I am a student from South Africa travelling to Germany in around a month and. I want to book my train tickets on the Deutsche Bahn website. Since I'm a bit hesitant to order tickets for delivery by mail (postal strike and generally unreliable postal service in South Africa) the only other options are an online or cell phone ticket.
However the Bahn only accepts Bahncards, credit card, EC/Maestro or ID documents as identification. I don't have a credit card, accepted ID or Bahncard and for the EC/Maestro option the bank needs a registered address in Germany.
What can I use to as ID choice on the website to identify myself on German trains?
My "debit" card functions as a credit card (i.e. I can make online purchases, name printed on front and CVV code at the back). Functionally I doubt DB will notice a difference when I use it as a payment method, but I'm hesitant to use it as my ID on the train since it does state on the card that it is only a debit card card and not a credit card.
I am also in a neighbouring country during my visit, for which I used http://www.b-europe.com to book a ticket, which did not have such stringent requirements during the booking process (arguably both cities are not in Germany). They only required the name as displayed on my passport and I do have a European passport. However I checked, and I can theoretically book long distance trains within Germany without more stringent requirements.
Would this be an option to consider?