Imho DB is the best means of transportation in Germany, in my experience only people travelling with DB once every one or two years are complaining about it, because they don't understand how it works.
You cannot compare the standard DB fares with anything competitors offer, because they include an amount of flexibility no one else offers by a long shot.
Even if you only take 2-3 trips per year it already makes sense to get the 25% or 50% discount cards. A massive amount of germans have these cards (see https://infographic.statista.com/normal/infografik_3025_Besi..., over 3 million BC25, 1.4 million BC50 owners).
If you know when exactly you want to travel, which exact train and hour, then you can easily get a 62.5% discount and you are only at ~45 instead of 125€ for the trip, which given the comfort of DB vs all other means of transportation is well worth the price.
I myself prefer to be flexible and have a BC50 which includes 50% discount on every trip. But that means I can take any train on the date of my ticket or even up to 5 days later, leave at any station in between for as long as I want.
My sister had an accident with car share service, which kind of turns me off these services. She now often takes the bus that is much cheaper than DB. But then you have to have someone bring you with a car to the off site locations that bus often stop and it still takes several hours longer than DB for most destinations.
Yeah, and better do not forget to cancel those because the friendly DB automatically prolongs these for another year.
In case you refuse to pay, they send a friendly debt collection service -- Infoscore, which conveniently also acts as a credit rating agency.
If you still refuse to pay, the "independent" law firm Haas & Kollegen, which magically resides in the same building as the "independent" debt collection agency and credit rating agency, will take you to court.
Did I mention that these three entities are totally independent, as required by law?
I always cancel immediately when I get a BC "BahnCard" (same day or week), these days usually the trial 25% version (3 months, automatic 1 year subscription if you don't cancel).
It used to be pretty bad but nowadays you can cancel a BahnCard online, I used that service at least three times already during the last two years:
BahnCard 50 is 255 € per year (second class), cheaper prices for students or if you are below 27 or over 60. I don't know if they send it abroad, but it shouldn't be limited to Germans (and you get a temporary one to print out yourself if you buy online).
> Even if you only take 2-3 trips per year it already makes sense to get the 25% or 50% discount cards.
I'm not sure how you're calculating that, but when my wife did the math she ended up ditching the 25% card because it would have only been profitable for her if she took at least one trip a week.
I guess you're thinking ICE (inter-city high speed trains) not RB (regional transport)? I guess at >€100 per ride the numbers work out but most "normal people" I know think of ICE as equivalent to travelling by plane, i.e. something you may do for vacations but very much out of the ordinary for regular travel.
> in my experience only people travelling with DB once every one or two years are complaining about it
I take a two and a half hour commute roughly twice a week (in addition to a daily tram commute of half an hour or so). There's no direct route and one of the two stations isn't serviced by ICE.
I could take an ICE to the interchange station but that would barely save me any time due to the long transfer wait, so instead I'm travelling by RB or RE.
The trains haven't been replaced in ages (I'd say on average at least one door is out of order on every train I've used). The RBs often don't even have working toilets. Outside periods with extremely light traffic there is generally not enough seating to accommodate all (2nd class) passengers (though 1st class is nearly empty because there's no practical difference between 1st and 2nd class service outside ICEs).
And of course trains are routinely late or delayed. Delayed trains often add insult to injury by being delayed further when they have to wait to be overtaken by an ICE. So because I know I have to switch trains I always plan for an hour longer in case I miss a connection or end up having to switch trains again.
Let's also not forget that unlike with long distance busses, "WiFi" doesn't mean "Free WiFi". There's only WiFi on the ICE and it's decidedly not free (nor significantly better than cellular) and requires you to jump through hoops if you're not already a Telekom customer (which seems anachronistic in the times of Freifunk & co).
I'm very happy that UK's National Express recently started servicing two lines in my region (RE7 and RB48). Their trains are brand new, they waste very little space on first-class seating (which is still enough for the few people travelling first-class on REs and RBs) and they provide wall outlets for charging laptops and mobile devices.
DB's ICE lines may be somewhat laudable (though still disappointing compared to the Thalys) but DB Regio's service is ripe for disruption.
Let's also not forget that DB has a track record of letting stations and infrastructure fall into disrepair to cut costs, especially the smaller stations not serviced by ICEs or ICs (which btw, look about as vintage as Locomore).
DB regularly offers a trial BahnCard 25 special. Right now for 16 Euros. It is valid for three months - don't forget to cancel right away (right when you get it) or it's an automatically renewing subscription. You can order and also cancel online (cancellation URL: see my other comment here somewhere).
I take around 10-20 personal trips to family and friends every year, for around 1000-1500€ of "standard" fares, but pay only half with the BC50. I don't own a car. The card would cost me 250€/year so its quite a big saving. Its mostly long distance, so just for regional you are probably right it wouldn't matter.
I can't comment much on the regional experience, especially when living outside a large city. I have 3 train stations in distance of different trams. So you can be right. Although here the National Express won a contract as well and their trains are bad compared to the DB regional ones, so maybe DB is running the old trains in your region, where here in Bonn/Cologne they have very modern ones.
DB internet changed providers just some weeks ago, they now have a multi provider approach and Telekom isn't the only one anymore. Its also free for everyone even in second class on the Telekom served ones and ICs are supposed to get internet next year as well. They are even talking about adding it to regional ones.
Like with Deutsche Telekom who was government monopolist before, the competition will push the DB in a 10-20 year change cycle and after that it will be on top again with the best service and offer across the board. That kind of investment and change just takes a long time for this kind of big company.
For context: I travel between Cologne and a city near Gütersloh, which means switching trains in Hamm.
The National Express trains I'm talking about are the RB48 and RE7. There are two ways to get to Hamm besides the ICE: RE7 (National Express) and RE1 (DB Regio).
Although the RE1 is a double-decker, most of the extra space is wasted on first class seating. They do have toilets but they're tiny and usually extremely filthy. Maybe I'm particularly unlucky but as I said, the average train seems to have at least one door marked as out of order at any given time. I've actually seen an RE1 leave Hamm with an open door once (I was too surprised to take a picture though).
The main reason I prefer the RE7 is the ability to charge my laptop (allowing me to get actual work done). I also find the trains much nicer in general. The only exception was during Karneval because there is sadly no ban on drinking alcohol on regional trains (unlike trams in Cologne).
My worst experiences with DB Regio have been on RB and S trains though. I had a daily from Cologne commute to Neuss for a year and a half and none of the trains had toilets even though some of them still had signage directing you to non-existent toilets. Officially they were no longer offering toilets on S trains because travel times were short enough that passengers don't need them -- which certainly comforted me while routinely spending roughly an hour on those damn trains.
Which makes it even more appalling that in many cases it's not possible to upgrade from 2nd class to 1st class. You'd actually have to buy an entirely separate ticket for the full price.
You cannot compare the standard DB fares with anything competitors offer, because they include an amount of flexibility no one else offers by a long shot.
Even if you only take 2-3 trips per year it already makes sense to get the 25% or 50% discount cards. A massive amount of germans have these cards (see https://infographic.statista.com/normal/infografik_3025_Besi..., over 3 million BC25, 1.4 million BC50 owners).
If you know when exactly you want to travel, which exact train and hour, then you can easily get a 62.5% discount and you are only at ~45 instead of 125€ for the trip, which given the comfort of DB vs all other means of transportation is well worth the price.
I myself prefer to be flexible and have a BC50 which includes 50% discount on every trip. But that means I can take any train on the date of my ticket or even up to 5 days later, leave at any station in between for as long as I want.
My sister had an accident with car share service, which kind of turns me off these services. She now often takes the bus that is much cheaper than DB. But then you have to have someone bring you with a car to the off site locations that bus often stop and it still takes several hours longer than DB for most destinations.