Why you should never deposit your identity card as a deposit

Created: 07/05/2022Updated: 07/05/2022 16:14

By: Anna Lorenz

Depositing the ID as a deposit is common practice, but this procedure has not been allowed in Germany for a long time.

Read here how to do everything right.

Munich – Everyone knows it and most have done it before: the identity card or passport is often deposited as a deposit.

This approach seems understandable, as it gives the other person a supposed sense of security.

In the following, you can read why this is actually not the case and how you should behave if your ID is requested.

ID as a deposit: This is the legal situation in Germany

German laws are often accused of being confusing.

The Personal Identity Card Act (PAuswG), on the other hand, is clear in its § 1 paragraph 1 sentence 3: "The card holder may not be required to deposit the identity card or give up custody in any other way."

In concrete terms, this means that you are not allowed to leave your ID card as a deposit at leisure rentals or petrol stations, for example.

On the one hand, such a procedure must not be demanded of the ID card holder, on the other hand, as stipulated in Section 27 (3) PAuswG, the ID card holder must ensure that the electronic proof of identity, which an ID card enables today, can only be carried out in a secure environment.

This is precisely the reason why the ban on the deposit of ID cards was introduced.

The Bundestag feared that giving away the modern ID card would significantly increase the risk that the identification function or the signature key could be misused.

Deposit your ID as a deposit: This is how you behave correctly

According to § 4 paragraph 2 PAuswG, the identity card is the property of the Federal Republic of Germany, as is the passport according to § 4 II paragraph 1 PassG.

However, the latter is not covered by the ban on deposit.

Therefore, if you are asked to deposit your ID, it makes sense to simply leave your passport as a deposit.

Alternatively, you can also hand over other IDs, such as your driver's license, to trustees - but all of this is at your own risk.

Have you ever "borrowed" your ID card to someone?

Tell us:

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Anyone who wants to be on the safe side and want to keep their papers with them should respond to the request for ID by pointing out that pledging not only entails claims under civil law, but also allows the trade office to check whether the person requesting meets the commercial requirements.

The prospect of potentially jeopardizing one's own business license is certainly not in the interest of the other party either, so that insisting on the handing over of the ID card is unlikely.

However, as always, remain polite and seek a constructive solution.

(askl)