Steuernummer
 

I want to know if a company in Germany really exists before I give them my credit card info, so they gave me their Steuernummer and something called a UST ID #. Does this prove anything? Is there anyway I can check it out?

I have of course no idea if you unserstand German, but here are two homepages explaining what Steuernummer and UST numbers are:

http://www.bff-online.de/ust/useg/UST_IdNr_.html
http://www.lrz-muenchen.de/~rgerling...uernummer.html

If you need more help, don't hesitate to send me a PM. You will understand that without the number or the name of the firm I cannot check the bona fide of the company you are referring to.

These two numbers are NOT a guarantee that the company is financially stable, it is just the account number that each firm has for the collection of VAT and other taxes.

There are however ways to find out, but one would need more details.

Good luck

I agree with magexpect.

You could use a company like this:
http://www.ads-germany.de/english/di...tung/index.htm

In Germany, on the letter head should be the name of their bank. You could call the bank, they may or may not give you "some information".

http://www.creditreform.de/eng/company/index.php

But: Membership required! Try to find anyone who is a member (i.e. lawyers...). The Creditreform information itself is about 35 EUR each.

If it's about finding out if the company exists it depends on the jurisdictional form of that company whether you might find it in a local "company register" courts directory, as companys have to be registered.