All you need to know about Schufa

 It’s not always simple to keep track of your own money. Especially if you are new to Germany or have recently arrived. You’ll have many contracts, at least one current account, a credit card, maybe a loan, an Amazon account, and utility bills, among other things.

You would have agreed to this condition when you signed these contracts, which stated that the data would be sent to a business named SCHUFA. SCHUFA is one of two major corporations in Germany that do credit checks on individuals and businesses. According to article 15 of the GDPR, you have the right to request a copy of the personal data that each firm, including SCHUFA, has on you.

What Is Schufa And Which Kind Of Data Do They Store?

Schufa is a corporation that makes money by giving information about the creditworthiness and credit ratings of business partners to interested parties/affiliates. This can include both private individuals and commercial organisations / corporations. Whether you ask for a loan from a bank  the bank will look up your information on Schufa to determine if you have already defaulted on a few loans or are late on payments. The loan would be authorised if true for holding only contains favourable facts about you. Apart from loans, Schufa is examined whenever you make an instalment payment or want to get into a contract, such as with the phone provider.

Also read: What is Ancillary cost in property in germany

Request SCHUFA Information For Free

Although SCHUFA stores a lot of data only a few data points are passed on to the business partners if they request them. Schufa will hand out data based on the requirement. For everyone who asks, Schufa provides a copy according to article 15 GDPR, they will provide a free Schufa report where you can check which banks score you in which manner and which data is stored at Schufa

If you are planning to buy a home or in apartment you should check the Schufa report in order to see if they have correct data off you because the home loan will be granted / interest rates might change depending upon schufa score.

you can also get data changed there for the good if you see any wrong data points in the report.

Free SCHUFA Information Will Have Following Information

All personal data stored at SCHUFA (e.g name, current address, date of birth, previous addresses, etc.)

The base score (assessment of the risk of default)

All transmitted score values (industry scores) of the last twelve months (each bank, might have a different score, which should not worry you — they just have different experience with you as a client and also have different algorithms to calculate the score)