Girocard

About

The girocard is Germany's domestic debit card brand, combining the electronic cash payment system and the German ATM system (Deutsches Geldautomaten-System). It is a product of the German Banking Industry Committee (Die Deutsche Kreditwirtschaft), and payments and cash withdrawals are debited directly from the cardholder's account. The scheme states that more than 100 million cards have been issued, with acceptance at about 1,344,000 terminals and cash access at around 50,000 ATMs in Germany. Cards support contactless payments, participating banks offer a digital girocard for smartphones, and most cards carry a co-brand such as Maestro, VPay or JCB for use abroad. The girocard website is operated by EURO Kartensysteme GmbH in Frankfurt am Main on behalf of the German banking industry.