okay so i need help! I had surgery off post, and i just received a letter stating that i still owe them 41,75 euro. At the bottom of the bill it says "we hereby want to inform you that if you dont pay the outstanding bill of 41,75 euro off by may 14th, we will take legal steps and sue for payment" I called Tricare and they said that they dont have any pending claims for me and this could possibly be a new bill that the doctor off post didnt send to Tricare like they were suppose to. She suggested that I pay it for right now. It says at the bottom "please find our banking connection at the bottom of this letter" and it says Kreissparkasse Kaiserslautern and lists a Swift-Code and an IBAN number. What do those numbers mean and how do i pay the bill??? im freaking out! i need to pay this bill ASAP so they dont try to sue me. 

Take the letter to Service Credit Union or Community Bank, they will help you fill out the proper German money slip. The two important numbers are typically the Kontonumer (Kto) and the routing number (BLZ). These numbers are each 8-9 digits long. 

Good grief, don't worry. It ain't nuthin. Do you have Service Credit Union? You can pay on-line. Otherwise, just take it to the community bank and they will hook you up while we stand behind you and wait. If you don't have either of those accounts, go into any German Bank, but easier at Kreispark and say, "Help me". It will take them a long, long, long time to do jack. By that time you are paid up. Dipthong owes everybody in town and just says, "Call my lawyer I'm sunning". 

yes i have service credit union. Do i need to let the German bank where they are wanting me to send the money to that i paid the bill, or do i need to let the hospital that sent me the bill that i just paid it? 

You want to call the bank or the hospital to let them know you paid 41€ ?
Once the money gets deposits in their account the will balance your account with them - if you don't forget to put down your bill ( or patient number).
Just put down the routing number, accountnumber, and the reference number ( bill, patiente, whatever), your name ( just in case) - done ! 

do i let the hospital where i got the surgery done at know that i paid the bill or do i let the german bank that they are wanting me to transfer the money to know that i paid the bill? 

Just go to your Service Credit account. Go to "Online services". You will be directed to another site. Agree to the $1 charge. Next screen. Fill in the Konto, fill in the BLZ next, fill in the amount to be paid, no commas, just 41.75 Fill in your patient number at the bottom, the account number they sent you. Fill in the last blank with anything, does not matter...your name if you want.. Hit the pay button. If you made a mistake, the site will tell you. You will get a confirmation. Print it. Done. Don't be a hurry. We all get that sh!t. We do. The Germans like to freak everyone out. It will take them months to figure it out anyway. Easy does it. 

No, you do not have to anybody know you paid your bill. They will see it on their bank statement.

Just wondering: do you usually call the bank or, let's say J.C. Pennys when you paid their bill ? 

imhere, she gets a caution letter from a foreign company. Not JC Penny. Just a bunch of uptight German azzholes who send a bill with a impotent threat. They won't do and can't do and are too fukn lazy to do sh9t. But she does not know that. She thinks they mean biddness. It would take them months to catch up with this bill. So we can help her out. I usually ignore their vacant threats for at least a month and then send the money. Dare them. Blockhead admin pukes. 

Trust me, I know they don't do anything for months :-) 

thanks everyone! ive never had to pay a medical bil here before and Tricare assured me that they would take care of all of my bills. then all of a sudden i get this statement in the mail saying that the Westpfalz Klinikum is going to sue me if i dont pay the 41,75 EUR...which is ridiculous. I dont know anything about paying bills in a foreign country, and i wasnt sure how serious the germans are about these kind of threats. 

They always put that on bills. What probably happened is it was a bill that was supposed to be paid earlier, got stuck in limbo, so now it's like a second notice, so they want their money. Unless it's a big bill or something already super late then you don't need to contact them, just pay it. 

We've had many a medical bill and the hospital was supposed to submit it to our insurance, didn't, waited, then sent us a bill, wanting the money NOW. Usually we would then submit it to our insurance and pay it once our insurance company sent us the money. So usually over a month before we would pay some bills, unless they were small ones. Don't worry. 

"she gets a caution letter from a foreign company. Not JC Penny. Just a bunch of uptight German azzholes who send a bill with a impotent threat. They won't do and can't do and are too fukn lazy to do sh9t."

don't hold back sh1t for brains. tell us what you really think.

yes, they can and will do something if you don't pay.

cloudless, (you should change your name to clueless from the posts you make) you're obviously one of those pr1cks who feel you can screw over the people here because you can run back to america. thanks to scumbags like you all of us have a bad name. i wish you would all stay in america or at least grow up.

my surprise is that you think that paying a bill to a hospital is less important than paying a bill to j.c. pennys. that really shows how clueless you really are. 

You're a pretty angry fella there, aren't you? 

sometimes. 

Uh..I didn't say, "Don't pay" I said...and I'll summerize..." Pay but don't panic". In a nutshell, Germans love to make threats about "Pay now", if you are little late. Just like Americans. Believe me, I pay more German bills than you can imagine. Property taxes, income taxes, customs on business, hospital bills, and the stuff you pay--utilities and city street maintenance fees. They get every cent from me they bill me for-- cuz I'm no fkin rookie, babe. 

Dipthong owes everybody in town and just says, "Call my lawyer I'm sunning".

I have almost mastered the perfect pronunciation of Rufen Sie meinen Anwalt. Ich sonnte.