The present invention relates to the use of an ARQ method, especially a hybrid-ARQ-method, in order to carry out a reliable packet orientation data transfer, preferably, using a mobile radio system. When requesting a transmission data packet for the bits of the retransmission data packet, a different rate adaptation model is used in comparison with the bits corresponding originally sent data packets. A particular advantage of the present method is that the bit-rate adaptation is carried out by dividing the bits which are to be transferred into a number of partial bit flows with respectively separate bit rate adaptation.