Recently, there has been a trend among young people to accumulate debts with Klarna and then present them online. But that can be dangerous.
Frankfurt – Buy now, pay later. The payment provider Klarna lures with this promise. This lure of supposedly unbridled direct consumption has recently made fun of many young people on Tiktok, in which they reported their high debts to Klarna. This resulted in a real competition in which adolescents wanted to outbid each other with the higher level of debt at Klarna.
After all, almost two-thirds of Germans use financial apps such as Klarna, Paypal or others. But this carelessness when accumulating debt with Klarna could be glaring in the past. In the end, your own creditworthiness could even be at stake.
Negative creditworthiness due to payments via Klarna? What influences the Schufa score
With every purchase on account or with installment payments, a small loan is taken out with the company when using Klarna. This is also the case if it is a purchase on account that is later paid for in good time. In turn, taking out small loans has had a negative impact on the Schufa score in the past, which plays a major role in the conclusion of contracts, among other things. In the worst case, looking for a flat with a negative score can become an odyssey. According to the company’s website, the score can be influenced by:
- Payment disruptions, unfulfilled payment obligations and outstanding claims
- a specific loan request that shows that a deal is to be made
- Credit Utilization / Number of Credit Agreements
The Schufa score not only evaluates your own creditworthiness, but also passes it on to banks, landlords and other contract providers. With this information, they can assess the individual solvency. Unpaid bills or an account with a negative balance have a negative effect on the individual Schufa score when it comes to the question of creditworthiness. If this is too low in the negative range, you will no longer be able to conclude cell phone contracts or rental contracts in the future, for example. In addition to disadvantages on the housing market, insolvency can even threaten in the end.
Klarna: This is how the Schufa calculates the creditworthiness
Important dates for the Score calculation are the Schufa
- checking account
- Credit card
- guarantee
- installment loan
- Mobile leasing / hire purchase
- Inquiry about checking accounts / inquiry about credit card 7 Inquiry about suretyship
- Loan request / mobile leasing request / hire-purchase
- contract and credit terms
- Those: schufa.de
Klarna: The creditworthiness is checked for every purchase on account
In the past, the Schufa was informed about every purchase that was processed via payment service providers such as Klarna. This regulates Article 6 in the General Data Protection Regulation. The problem: Credit requests from the Schufa can lower the credit rating. Multiple loans also reduce the creditworthiness of the borrower, since the borrower has to service several loans. In the worst case, you end up with bad credit, regardless of whether the bills were always paid on time.
In the past, when paying by Klarna on account or in installments, a loan was always taken out from the financial service provider first. Behind which stands its own bank. For this reason, Klarna requested a credit check from the Schufa when purchasing on account or credit to check the creditworthiness. If the loan was then guaranteed, this in turn could have a negative effect on the Schufa score. According to the latest statement from Klarna, this should now be a thing of the past.
Pay on account via Klarna: No more negative effects on creditworthiness
According to a recent report on the website von Klarna: “In the past, when our customers use Klarna purchase on account, this has had a minor effect on the Schufa score.” The reason for this is the Schufa scoring model, which disadvantages the credit form of purchase on account. “Now that is no longer the case. The Klarna purchase on account now has no More impact on the Schufa score.”
Consumers who want to check their personal Schufa score can do so once a year free of charge meinschufa.de under the point „kostenlose Datenkopie“ apply for. If you want to know how your own credit rating is, you can also use the score simulator. (Niklas Mueller)
