Super-fast compensation: cancellations and delays: this is how you get your money back within 24 hours
Although travelers are entitled to compensation if the train is totally too late or even canceled, the application is time-consuming and the reimbursement can take weeks. We show how you can get your money within a day.
If a train is delayed or canceled, this means one thing for travelers in the first place: a lot of stress. Because this not only extends the travel time, there are often additional costs – such as an overnight stay and taxi rides. It's a good thing that customers are entitled to compensation in such cases. If you arrive at the destination station at least 60 minutes later than planned, the train will reimburse you 25 percent of the fare – from 120 minutes this will increase to 50 percent.
But what sounds so simple is not that straightforward, because the bureaucratic effort is immense: those affected must have the delay confirmed by the conductor, then fill out a passenger rights form and send everything together with the original ticket by post – this is still not by email possible. It can take weeks before the money is finally credited to the account. Unless you stand in line at a DB travel center to claim your money directly.
Customers will receive an offer email within a short time
Train drivers can now choose a much faster route. The compensation portal Bahn-Buddy.de offers affected customers an uncomplicated reimbursement within 24 hours. Torben Antretter, co-founder of the RightNow Group, to which Bahn-Buddy.de and the passenger rights portal Geld-für-Flug.de belong, explains to VIP News: "You just have to upload your train ticket to our website – within a short time you will then receive an offer email with which you can assign your legal claim to us ”. If you agree to the offer, Bahn-Buddy.de will refund the money via PayPal within 24 hours – bank transfers usually take one to two days longer due to the booking cycles of the banking institutions.
Unlike the train itself, customers do not have to provide confirmation of the delay. "Bahn-Buddy.de checks this itself in real time with a specially developed and fully automated database," says Antretter. The service is of course not free of charge: depending on the case, the portal keeps between 10 and 20 percent of the reimbursement amount. That means: Whoever is entitled to compensation of 50 euros will get back 40 to 45 euros from Bahn-Buddy.de.
"How much customers receive in individual cases depends on the specific situation of the train journey. Every ticket is automatically checked by us using specially developed algorithms, ”says Antretter. It is irrelevant for the customer whether the railways reimburses the amount Bahn-Buddy.de. "If we are wrong, we bear the full risk of default," says Antretter.
Less commission from competitors, but long waits for money
With the instant refund, Bahn-Buddy.de stands out from competitors such as Zugerstatt.de. The latter simply sends the data uploaded by the customer, such as the ticket and hotel bill, etc., by post to the responsible service center for passenger rights in Frankfurt am Main. According to Stiftung Warentest, which checked service providers for train compensation in October 2018, processing it at the train would take just as much time as if you had submitted the application yourself – namely weeks. The customer, who does not have to do the annoying printing, filling out and sending of the application himself, receives the reimbursement amount directly into his account. Unlike Bahn-Buddy.de, Zugerstatt.de only charges 99 cents per application – the first is even free.
The same applies to the service provider Refundrebel.com – here, rail customers ultimately have to wait just as long for their money. However, since the portal is licensed as a collection service, it can legally argue against the railways if the hotel costs it may incur as inappropriate, says Stiftung Warentest. In such a case, users at Zugerstatt.de have to take care of themselves, because the portal primarily functions as a kind of electronic postman. Another advantage of Refundrebel.com: the service is still free of charge, but from February 2019 the provider will also charge a commission for its service.
Conclusion: fast money with little effort
In any case, customers can save time and effort by using a service provider. Everyone has to decide for themselves which one is the right one. To date, only Bahn-Buddy.de offers a refund within 24 hours. If you don't mind deductions of between ten and 20 percent, you have a clear advantage: The matter can be done quickly with little effort.