diff --git a/builtin/fetch.c b/builtin/fetch.c
index 8d5b2dba2b..635bbdfc88 100644
--- a/builtin/fetch.c
+++ b/builtin/fetch.c
@@ -979,17 +979,15 @@ static int get_remote_group(const char *key, const char *value, void *priv)
 {
 	struct remote_group_data *g = priv;
 
-	if (starts_with(key, "remotes.") &&
-			!strcmp(key + 8, g->name)) {
+	if (skip_prefix(key, "remotes.", &key) && !strcmp(key, g->name)) {
 		/* split list by white space */
-		int space = strcspn(value, " \t\n");
 		while (*value) {
-			if (space > 1) {
+			size_t wordlen = strcspn(value, " \t\n");
+
+			if (wordlen >= 1)
 				string_list_append(g->list,
-						   xstrndup(value, space));
-			}
-			value += space + (value[space] != '\0');
-			space = strcspn(value, " \t\n");
+						   xstrndup(value, wordlen));
+			value += wordlen + (value[wordlen] != '\0');
 		}
 	}