How do I identify unnecessary insurances in Germany?
A useful rule for any insurance decision: it should cover risks that would seriously hurt you financially, not risks you can simply absorb out of pocket. By that test, the genuinely important insurances in Germany are personal liability (uncapped legal liability under §823 BGB), health (mandatory anyway, and shielding you from six-figure bills), occupational disability (protects your future income if you can't work), and term life — if there are people who would financially struggle without you.
Property insurance becomes important once you own assets worth protecting: household contents once you have a fully furnished apartment, dog liability for dog owners, building insurance for property owners.
Beyond that core, Germany has a thriving market in narrower products: single-device warranty insurance, glasses insurance, dental cleaning insurance, appliance protection, low-sum accident insurance, foreign travel insurance bought separately for every trip. None of them are scams — but over a lifetime, they typically cost more than the occasional claim ever pays out.
Duplication is another quiet form of waste. Travel insurance that overlaps with what your credit card already provides; two liability policies covering the same household; a separate accident policy on top of an income protection policy.
The cleanest test you can apply to any policy is to ask: would the maximum claim this policy could ever pay out actually change my financial life, or is it really only worth a few hundred euros? If it is the latter, it is usually a candidate for cancellation.
Help with Anmeldung, bank accounts and the first weeks in Germany.
Related questions
Why is personal liability insurance so important in Germany?
In Germany, liability is handled differently compared to a lot of other countries. According to German law (§823 BGB), if you injure another person or cause damage to someone's property by accident, you will be held legally responsible — and the amount you could owe in damages is unlimited. For this reason, personal liability insurance (Privathaftpflichtversicherung) is one of the most important and most common insurances in Germany, with around 85% of households insured. Some landlords may even require personal liability insurance before they offer you a rental agreement.
Read full answer →Salary, benefits and income protectionWhat is occupational disability insurance in Germany?
A lot of expats arrive in Germany assuming the famously generous social system will catch them if they ever cannot work. In practice, statutory protection here is more limited than people expect: it only pays out if you can essentially no longer perform any reasonable work, not specifically the work you trained or signed up for. Even then, the amount is usually well below your previous net income.
Read full answer →Family, partners and childrenDo I need term life insurance in Germany?
Risikolebensversicherung (term life insurance) pays out a defined sum if you die during the contract period. It is pure risk coverage with no investment component built in — which is exactly what makes it cheap.
Read full answer →Settling in GermanyWhat should expats financially organize in the first 30 days in Germany?
Germany runs on paperwork, and your first month sets the rhythm for everything that follows. The single most important step is the Anmeldung — registering your residential address at the Bürgeramt, which usually has to happen within two weeks of moving in. It triggers your Steuer-ID (tax identification number), which arrives by post a few weeks later. Without these, your employer can't put you on payroll properly and most banks won't fully open an account for you.
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