abbuchen

Abbuchen is a German verb meaning to debit or deduct money from an account, or to charge an amount against a balance. The related noun Abbuchung denotes the debit entry itself or a withdrawal. In everyday finance, abbuchen is used when funds are taken from a bank account, such as for recurring services or one-time payments.

In banking, abbuchen most commonly refers to the direct debit process (Lastschrift). A payer authorizes a merchant or service provider to collect funds directly from the payer’s bank account. Within the SEPA framework in the Euro area, this is typically done via a SEPA Lastschrift and requires a mandate (Einzugsermächtigung). There are one-off (Einmalabbuchung) and recurring (Dauerabbuchung) debits. The payer can cancel the mandate or contest a debit in certain cases, depending on local laws and bank policies.

Abbuchen is also used in accounting and personal finance to describe the act of recording a debit entry or deducting expenses from a balance. For example, a monthly service fee can be "vom Konto abgebucht" (debited from the account), or a purchase can be "von einem Guthaben abgebucht."

Notes on usage: abbuchen emphasizes the action of taking funds from an account, whereas other terms exist for related concepts. "Einziehen" can be used for collecting payments, while "abheben" refers to cash withdrawal or card-based debiting. In practice, abbuchen is widely understood in German-speaking financial contexts to cover both banking debits and accounting deductions.