Anyone who wants to take out a loan or sign a rental agreement will feel the uncanny power of the Schufa. The credit report from Germany’s largest credit agency has a significant impact on how creditworthy you are. How exactly the infamous Schufa score comes about and what data is included was completely opaque for a long time.
In order to counter such criticism, Schufa has been more transparent for some time. It even offers an online tool that you can use to calculate the Schufa score yourself. The most important points that are used for the calculation are also explained there. The “Bild” called the Schufa now six specific additional features that are included in the calculation. These are:
The score simulator, which was launched last year on www.schufa.de, names seven basic components for calculating your personal score. It also explains what has a positive and negative effect:
Schufa saves first and last name, date of birth and address and, if applicable, previous addresses as personal data. Personal information on marital status, religion, nationality, salary and assets is not recorded by the Schufa.
However, the credit agency does not provide complete insight into the Schufa formula. How exactly which data is offset against each other in individual cases cannot be understood from the outside. Schufa also includes other data not mentioned. With the appropriate user approval, she can even get access to account data via the recently launched Schufa app “Bonify”.
