Terms of Service

Draft for legal review, not final.

Last updated: 27 September 2026

1. Who we are

Plain Finance is run by Oscar Rojas, Alt-Mariendorf 50, 12107 Berlin, Germany (Imprint). We are not a financial adviser, broker, bank or insurer. These terms apply between us and anyone who uses our guides and tools or asks us for an introduction ("you").

2. What we do

• Free guides, videos, checklists and calculators on money decisions in Germany.
• When you ask, an introduction to a licensed professional who works in English. Every page says who a request goes to before you send it.
• An account, if you want one, to keep your figures and follow your requests.

We use AI to summarise requests for the professionals: see the Privacy Policy. We can't promise that anyone takes on your request, or any outcome.

3. What we don't do

We only introduce, as a tipster (Tippgeber). We don't give advice or recommend a product, lender or insurer. Your name and contact details go only to whoever takes on your request, and to no one else.

• Guides and calculators are general information and arithmetic on the figures you enter: not advice, not an offer and not a credit decision. They don't say whether a price is fair, a property sound, or a contract right for you. The price check is not a valuation. Whether and how much a lender lends is for the lender to decide (§ 505a BGB).
• Home loans. We only introduce you to a financing expert licensed as a credit intermediary (§ 34i GewO). We don't collect or check documents, prepare or check an application, name a lender, rate or product, or say whether you will get a loan. The financing expert does that work with you, under their own licence.
• Insurance. For insurance, including health insurance, we only introduce you to an insurance expert licensed as an insurance broker (§ 34d(1) GewO). We don't collect or forward documents or health details, prepare or check applications, or name insurers or tariffs. Whether an insurer accepts you, and at what price, is its decision.
• Pensions and investing. We introduce fee-only advisers and pension advisers (Rentenberater). How they're paid is in section 4.

4. How everyone is paid

You never pay us. What a professional pays us never decides who gets your request. The first conversation with the professional who takes on your request is free too. We choose which professional to introduce you to, and tell you who pays us, and how, though never the amounts:

Financing experts and insurance experts

• Financing expert: The bank pays them a commission when you take out a loan.
• Insurance expert: The insurer pays them a commission when you take out a policy.
• What they pay us: Financing experts and insurance experts may pay us a fee when they take on a client we introduce. What they pay never decides who we pick.
• Once you send a request: We offer it to a financing expert or insurance expert who fits it, one at a time where we can, and never to more than two. If neither takes it on, we ask you before anyone else sees it.

Fee-only advisers and pension advisers

• Fee-only adviser: You pay them a fee, agreed before they start. They take no commission.
• Pension adviser (Rentenberater): You pay them a fee, within limits set by law, agreed before they start.
• What they pay us: Advisers may pay us a flat fee to be on Plain Finance, the same whichever requests they take.
• Once you send a request: Up to two fee-only advisers or pension advisers who fit it see a summary, without your name or contact details. The first to take it on gets them, and gets in touch. If neither does, we ask you before anyone else sees it.

Tax advisers

• Tax adviser (Steuerberater): You pay them a fee, within limits set by law, agreed before they start.
• What they pay us: Tax advisers pay us nothing either: the law doesn't allow it.
• Once you send a request: We find one who works in English for you, by hand.

Tax advisers and lawyers may not pay for introductions (§ 9 StBerG, § 49b Abs. 3 BRAO), so we find them by hand, or Klarlaw does (section 6). Every professional must tell you how they're paid before any paid work begins. What they pay us never changes what you pay them.

5. After an introduction

For 24 months after we introduce you, an adviser who also helps you with something else may pay us for that too. You still pay us nothing, and they may never add what they pay us to your bill.

If you already work with an adviser we introduced, you can send a new request to them first. They have it to themselves until the end of the next working day; if they don't take it on, it goes on as usual.

About 60 and 120 days after an adviser takes on your request, we email you two short questions: what you did, and whether they helped with anything else. Answering is optional. It helps us check the introduction was worth it, and that advisers pay us what they agreed to. Each check-in email has a link that stops them with one click.

6. Help we arrange by hand

If you ask us to find a surveyor or valuer, or an interpreter at the notary, we look for one who works in English and tell you who they are and what they charge. We can't promise to find one. Any contract is between you and them: they do the work, and we're not responsible for it. You pay them directly. If you hire them, they may pay us a fee for the introduction: we tell you before we introduce you.

A tax adviser (Steuerberater) we find by hand too (section 4). For a lawyer: Klarlaw, our sister service for legal problems, finds you a lawyer who works in English. You pay the lawyer directly, and we earn nothing: lawyers may not pay for introductions.

7. The notary directory

Our notary directory lists notaries who work with English-speaking clients, city by city. Any notary can join, on the same terms, and we check that each one is a notary before listing them. They're shown in alphabetical order by surname: we don't rank, recommend or choose a notary for you. A notary's fee is set by law, the same at every notary, and notaries may not pay for introductions: we earn nothing from our notary directory. When you send a notary a request from the directory, we email it to them, with your email address for their reply, and send you a copy. The notary replies to you directly, and whether you go ahead is up to you. Any appointment, deed or contract is between you and the notary.

8. Your account, and our emails

An account is free. You sign in with a code we email you; there's no password. You can delete it at any time from your account page: that deletes everything in it, and every request sent with its email address. An account nobody signs in to for two years is deleted.

While we work on your request, we email you about its progress, and may ask once how it went. Anything else, such as tips or offers from our partners, only if you opt in, and you can turn it off at any time.

9. You and the professional

Any advice or contract is between you and the professional alone. They are licensed in their own right, not our employees or agents. We aren't responsible for their advice, its quality or outcome, or the products they arrange.

10. What we ask of you

Use Plain Finance for your own genuine question, and give accurate contact details. Leave out health details and other people's data, don't send us documents with a request, and send nothing unlawful or abusive. We may decline or remove a request that breaks these terms, or that we can't responsibly pass on.

11. Liability

We are liable without limit for intent and gross negligence, and for injury to life, body or health. For slight negligence, we are liable only for breaching an essential obligation (one that makes the service possible in the first place and that you may rely on), limited to the damage typical and foreseeable for a free service like this. Liability under mandatory law is unaffected.

12. Availability, and your dates

We aim to keep Plain Finance running, but can't promise it always will be. Dates in your matter, such as withdrawal periods, notary appointments or insurance start dates, stay your responsibility until a professional has taken on your request.

13. Ending things

You can stop using Plain Finance at any time, and delete your account and your data (section 8, and the Privacy Policy).

14. Final provisions

German law applies. If you are a consumer, the mandatory consumer protection of the country you live in still applies. We are not willing or obliged to take part in dispute resolution proceedings before a consumer arbitration board. We may change these terms for the future; the current version is always here.