The Costs of Getting a Driver’s License in Germany

When a child is born in the United States, some parents are eager to set up a savings plan to fund the later college years. With college fees ranging well in the tens of thousands of dollars, this is understandable.

Well, in Germany no such college fund is really needed as college fees are rather low at 500 euro per year and many students attend college nearest their hometown and keep their cost of living low this way.

There are also government-supported programs such as BAföG or Bundesausbildungsförderungsgesetz (Federal Education Assistance Act), which supports students in financial need. But the Germans still have another high-end need – financing a driver’s license, which can take as long as from the time the baby is born until he/she has reached 18 years of age.

Why finance a driver’s license, you may ask. In Germany, the average price for a driver’s license ranges from 2000 euro to 3200 euro. This life-time license is not easy to get and one out of three applicants even fail the test the first time around, adding more to the initial cost by having to take extra lessons, paying another hefty testing fee, etc. This is big business here in Germany.

Most Germans value added financial security to compensate for their angst, and banks, as well as the German ADAC profit from this by promoting the set up of a driver’s license fund to finance its horrendous cost.

One ADAC reader wrote: ” I want to get something special for my godchild. Is your ADAC-FührerscheinSparen (driver’s license saving plan) suitable as a gift even though the boy is already six years old?” The ADAC’s reply stated that”… it is not too late, of course. Such a savings plan can be set up anywhere from spanning four to 18 years….” This ad is addressed to parents, grandparents, and godparents.

My driver’s license obtained in the U.S.A. had cost 20 dollars. In the United Kingdom, the cost is about 150 pounds, and I heard a lifetime license in Norway costs only the equivalent of 33 dollars.

Germany, being the biggest car exporter in the world, knows how make money on its industry’s byproducts. To sell Fahrvergnügen, it takes a lot of Fahrschulen (driving schools). One needs to attend a Fahrschule for about three months to be able to take the test.

Some like to take a short-cut and book a Führerschein Holiday for two weeks. Two weeks of leave, intensive in-house training (school and hotel, all in one), are probably even higher than the training for three months in one’s hometown. But this is how my cousin got her driver’s license as she had been too timid behind the wheel during regular lessons. So I would suppose these in-house driving schools are also for hard-to-teach students.

Interested in knowing how much money you did not spend on getting your license? Then visit Fahrschulen Preise, where you can get a free estimate for a German driver’s license by just clicking on any Fahrschule listed, type in your gender (Herr/Frau), first name, last name, type of license required (click on the very first option) and number of driving lessons. To determine the number of required Fahrstunden (driving lessons) based on your age, you need to multiply your age by 1.3 and hit weiter (submit).

The German Fahrvergnügen has its price – and getting the driver’s license is highly valued, not just in terms of need.

Edit: The tuition fee at German universities is 500 euro per semester, and not per year.

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