2023-07-18 15:45:57
“Black box” and “data octopus” are just two terms that consumers associate with Schufa. Since taking office in 2020, CEO Tanja Birkholz has set herself the goal of changing that and making Germany’s largest credit agency more consumer-friendly and transparent.
Therefore, consumers now have the opportunity to view their Schufa base score free of charge and digitally via the “Bonify” platform. “This offer is another milestone in the transformation of Schufa,” said the CEO of Schufa Holding Tanja Birkholz during a press conference. In 2022, Schufa took over the Berlin Fintech Forteil, which operates the Bonify financial platform. The platform currently has 1.1 million registered users.
By buying Forteil, Schufa is taking advantage of their expertise from the Bonify platform, says Birkholz. This knowledge is to be used in order to be able to offer a separate Schufa app in the coming year. From 2024 onwards, free digital insight into your own data should then be possible directly at the Schufa. Birkholz explains that the Bonify platform is now being used as a catalyst to give consumers transparency about their data and score as early as this year.
Financial turnaround is alarmed and speaks of a “Trojan horse”
According to Birkholz, a question consumers frequently ask the Schufa is how their own credit rating can be improved. Therefore, one wants to give customers the opportunity in the future to voluntarily transmit further financial data such as salary or rent payments and thus improve their base score. “We promise all users that no data will be passed on to the Schufa without their consent,” emphasizes Birkholz. However, there is currently no concept as to which account data should be queried. But you want to communicate transparently as soon as the time comes. In addition to the base score of the Schufa, Bonify also shows its users the creditworthiness score of the credit agency Creditreform, the rental report with a Schufa credit check, an overview of your own finances and savings, and an indicator that is intended to help you better understand your own financial situation. This works because the Bonify platform has an interface to users’ bank accounts. If the user agrees, Bonify will have access to the user’s account data.
The citizens’ movement Finanzwende is alarmed and speaks of a “Trojan horse”. “With an insight into account data, Schufa would become even more powerful than it already is,” criticizes Gerhard Schick, board member at Finanzwende. “Bonify is a sales platform for loans and other financial products and the ability to call up the Schufa score is a tempting offer,” warns Michael Möller, consumer protection officer at the Finanzwende citizens’ movement. “Combined with the Schufa plans for an allegedly voluntary account insight, this business model is highly problematic from our point of view.”
The possibility of calling up the score digitally is already available on the Schufa website, but consumers have to pay for it. If you want to have free insight into your Schufa data without intermediaries, the only option left is the letter form.
Mark Fehr Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 5 Published/Updated: Recommendations: 16 Markus Frühauf Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 7
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