If you live in Germany and have experience with traveling by rail, you probably are somewhat familiar with the discount cards that can save you significant money on your journeys. These cards are available in two amounts, one offering you a 25% savings, and the other 50%, on all tickets purchased. The cards are generally valid for one year from date of purchase. If you’ve been wavering about whether you could use such a card, now might be a good opportunity to test the waters.

In conjunction with the the Union of European Football Associations’ Championships to be held in Austria and Switzerland this year, the Deutsche Bahn is currently offering a “Fan BahnCard 25” for just 19 euros. If you want to travel in first class, the card allowing you to do so is 39 euros. The cards allow you to save 25 percent on the standard price for each journey. In combination with DB’s other offers, you could save up to 62.5 percent on standard fares.

This card is sold with an interesting twist -- it’s valid from April 1 through June 30, 2008 -- but for every game the German national team wins, the card is automatically extended for an additional month at no cost to you. So, should the Germans go on to take the UEFA title, your card will be valid all the way up to Dec. 31, 2008.

There is a catch; isn’t there always? Once the card is set to expire, it will automatically renew itself unless you go to the effort of notifying DB in writing that you wish to cancel it. You have to do that at least four weeks prior to the card’s date of expiry. Otherwise, you’ll be charged for a new card, which will be sent to you automatically about three weeks before the old one expires. The Spar 25 card costs 55 euros for a year of discounted second-class travel, and 110 euros for the card that’s good for first class travel. You’ll be sent a new card each and every year until you opt out of the program, so beware if you don’t tend to keep a watchful eye over your bank account.