There are many misconceptions about Schufa.
We will examine the most common ones below.
What Schufa is and how to order it, we have covered in this article.
🎈 MYTH: better not to request your own SCHUFA too often.
🎁TRUTH: Many residents in Germany know that once a year they can apply to receive their data free of charge. Many also suspect that such a request damages their credit score. That is not the case. The credit score is only noticeably worsened by entries such as defaults or multiple credit enquiries in a short space of time.
🎈 MYTH: it pays to use companies that offer “loans without SCHUFA”
🎁TRUTH: This is about companies engaged in fraudulent activity. A firm cannot just hand out money left, right and centre. The client is sweet-talked into higher loan terms, paying deposits, and a risky venture where there is a chance they may never see their money again.
🎈 MYTH: the data held by SCHUFA is reliable.
🎁TRUTH: A credit agency is not an official or government body obliged to verify data for accuracy, and it simply does not have the means to investigate facts it knows nothing about. Rather, it looks like a collection point for information on residents, which is provided to credit institutions upon request. Moreover, the agency itself depends on those very credit institutions and public directories to the extent that the latter provide reliable and accurate information about citizens. Thus, it is possible that a rating agency’s credit report may contain erroneous data based on incorrect information received from the reporting organisation. The good news is that incorrect information in the Schufa database can be deleted by sending them a deletion request🖊
🎈 MYTH: ending up in the SCHUFA database ruins your life for years.
🎁TRUTH: In fact, Schufa does not have access to citizens’ personal information, and consequently, the following information cannot be passed on to creditors: profession, marital status, citizenship, nationality, religion, memberships, income level, existing assets and savings. Schufa’s primary duty is to comply with the law on the protection of private data.
How to check your SCHUFA free of charge
❗❗❗IT IS IMPORTANT to check your Schufa for incorrect information!
A free copy of your data is the Datenkopie under Article 15 GDPR. The old “once a year” limit no longer applies: you may request a copy more often. Separately, the agency sells the paid SCHUFA-Auskunft certificate — you need it when the document has to be handed to someone, a landlord for example. Order it on the agency’s website:
www.meineschufa.de
VIDEO instruction — how free request a Schufa check.
Any questions? Write to us and we will reply in detail.
