Even in the local Ämtern? In my experience they're the worst offenders here.
For example, Zahlungsmöglichkeiten on these two pages:
[1] "Am Standort kann bar und mit girocard (mit PIN) (ehemals EC-Karte) bezahlt werden." This means nothing with Visa/Mastercard, period. Doesn't matter if you have a direct debit account or revolving credit. If you try to pay with eg an N26 Debit Mastercard, they say "Leider akzeptieren wir hier keine Kreditkarten". This language is basically standard in Berlin. When I responded with "das ist doch keine Kreditkarte, sondern eine Debitkarte" they said "ne, kommt von Mastercard, ist ne Kreditkarte. Sorry."
[2] "Zahlungen sind auch mit Kreditkarte möglich (VISA, Mastercard und Maestro)." They don't differentiate between Kredit- and Debitkarte when you're actually there; the only difference at this location is that they have Zahlungsautomaten that are integrated with the payment processors. This is a perfect example: Kreditkarte here explicitly refers to the payment processing system and not to the way the payment is booked to your account.
Sure, but that doesn't answer my question. What I'm saying is, the Ämter in Berlin are explicitly using the term "Kreditkarte" to refer to all Visa/Mastercard/Maestro cards, including debit cards. In Berlin, only the locations that say they accept Kreditkarten, will accept debit cards that are backed by Visa/Mastercard/Maestro payment infrastructure. If they only say they accept Girokarte, then they will not accept debit cards. What I'm asking is, does Hamburg use the same language at Ämtern as Berlin, or does it differentiate explicitly between Girokarte, Kreditkarte, and Debitkarte? I've tried to find this myself online, but I don't see anything official.
Here's another example [1, page 116] from the BMI (so, federal now): "Haben Sie ein Konto bei einer Bank oder einer Sparkasse, wird Ihnen häufig eine Giro-card oder eine Kreditkarte ausgestellt (zum Teil gegen Gebühr), mit der Sie bezahlen können. Der bezahlte Betrag wird dann automatisch von Ihrem Konto abgebucht"
> If you have an account by a bank or a Sparkasse (special kind of bank), you will often be issued a Girokarte or a Kreditkarte (sometimes for a fee), with which you can pay. The paid amount will then be automatically deducted from your account.
Note that Debitkarte isn't even mentioned, and the behavior described for both kinds of cards is the same. This is not true of Kreditkarten that operate on a revolving credit basis; the amount is not automatically deducted from your account, but rather paid later. To me, this language is pretty clear: the federal government sees the system as "you either have a Girokarte or a Kreditkarte" and that Debitkarten are included in Kreditkarten.
And, actually, even better, this bit from wikipedia [2] is explicit: "Der Begriff Kreditkarte wird international nicht einheitlich verwendet. In den deutschsprachigen Ländern werden damit sowohl echte Kreditkarten als auch Chargekarten, Daily-Chargekarten, Scheck- bzw. Debitkarten und Prepaidkarten bezeichnet"
> The term Kreditkarte is not uniformly used internationally. In German-speaking countries it may refer to real credit cards, as well as charge cards, daily charge cards, check-cards or debit cards.
Girokarte is a synonym for Debitkarte, just like in France or Swiss Romade one would say carte bleue instead of carte debit, in Portugal Multibanco instead of cartão de débito,...
As for the rest, I guest we are wasting each other's time discussing this any furher.
I'm not sure how to handle this because it's both incorrect in technical language (Girocards are exclusive to a particular payment infrastructure that only exists in Germany, unless partnered with a separate payment infrastructure, but the co-branded payment infrastructure is only used outside of Germany [1]) as well as incorrect with respect to my experience with everyday language, including all of the links I've provided including from official government sources.
But I agree on one thing: it's a waste of time to keep talking about this.
For example, Zahlungsmöglichkeiten on these two pages:
[1] "Am Standort kann bar und mit girocard (mit PIN) (ehemals EC-Karte) bezahlt werden." This means nothing with Visa/Mastercard, period. Doesn't matter if you have a direct debit account or revolving credit. If you try to pay with eg an N26 Debit Mastercard, they say "Leider akzeptieren wir hier keine Kreditkarten". This language is basically standard in Berlin. When I responded with "das ist doch keine Kreditkarte, sondern eine Debitkarte" they said "ne, kommt von Mastercard, ist ne Kreditkarte. Sorry."
[2] "Zahlungen sind auch mit Kreditkarte möglich (VISA, Mastercard und Maestro)." They don't differentiate between Kredit- and Debitkarte when you're actually there; the only difference at this location is that they have Zahlungsautomaten that are integrated with the payment processors. This is a perfect example: Kreditkarte here explicitly refers to the payment processing system and not to the way the payment is booked to your account.
[1] https://service.berlin.de/standort/121646/
[2] https://service.berlin.de/standort/121885/