Reward for the return of a lost wallet - Germany

I lost my wallet in McDonalds yesterday and somebody handed it in. Not much cash in it but all my cards.

I have the guy's telephone number and was thinking I would send him 20 euro's , or something around that, for his honesty. Does this seem reasonable?

I thought there was a thread on this one but damned if I can find it...

I would go back to McDs and ask if you can buy some McVouchers...

Buy what you feel is a fair price,

20€ seems fair to me... think of all the hassle its saved you!

Was that because some went missing, or the original order of things?

If some went missing - you sure he didn't take it?

Regardless, I don't think a reward culture is prevelent. More the case that returning something to its rightful owner, the thing to do. However, considering the hassle and costs saved in having new cards issued, Euro 20 is a more than acceptable reward.

Being Germany, there is a rule for this one - unfortunately, I don´t know exactly what it is, but I do know that the finder is entitled to a certain percentage of the value of money that was actually in the wallet.

I think €20 is more than fair, considering you hardly had any cash in there.

No , everything was completely in order with the wallet. After a weekend with the kids it tends to be empty though;-)

I was actually thinking of McDonald's vouchers but I wasn't sure if such a thing existed.

Aha! Found it!

http://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/bgb/__971.html

Who knows who took any of the guys money. It would be nice to give some type of reward such as SpiderPig suggested since the wallet and all the cards are back in the owners hands. Getting ID's, driver's licenses, ec cards, and all those others would be a pain to have to replace.
So, some reward would be nice. It is nice to see people are honest here.

When I lost my wallet in a taxi, the driver called me and said he'd drop it by when he was "in the neighborhood", which he did within 48 hours. He rang the bell and I gave him 20 euros. He seemed fairly happy with that. FWIW.

Indeed there is, and the finder can even demand it. BGB §971 (English here) stipulates a reward of 5% of the loss up to €500, 3% thereafter. Clearly credit cards don't have a directly attributable value, but for the means of the reward you should calculate the likely cost to you in replacing them and/or potential loss due to fraudulent use, which could exceed €1000...

And now hope the finder doesn't read his rights on TT...

I lost my wallet last year. The police said that my chances of getting it back (albeit minus cash) were pretty good - usually, even if stolen, it will be thrown in a corner somewhere, and someone will hand it in.

In my case I sadly never saw it again.

I would also recommend paying a reward - their kindness has saved you hours of work and also quite some money.

not correct. You don't have to base the reward on any fictitious costs. If there is no value other than to the owner of the item lost then the reward can be set by the owner. There is no pre-defined formula for working this out, though.

When I lost my wallet with quite a lot of cash, I sent a letter, some chocolates and 50 Euro.

If there was little cash in it, I think 20 Euro is appropriate but I'd add some "personal" touch and not just money.

I actually would not send any cash at all but rather write a nice personal thank you card. I think this is much more appealing to an honest finder than 10 or 20 Euros (might be different of course for larger sums).

Send him a 20 EUR Amazon gift card.

The last time I had a lost wallet found, I gave a huge personal thank you and a 50€ finder's fee and probably made the woman's year as she worked in Schlecker and their pay rates are terrible.
But it saved me from having to get a new driving licence so was pretty good value.