Schufa’s Plan to Access Consumer’s Account Data Sparks Controversy

The credit agency Schufa wants to take a look at the accounts of consumers. This is to improve creditworthiness. There is resistance.

Berlin/Munich – The business information Schufa has a lot of power in Germany. If you want to take out a loan, move into a new apartment or lease a car: there is no way around the Schufa. Everything that contributes to creditworthiness is collected here. Schufa is often criticized for a lack of transparency, because nobody really knows exactly how Schufa evaluates the data and ultimately calculates the score on the basis of which a consumer receives a loan – or not.

Now the Schufa wants to go one step further and gain insight into the accounts of citizens in Germany. Allegedly only if this improves the creditworthiness. But some don’t really want to believe that.

Transparent citizen? Schufa wants to see the account data – the Finanzwende association resists

The plans of Schufa – which sometimes confuses people – are a Trojan horse, said Gerhard Schick, board member of the Finanzwende association. “With insight into account data, Schufa would become even more powerful than it already is.” Finanzwende wants to use a petition to get Schufa to stop the project and also discloses the exact calculation of their Schufa scores to assess the creditworthiness of consumers. So far, 168,856 people have signed the petition (as of June 24).

At the center of the criticism is the Bonify financial platform, which Schufa bought at the end of 2022. In the future, customers should be able to provide the credit agency with additional information via the app – voluntarily, with their consent and only if the data improves the score. That emphasizes Credit bureau all the time, but she still believes that not everyone in Germany should participate in financial life to the same extent.

Schufa wants to see the account data of the citizens: data transfer should be voluntary

The citizens’ movement Finanzwende sees it differently. “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?” Schick asks. The criticism is not entirely unjustified, after all it also happens that the Mismatches Schufa data, resulting in incorrect Schufa entries.

The Schufa rating is important for consumers. 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.

Three years ago, Schufa wanted to persuade citizens to disclose account statements

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. “In the coming year, consumers should be able to simulate in the app with real data how they can influence their score.” According to the company, there are no detailed concepts for this yet. “Therefore there is no basis for this criticism.”

The accusation that the Schufa score plays a role in the housing market is also not true. “Our products for the housing market do not show a score, because scoring has no place in the housing market.”

The skepticism of the association Finanzwende is appropriate from the point of view of the board, because the idea of ​​Schufa to take a look at the account is not new. About three years ago, the Schufa wanted to persuade consumers to provide insights into the account statements in order to get a better score. After fierce resistance, the plans were dropped. (jon/dpa)