechtsschutzversicherung,
07:57there isn't one that covers every aspect of life,
07:59but they are divided into four main categories
08:02of work,
08:03living,
08:04traffic
08:04and personal affairs.
08:06So you would have to get at least four different ones to cover it all,
08:09which will set you back at least 40 Euro per month,
08:12which is quite expensive if you have it for a couple of years.
08:15Of course you can never foresee what's going to happen,
08:18but in my opinion,
08:19it only really makes sense
08:20if you see some legal trouble
08:22somewhere brewing in the horizon.
08:25Then,
08:25it will save you a lot of money
08:27and you can say,
08:28I'm going to sue the shit out of this city.
08:31Because they don't only help you when you are being sued,
08:34but also if you want to sue someone.
08:37Justifiably, of course.
08:39All right,
08:39moving on to the
08:41Unfallversicherung.
08:42Literally,
08:43accident insurance.
08:44To be honest,
08:45I never heard of this insurance before making this video,
08:47but
08:4838% of Germans think it's worth having.
08:51And it all makes sense.
08:52German people are big warriors
08:55and all these insurances
08:56at least give them the feeling of security.
08:59This one does exactly what it sounds like.
09:01If you are unlucky enough to get in any form of accident
09:04and you lose a leg, for example,
09:07you will get a monetary compensation for it.
09:10Also,
09:10if the accident happens in a remote place
09:12and you have to be rescued,
09:14this insurance will cover all the arising expenses.
09:18It's kind of a morbid insurance,
09:20but if you really do lose a leg,
09:21you may need the compensation money
09:24to refurnish your apartment accustomed to your new needs.
09:27For a normal person,
09:28I wouldn't say this insurance makes much sense,
09:30but if you are an adrenaline junkie
09:32who loves to do some form of extreme sports,
09:34or you just ride your bike a lot through the city,
09:38it may not be the worst idea.
09:40And they already start from 7 Euro per month.
09:43The last one on the list is the
09:45Lebensversicherung,
09:47with 29% of Germans having it,
09:49which is a super high number,
09:51which I would have never expected.
09:52No wonder those insurance companies
09:54can build the stars everywhere.
09:55Life insurances have gotten a very bad reputation
09:58over the last decade.
10:00And that for a very good reason.
10:02They're expensive,
10:03complicated and your return of investment
10:05is basically non-existent.
10:07At least for the traditional ones,
10:09where you not only insure your life,
10:10but also save up an extra pension.
10:13These ones make no sense at all nowadays,
10:15due to low interest rates and high inflation.
10:18You will lose money with them,
10:19not make some.
10:20Though the ones only insuring your life,
10:22without the saving up part,
10:24may still make sense for some people
10:26that are doing life-threatening activities
10:28on a regular basis
10:30and simultaneously have a big family to provide for.
10:33But for the average Joe,
10:34a life insurance is a complete waste of money.
10:37Trust me.
10:38It doesn't matter how many insurances you have,
10:40you will never know what's going to happen.
10:42Life is unpredictable.
10:44You can't be insured against everything.
10:46Although I'm sure some Germans would if they could.
10:49But what you can be certain about
10:51is that the moment you want to make a claim
10:53at one of those insurance companies,
10:55they will try to look for any loophole they can find,
10:58not to pay you.
10:59And then you paid all those insurance fees
11:02all those years for nothing.
11:04And the people at the top of the tower keep making...
11:09I'm really curious now.
11:11Is there any other country
11:12where people are as crazy about insurances as Germans?
11:15I really doubt it.
11:17What do you say, Ivan?
11:18Are you getting an insurance yourself now?
11:20Heh heh.
11:22This all too complicated and for pussies.
11:25I have best insurance right here.
11:28It's called fee.
11:31One-time fee only.
11:33Always works.
11:35Plus, you look cool.
11:37Thanks for watching.
11:40Do zvydanya.