Deutschland Ticket - Help!!

I am not sure about your app but you can always try the Bahn.com special ticket offers website. Good luck.

https://int.bahn.de/en/offers/regional/deutschland-ticket

Thanks Nick. Unfortunately trying to buy on the DB Navigator app doesn’t seem to work for people in the U.S. and following your link I need a German bank account, even though they have my credit card on file. I never have problems buying other train tickets with the app.

What app are you using?

hvv switch, which was recommended in another thread about the D-Ticket

Success! I was able to complete the purchase in the MVV app.

finally! Congrats!!!

It was a frustrating process and I wanted to avoid the MVV app because of the cancellation process, but it turns out they make it easy.

Andrea, if you used PayPal, you may be in luck. Someone recently posted something that said she did not need to cancel her subscription at the end of the month because she used PayPal. For some reason, the renewal payment cannot go through PayPal, so the subscription is automatically cancelled at the end of the month when it runs out. Here is a link to it (scroll down to Nelly's 2 posts): https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/germany/canceling-my-deutschlander-ticket

She did use a different app to buy the subscription, but it sounds like the issue comes up when DB renews it, so I don't think the app used for the original purchase matters. Maybe. :-)

did not need to cancel her subscription at the end of the month because she used PayPal.

... when DB renews it

@Mardee: we should keep in mind that the DT is NOT issued by DB and is therefore only renewed by them if you have purchased it directly from them. This is more than a formal reference; the point is that there is no central issuer (because local transport is the responsibility of the federal states) and therefore the distribution is completely decentralized and many conditions of sale vary depending on the seller (payment methods, prorating, cancellation period, additional services such as bicycle transportation); so it's exactly the app you use that can make the difference.

And therefore, if for some reason a seller does not automatically renew a DT purchased via Paypal etc., this does not mean that the next one will not do so either. Furthermore, it is to be expected that the said seller will have to resolve the problem quickly, as the non-renewal contradicts the principle that the DT is a subscription. Caveat emptor.

sla19, I am going by what the original poster (to the thread I linked to) said, which was that she bought her tickets through MVV, but DB was the one that automatically cancelled it because it could not process the renewal via PayPal. I understand what you are saying, but it sounds like it is not applicable here (again, based on what Nelly said).

The cancellation process is so simple that it need not be avoided. If you use MVV, you receive an email with a cancellation link. I don't consider it arduous to open an email and click a link.....

bought her tickets through MVV but DB was the one that automatically cancelled it because it could not process the renewal via PayPal

I'm sorry, but that statement was erroneous. DB has nothing to do whatsoever with a D-ticket purchased from MVV and its payment. Payment processing is handled by MVV itself, or to be more precise, they transfer it to two external service providers, namely eos.uptrade and Giesecke&Devrient (details here). Many other carriers use LogPay.

Now, of course, it is quite possible that it was one of those two service providers that refused to renew the ticket via PayPal. But, and this was my point, it is risky to derive from that a general golden rule for cancelling a DT, so to speak, through the back door, because the process can be completely different with another carrier.

I agree that I used the wrong train service in my email. It was not DB that cancelled my DeutschlandTicket subscription, but instead the regional transit authority for Stuttgart, SSB-AG. SSB is the agency I purchased the ticket from, via their VVS-Mobil app, and it was SSB who sent both the confirmation of the DeutschlandTicket purchase and the subsequent cancellation of the subscription. Sorry for being imprecise. I will edit my original post to prevent more confusion.

However, I stand by my statement that the subscription was automatically cancelled because PayPal can not be used as on ongoing payment method for the D-Ticket subscription. The emails I received from SSB confirm both the purchase (and the December ticket is active in the VVS app) and the cancellation of the ongoing subscription.

In any case, Andrea, I'm glad you got your ticket and I presume you will cancel it equally successfully. Have a wonderful trip!

So I'm having the same problem, and I posted it here in another post but have gotten no responses. I downloaded the MVV app, bought the ticket and when I tried to see the ticket, nothing was there. There was a statement that said if you don't see your ticket, check to see if you are logged in. Well, I was logged in but there was no ticket. So I tried to contact them via email and I got a message back that the email was rejected because I was not a member of the organization and that I had three options: make sure I used the right email address (which I did); contact the owner of the organization (how exactly does one do that?); or asked to be a guest of the organization so the email will go through. So obviously, I had to go to plan 2 which was filling out a contact form. Easy to do until they ask for the Captcha code. Every time I put the code it, it said it was wrong. I had to do this 11 times before the contact form was finally accepted and went through. Okay, so it went through at least. I'm happy about that. Within an hour I get two messages from them (in German, by the way; thank goodness for Google translate) saying that they have a lot of emails and they'll get to mine as soon as possible, but they only work Monday thru Friday. Then there's an admonishment not to resend the message. So apparently two of my attempts made it through. Now my dilemma is this: I bought a ticket for February. I have until January 10th to cancel the next month. What happens if I don't hear from them before the 10th which is only a few days away? How do I cancel? BTW, I checked my credit card statement and the charge isn't pending. Does this mean it didn't go through? I really need that ticket because we are doing a lot of regional travel for two weeks starting February 1st, but I'm afraid to buy another ticket on another app if the first one goes through. Can anyone suggest how I should proceed? Also, my husband is having the same issue. I used an iPhone; he used an Android, so I'm wondering if it's a problem with their "new and improved" app. Help!

Carol, now retired, I took the advice from your original thread and have had nothing but problems because I never got that initial email that you mentioned. I'm really wondering if the changes they've made on the app are what's causing this issue. You seem to have bought your tickets before all the "improvements" to the app.

I never got that initial email that you mentioned

In this case, no booking has been made. Could it be that the transaction was declined by your credit card company? There have been reports of this kind here several times. I don't believe that the error lies in the MVV app. I use it regularly, as do half a million other users, and it works without any problems.

Someone on this site suggested the app tanto owner to easily purchase the D ticket and it was so easy using my visa. I then did it on my husbands and sons phone too. Thanks to Marred I think it was.

Then do you think it's safe for me to try another app to buy the ticket? If the MVV ticket went through, I have only two days to cancel the next month's subscription. If it didn't go through, then would I be able to buy a ticket for February and cancel March immediately?

Have you checked with your credit card company to see if the initial charge has gone through? I thought I was having problems with the app; turned out my credit card was declined-but that message was not communicated to me. Discovered it was declined by checking online. Once I used a different credit card (with authentication that was accepted in Europe) I had no problem; the cancellation link was available in the app and I received an email notification. Hope this helps!

Thanks to sla19, I tried again to purchase the ticket. This time it worked flawlessly. They had my credit card on file and after I bought the ticket, I checked the transactions on my card and the charge was there as was the email from MVV. Thank you all for your suggestions. i don't know what caused the original glitch but I am very grateful that it finally went through.

@glassygal, I’m happy to hear you resolved your problem. I just now saw that you were having issues. Have the D-ticket came in very handy on my trip last month and it was easy to cancel.

Thanks, Andrea. Now I have one other question for you or anyone who can clarify this for me.

I bought the ticket to be used for the month of February, and I got the email with the link to cancel. So what I'm a bit confused about is when I should cancel. Do I cancel before February 10th so I don't get charged for March, or do I cancel before January 10th? I'm afraid if I cancel by January 10th, they'll cancel my February ticket. I read on previous threads where people bought the ticket one day, got the cancellation notice, and cancelled the very next day. I was ready to do that, but when I read the directions on the link they sent, it seemed like I shouldn't cancel until February. So do I cancel immediately or did I wait until the beginning of February?

Thanks for any information you can provide.

I would cancel before February 10th. Maybe someone with more knowledge will weigh in.

@Andrea That makes sense to me; I was only confused because someone said she bought the ticket one day and cancelled the subscription the next day. Maybe she bought the ticket towards the end of the month and that's why she could cancel it so quickly, but I bought the February ticket on the 6th of January, so it seems logical that I would have to cancel it by February 10th. I just wanted to make sure.

When you click the cancellation link, a cancellation date comes up. You should be fine cancelling ASAP as long as cancellation date shows Feb. 29th.

I wish to thank the many Deutschland Ticket commentators on this forum. Initially, I was very skeptical to purchase the DT due to its cancellation requirements, but as I read more, I decided to give it a try. Based on the suggestions provided, I decided to use the MVV app and the FAQ on the MVV site helped a lot (with Google Translate).
We are a family of 4 with two adults and two kids less than 18 years old. Tickets for persons under 18 has to be bought by a user over 18. Since we would always travel together, I decided to buy all 4 DTs on my phone with one user id by adding details of individual ticket holders. Still being a bit skeptical, I bought one ticket for the month of December and cancelled it the next day (using the link in the email) before purchasing the DT for the next person. This was in the beginning of December and I successfully bought all 4 DTs on one phone and could view all the 4 tickets - each ticket had the name of the ticket holder. All 4 DTs were also cancelled before we travelled to Germany. I did not face any issues with purchasing and cancelling the DTs and it was very convenient to use. When the tickets were inspected on the train, it was easy to open all four tickets and show for inspection.
For the three days of January, I bought individual day tickets which was cheaper than purchasing DT for the whole month.

big, I’m happy to hear it worked out for you. Welcome to the forum.