What is the DB Vertrieb GmbH charge on my credit card?
Facts checked
Short answer
DB Vertrieb GmbH is the ticket sales company of Deutsche Bahn, Germany's national railway, based in Frankfurt. The charge is a German train ticket or seat reservation, a BahnCard discount card, or a Deutschland-Ticket subscription that bills €63 a month until it's cancelled. It's charged in euros, so the dollar amount won't match a round price.
How it shows up on your statement
- DB VERTRIEB GMBH
- PAYPAL *DBVERTRIEBG
Banks trim and reformat these, so yours may be shorter or carry a different city or number. Why charge names look strange.
Who is DB Vertrieb GmbH?
DB Vertrieb GmbH is the sales arm of Deutsche Bahn, the German national railway. Deutsche Bahn's own company profile lists it on Europa-Allee in Frankfurt am Main, wholly owned by Deutsche Bahn AG since it was set up in 2005. It runs the railway's ticket machines, travel centers and subscription sales, including the Deutschland-Ticket.
The name gives nothing away unless you read German. Vertrieb means sales or distribution, and GmbH is roughly the German version of an LLC. Read it as "Deutsche Bahn Sales" and the charge makes a lot more sense.
Why is DB Vertrieb GmbH on my card statement?
Someone bought something from Deutsche Bahn with your card: on bahn.de, in the DB Navigator app, or at a station. DB says a credit card is charged as soon as the booking is complete.
- A train ticket or seat reservation, from a few euros for a regional train to several hundred for long-distance ICE travel.
- The Deutschland-Ticket, a monthly subscription for local transport across Germany at €63 a month. Visitors often buy it for one trip without noticing it's a subscription.
- A BahnCard renewal. BahnCards are discount cards that renew every year unless cancelled, and a trial BahnCard 50 becomes a full year automatically unless you cancel in writing at least 4 weeks before it expires. That charge can land a year after the trip.
- A refund from a cancelled ticket, showing up as a credit.
The charge is in euros, so your bank converts it and the dollar figure looks random. Many US cards also add a separate foreign transaction fee line for the same purchase.
How to cancel a Deutsche Bahn charge or get a refund
DB's rules depend on what was bought. All of these come from DB's English site, int.bahn.de.
- Within 3 hours of buying: tickets bought on int.bahn.de or in DB Navigator can be cancelled free within 180 minutes, as long as it's at least a day before the ticket is valid. Open My tickets in your customer account, open the ticket and choose Cancel now. BahnCards aren't covered.
- Flexpreis (flexible fare): free to cancel until the day before the ticket is valid. After that it costs €30 for long-distance tickets and €19 for local ones, and the money goes back to the card you paid with.
- Sparpreis (saver fare): €10 to cancel up to the day before, and the refund comes as a voucher, not to your card. Super saver fares can't be cancelled at all after the 3-hour window.
- Deutschland-Ticket: cancel in DB Navigator under your mobile ticket, or through the subscription portal. Cancel by the 10th of the month and it ends that month; after the 10th, it runs to the end of the following month.
- BahnCard: in your customer account, go to BahnCard, then Options, then Cancel BahnCard. A BahnCard 25 can be cancelled up to six weeks before it expires.
DB customer service is on +49 30 2970. Press 9 for English, which DB says works only on international calls. Cancellation forms for the Deutschland-Ticket and BahnCards are at int.bahn.de/en/help/contact/cancel-contract.
What if you never bought anything from Deutsche Bahn?
A trip someone forgot to mention, or a subscription nobody cancelled, explains most of these.
- Did anyone with your card travel in Germany or elsewhere in Europe recently? A partner, a student abroad, a colleague. The Deutschland-Ticket also covers buses and city transit.
- Log in to your DB account on int.bahn.de or in DB Navigator and check My tickets.
- Look for a subscription: a Deutschland-Ticket meant for one month, or a BahnCard renewing about a year after an old trip.
- Check whether the line is really a credit from a cancelled ticket.
If nobody on the card has been near a German train, treat it as fraud. Stolen card numbers do get used to buy DB tickets online. One Reddit user in the Philippines who had never been to Europe found DB VERTRIEB GMBH charges in euros, and the bank reversed them. Call your card issuer, dispute the charges and get a new card.
Still don’t recognize it? Dispute it with your bank
- Open the transaction in your banking app. The detail view often shows a longer merchant name, a phone number or a city that the statement line cuts off.
- Ask the merchant for a refund first. It is usually faster than a dispute, and your card issuer may ask whether you tried.
- If the merchant says no, or you think your card number was stolen, call the number on the back of your card. Ask them to dispute the charge and, if it is fraud, to cancel the card and send a new one.
- For a credit card, follow up in writing. The FTC says your letter should reach the issuer within 60 days after the first bill with the error was sent to you, at the billing inquiries address rather than the payments address.
Federal law caps what you owe for unauthorized credit card charges at $50. Debit cards work differently: if only your card number was used, you owe nothing as long as you report it within 60 days after the statement is sent, but the money is gone from your account while the bank looks into it. See the FTC's guide to lost or stolen cards. A successful dispute becomes a chargeback against the merchant.
Questions people ask
- What is DB Vertrieb GmbH?
- Deutsche Bahn's ticket sales company, based in Frankfurt. A charge from it is a German train ticket, seat reservation, BahnCard or Deutschland-Ticket.
- Why is DB Vertrieb charging me every month?
- Almost certainly a Deutschland-Ticket, a €63 monthly subscription for local transport in Germany. Cancel it in DB Navigator or the subscription portal; cancel by the 10th and it ends that month.
- Why did DB Vertrieb charge me a year after my trip?
- Probably a BahnCard renewal. BahnCards renew yearly unless cancelled, and a trial BahnCard 50 turns into a full year unless you cancel in writing at least 4 weeks before it expires.
- Can I get a refund on a Deutsche Bahn ticket?
- It depends on the fare. Tickets bought online can be cancelled free within 3 hours if travel is at least a day away. Flexpreis refunds go back to your card, Sparpreis refunds come as a voucher, and super saver fares aren't refundable after the 3-hour window.
- Is DB Vertrieb GmbH a scam?
- No. It's part of Deutsche Bahn. But stolen card numbers are sometimes used to buy DB tickets online, so if nobody with your card has been to Germany, dispute the charge with your bank.
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Read on . Policies and phone numbers change, so confirm on the company’s own site before you act.