Saver ticket without credit card to present

all I can think of is someone could take a photo of it and email it to you so it's on your phone? Sorry, that sounds lame. Note to Pam - sorry this is happening to you.

When the conductor charges you for a new ticket, make sure he gives you a form describing why you have been charged a second time. This situation can also happen when someone purchased a phone ticket and her phone breaks down, so they have a form for this.

When you have that form filled out by the conductor, you can later refund the extra tickets by phone/mail.

Sorry for your bad luck, but the conditions for online tickets are quite clear. When booking online you have to select a piece of identity (ID-, debit- credit- card). And then you are requested explicitly to carry that document along even if it has expired in the meantime. Without it your ticket is invalid since its validity is not verifiable (online tickets can be printend multible times, and there was much forgery in the past).

I'd go at a maior station during normal office times and ask at the information desk whether some official can change your credit card data. If that doesn't work you can do but one thing: if you get a so called "Fahrpreisnacherhebung" (a request of payment within 14 days for the new ticket) by the conductor, please keep it and send it back together with your original online ticket plus a copy of the expired credit card to:
DB Vertrieb GmbH
Fahrpreisnacherhebung
76518 Baden-Baden .
As soon as they have verified that your online ticket was not used otherwise, they will reduce your payment to an handling charge of 7E.

BTW, if a conductor accepts your new credit card out of courtesy he does so at his own risk. If a controller of conductors will board the train he can run into problems.

But what if the reason you have a new card is that the original was lost or stolen? Will they refund based on a statement printout??

I had a credit card lost after I purchased a Bahn ticket. Got a letter from my bank confirming the loss and then used that together with my passport when I actually travelled. That was no problem.

But what if the reason you have a new card is that the original was lost or stolen? Will they refund based on a statement printout??

Ask the CC issuer for a letter of confirmation and send it to the DB address quoted above (BTW, technically, there will be no "refund", since yo don't pay for the new ticket on the train, rather you will get some request of payment ("Fahrpreisnacherhebung", nice bureaucratic compound), which you have to fulfill or to query within 2 weeks).

Pam, you have still not told us why you don't have the original credit card with you.

BTW, in the information you were supposed to have read while purchasing the Saver Tickets, it lists five types of identification that can be used - two types of Bahn Cards, a credit card, an EC card, or an ID card from Germany or one of 9 other countries - eight bordering Germany, or Italy. It then says that "passports are not accepted". Did you read that part?

As for using the credit card to present to the controller, I had something similar a few years a go in London. The EuroStar ticket was bought on-line, instructions were bring that credit card used for the purchase to St Pancras when picking up your ticket. The bank (Bof A) soon afterwards cancelled that card, I was sent a new credit which obviously did not have same the account number. I took both cards along. At St Pancras I showed my passport, the cancelled credit card and the new one to the clerk to get my EuroStar tickets...no problems. Had I lost the original credit card, that would have been different.

I had something similar happen this past spring. My CC cycles mid-month to mid-month. On 15 April, I got a call that my card had been obviously used for fraudulent purchases. Those BECU security folks are good.

Naturally, they cancelled the card immediately and said they'd send me a new one. But...we were leaving to drive to Seattle within a week and I was getting on the plane for London on 1 May. There was no way the card would get to me before we left. So I had the card rush sent to a friend in the Seattle area and it arrived before we did.

I had time to activate it before I left. Of course, BECU told me to cut the old one up when they cancelled it. I said, nay nay nay, because I had made all my transportation and lodging reservations with the old card.

I carried the old card all over the UK and only one time did I have to show it. When I had the agent in Bath print all my train tickets, one company requested that he look at the old card for one ticket. That was only one out of 11 journeys, but I was sure glad I had the old card wih me.

Here is a similar situation that happened with Delta Airlines a couple of years ago:

A few years ago when a leg of our journey included flying home from Morocco, I was warned at the time of the reservation that before we could even board the plane (which was heading to Spain for the going leg), that I would have to present the credit card I used to make the reservation (no and if or buts) or I would not be allowed to board the Delta flight. I have no idea if I would have been warned had I just booked the tickets on-line. The rep also told me that I could go to the Nashville airport ahead of time to present the credit card, so a note could be made in my record (by a live agent who could see physically the card, and she actually advised doing that since credit card #s so commonly change). So, I did that on July 4th, well before our March departure.

Apparently there is a lot of credit card fraud with flights to/from Morocco, so Delta takes (or at least at that time took) this precaution. They said it did not matter if the person had the highest platinum level frequent flyer status or not (I don't), but they gave it as an example that the person would NOT be allowed to board the original flight. I even mentioned at the time, gee, since the flight is well over a half year off, there would be plenty of time for any fraud in using the credit card to be discovered. It did not matter...it was the policy and it had to be followed.

Our bank did ultimately reissue a new credit card before the trip (which seems to be oh so common these days), but I kept the old card (and wrote void on it) and stuck it with my passport, just in case.

Turned out because of a schedule change with the airline, our flight had to be reticketed (Delta's issue, not mine). At that time, I requested that the note re: that I had physically presented the card be included in my record. Was told no problem. So, anyway, just being the detailed person I am, I took the old credit card with me to the airport the day we were leaving, and turns out the note the rep at the airport made to my file the previous July did not transfer to the new rescheduled flight. I seriously would NOT have been allowed to board. Thank goodness I kept that old credit card or that trip would not have happened (and I doubt trip insurance would have covered that odd reason).

What's the point of all this:

If you are traveling for any reason whatsoever, and you charge something with a credit card # that ultimately changes, write void on your old credit card and stick it with your passport.

On a trip just a few months ago, train tickets in Sweden (Arlanda Express) were fulfilled when we presented the credit card with which they were purchased on-line, so apparently the electronic matching of credit card #s is somewhat common.

Comment: On my screen part of my posting is in HUGE letters, and I don't know why. But, it is the line that is the moral of the story...so LOL, the internet gods are helping me to summarize the key point :)

Happened in France a few years ago to travel companions. SCNF made her buy a new ticket at the price her paperwork showed (the reduced price) but told her if the other ticket wasn't used she would get a refund in 6 months. The refund arrived 6 months to the day. I hope you can find something similar for your German tickets.

We were hacked before the trip and bank issued card with new number . Thanks for advice but it is completely up to each conductor at this point . Policy is changing October 1 to not need credit card .