Before our move, we always rented furnished apartments. Our new flat, however, came unfurnished. Alright, it came with ready bathrooms and kitchen, but nothing else. Not even lamps. So this time, we had to buy furniture. And let’s just say it is more complicated than we imagined.
Furniture decisions
Having almost nothing except some IKEA shelves and arm chairs, we first made a list what we needed. We started with the most important item: a mattress. After all, we had to sleep somewhere. Luckily it arrived on the day we moved in, as sleeping without one is, well, tough. Next came other essentials. A bed. A washing machine (for cloth diapering parents like us even more crucial!). And a desk, for my work from home husband. Not to mention a table to eat at, with chairs.
Figuring out what we needed was easy. Deciding what to get first was somewhat tougher. Selecting which kind of object (which bed model, for instance, or which table size and wood) to buy was impossibly difficult. Imagine the “I like a grey fabric couch” vs “I like a leather brown one”. On repeat. For every item.
Our new washer/dryer
Financing furniture – or how that failed
The real issue was finances though. Papa earns well and we made some money from our wedding, so that is not it. But there were a lot of costs at once lately. The moving truck. Plane tickets. New flat rent deposit (3 times the regular rent) plus rent. We didn’t save up much money before having Bubsi. For one, Papa and I are relatively young, and we both studied long. Also, we just finished paying off our student debt.
It was clear we couldn’t get everything at once, so we prioritized. Most items purchased so far (like our wardrobe) come from furniture giant IKEA. Others we wanted to be a little better in terms of quality.One very good furniture store in town offered 0% financing plans for big item purchases. Perfect, we thought. That’s where the troubles began.
Our new dining table
No bank account, no credit history
Said furniture store required a bank card (giro) from Germany to finance our purchase (a couch and the table and chairs you’ve seen above). I had one, but they could not finance through me as I have no income. Papa had applied for an account but not yet received the card. So we waited with the financing, answering repeated calls from the store. Three weeks later Papa’s giro card arrives, and we returned to the store. Financing is declined, because he does not have good credit history in Germany. Surprise, I mean we just got here and haven’t built any.
Problem: we have to pay the table and chairs with immediate effect, as they were already delivered. Yey. Plus 30% of the couch. Double yey. Instead of paying a small amount spread over a couple of months. We cannot go back on the purchase as waiting for the bank card means we went past the cancellation period.
Bubsi dancing in the empty wardrobe
We have the money. How ironic is that. We can pay outright but do not qualify for financing. It just means we cannot buy proper lamps and other lights right now though. Or storage shelves. And bathroom cabinets. No biggies, but annoying nevertheless. Immaculate credit history abroad does not count, it seems. Have you ever moved countries and had difficulty getting set up because the system works against you?