The Schufa is criticized because consumers should disclose more data in the future. This is voluntary, emphasizes the credit agency. She announced that she would soon offer a free data query and proactively inform about negative entries.
The credit agency Schufa wants to inform consumers in the future if there is a negative entry in their data. In order to be able to use the free data query, which should be available by the end of the year, consumers would have to register with the Schufa app Bonify, Schufa boss Tanja Birkholz told the weekly newspaper “Die Zeit”. This Schufa service currently costs money.
Insights into Schufa accounts
In addition, consumers could voluntarily grant Schufa insights into their accounts from 2024. In this way, the credit agency can better assess the creditworthiness of people.
“If anything, it will be about income. Whether someone donates money to Greenpeace or is involved in a party is irrelevant for the credit rating,” said Birkholz. Everyone has to expressly agree to the use of data anyway.
Regarding the disclosure of the secret algorithm that Schufa uses to assess the creditworthiness of consumers, the Schufa boss said that “we can only talk about it” if all the other credit bureaus do the same.
Criticism of Schufa plans
The citizens’ movement Finanzwende had criticized the plans. “With an insight into account data, Schufa would become even more powerful than it already is,” said Gerhard Schick, board member of the association, recently.
The citizens’ movement Finanzwende wants Schufa to stop the project and also to disclose the exact calculation of their Schufa scores for assessing the creditworthiness of consumers. “Is the data transfer really voluntary if I don’t get a rental apartment without a good Schufa rating and can only achieve this good Schufa rating by looking at the account?” asked Schick.
The network Campact is also currently campaigning for support for a petition entitled “Keep your hands off my account”, which is directed against the collection of account information by third parties by the Schufa. Just over 287,000 people have signed the online petition. The initiators of the petition argue that Schufa wants to use the Bonify app to “tempt people to also provide Schufa with sensitive account information via the Bonify app.” Even if the credit agency says that users can decide for themselves whether they want to send their account data to the Schufa or not: “In fact, they put a lot of people under massive pressure: If you only have a chance of finding an apartment with an improved rating, you have the data transfer no real choice.”
App is designed to help consumers
Schufa defended itself against the criticism. With Bonify, all consumers can be offered free digital insight into stored data by the end of the year. “Schufa will soon be providing private individuals with their personal Schufa base score digitally and free of charge via the Bonify app. The aim is to offer people a digital assessment of their creditworthiness at any time,” said the credit agency on request.
In addition, 2024 users in the Bonify app should be able to simulate what influence certain scenarios would have on their score – for example the termination of a current account.
Why the Schufa rating is important
Banks, telecommunications services or energy suppliers ask private credit agencies such as Schufa about a person’s creditworthiness.
The Schufa then provides an assessment, the “score value”. According to its own statements, it has collected data on around 68 million people and forms the score on this basis. Consumer and data protection advocates have long criticized the data collection and scoring by Schufa.