Reply to post: Re: There are more levels than that

Re: There are more levels than that

Dublin has the advantage (for UK residents), that they speak English, so you don't need to learn a new language to do business there.

In Germany, you are very much in the hands of regulations, which is great for employees, not so much for employers working to tight deadlines. The 40 hour week is pretty much standard and not exceeding a rolling-average of 48 hour weeks means that putting in hours for a deadline for a couple of weeks is fine, but bad planning isn't something you can get around by making people work ridiculous hours every week, like you seem to be able to do in Silicon Valley, for example. If your employees work long hours for a project, then you have to accept that they will need to come later or go home earlier in the weeks following, to reduce the number of hours in the "overtime account."

Berlin isn't the only place to go either. Munich is very cosmopolitan and very media savvy, but more expensive than Berlin. Frankfurt is good for finance based startups. But why, in an online world, do the businesses need to be centered around major cities?

As to things like credit cards, the Germans still shun credit and, generally, the credit card is linked directly to your bank account and 100% of the balance is transferred at the end of the month and if you don't have enough in your account, then it goes against your overdraught.

Given that and credit card doesn't really bring any advantages to paying with a debit card or cash, but retailers have to pay higher transaction charges, it isn't really a surprise that credit cards aren't widely accepted. I use mine purely for buying online - although many German online stores will allow you to pay on invoice or cash in advance, if you don't have a credit card.

German credit cards also, generally, don't offer any additional protections over normal debit cards or cash, in terms of purchase insurance etc. that, for example, UK credit cards offered (when I was in the UK, not sure if that is still a thing).