faq
All stored data on creditworthiness plus a warning system that informs about negative entries – that’s what the app from the Schufa subsidiary Bonify promises. What’s the deal with the free application? How safe is she? An overview.
What is the Bonify app?
The credit agency Schufa wants to inform consumers of its own accord in the future if there is a negative entry in their creditworthiness data. In addition, users can view their personal Schufa score via the application. For this purpose, the credit agency wants to use the already existing app “Bonify Finanzmanager” from the subsidiary Bonify. This was bought by Schufa at the end of 2022. So far, the app has 1.1 million registered users.
From 2024, a Schufa score simulation should also be possible via the application. Users could then test, for example, what impact an installment loan would have on their personal creditworthiness.
How does registration work?
In order to be able to use the data query of the Schufa base score, consumers must register with the app – with their ID card or a residence permit. By the end of the year, further creditworthiness-related data stored by the credit agency should also be available.
It is also possible to register using your own bank account. Those who use this function are currently granting the financial company Bonify access to their own account for 90 days – if the connection to the account is not deleted after registration.
According to the Schufa, it wants to introduce further ways of identification – for example with the electronic identity card. In addition, in the future there should be the option of using one’s own bank account only for identification, without the release or consent to the use of the account data.
Schufa
The business model of the “protection group for general loan security” founded in 1927 includes collecting data. On this basis, Schufa provides its approximately 10,000 contractual partners – including other banks and savings banks, mail order companies and energy suppliers – with a legitimate interest in assessing the creditworthiness (creditworthiness) of consumers.
According to its own statements, Schufa currently has information on 68 million people. More than 90 percent “only positive information is stored”. The credit agency provides companies with an average of 320,000 reports per day. In addition to the Schufa, there are other credit agencies in Germany, such as Creditreform and Crif.
Does Schufa have insights into accounts?
Schufa emphasizes that Bonify is a separate company. The two entities could not access each other’s information. The Schufa writes that the transfer of data between the two companies is only possible with the explicit consent of the user.
However, the voluntary insight into one’s own account can help so that the credit agency can better assess the creditworthiness, according to the Schufa website: “More data leads to fairer and better scores for most people.” So far, the Schufa knows who has how many bank accounts and credit cards, but not how much money is in the accounts and what it is used for. Anyone who previously had a bad Schufa score can show by passing on the data that there is enough money in the account to pay future bills.
The insights into the accounts will, “if at all, be about the income,” says Schufa boss Tanja Birkholz to the weekly newspaper “Die Zeit”. “Whether someone donates money to Greenpeace or is involved with a party is irrelevant for the credit rating.”
What are the criticisms of the process?
The citizens’ movement Finanzwende criticized that Bonify was a Trojan horse from their point of view. “Bonify is a sales platform for loans and other financial products. Customers are lured into an app with the option of calling up the Schufa score, where they may later be offered expensive financial products,” explained Michael Möller from Finanzwende. The registration in the app is “obviously interest-driven”.
In addition, the Schufa would be even more powerful than it already is through the insight into account data, criticized the Finanzwende board member Gerhard Schick. In the petition “Keep your hands off my account!” call for a change in finance and the campaign organization Campact: “Schufa should give a clear rejection of any plans to access the account information of third parties – whether via Bonify or in future projects.”
Even if data sharing is voluntary in theory, in practice many people would have no choice. They would be lured with the hope of a better rating, the petition says. Schufa is trying to dispel skepticism about the plans by “interposing a supposedly neutral subsidiary and its Bonify app”.
The initiators of the petition also demand that Schufa make its scoring process completely transparent for suitable supervisory authorities, courts and expert committees. So far, more than 310,000 people have signed the appeal.
Calculation of the Schufa score
Schufa does not disclose exactly how the score is calculated. Her argument: “If the calculation model were completely open, the score could be manipulated and would no longer have any value.” However, the formula for calculating the score is “known to the responsible data protection authority and is checked by it and by independent scientists”. Above all, unpaid bills play a role.
With a score simulator on its website, Schufa wants to provide more transparency as to which factors play a role.
What does the Schufa say about data security?
“It is important for us to make it clear that Schufa and Bonify are related to each other as parent and subsidiary companies, but both are and will remain legally independent – also through separate data rooms,” says Schufa boss Burkholz. Without explicit consent, no data would flow from Schufa to Bonify and vice versa, she assures. According to the online presentation of the Bonify app, only specific personal data would be used for precisely defined, unambiguous and legitimate purposes. “This serves to make the data manageable and controllable.”
Are there other ways to get Schufa data?
It is still possible to obtain information about your own data directly from Schufa. For example, the data copy can be ordered according to Art. 15 DS-GVO. This is a free overview of your own data stored at Schufa. This is usually sent by post within seven working days.