Schufa (German credit agency)

Schufa (Schutzgemeinschaft für allgemeine Kreditsicherung) is Germany's largest credit bureau – it stores data about your payment behaviour and calculates your credit score.

Figures:

• 68 million people on record
• 400,000+ enquiries per day
• Over 10,000 contractual partners (banks, landlords, telecom providers)

New scoring system (since 2026):

• Scale: 100–999 points (instead of percentages as before)
• Over 700: very good – best terms
• 500–700: good to satisfactory
• Under 500: problematic – loans/rental contracts difficult

What IMPROVES your score:

• Paying bills on time (the most important factor!)
• Few accounts/credit cards (not unnecessarily many)
• Long-standing customer relationships
• "Conditions enquiries" instead of "credit enquiries" when comparing offers

What WORSENS your score:

• Unpaid bills / debt collection
• Many credit enquiries in a short time
• Frequent account switching
• Statutory declaration of assets / insolvency

How long do entries remain?

• Settled negative entries: 3 years after settlement
• Discharge of residual debt: 6 months (shortened since 2023!)
• Credit enquiries: 12 months

Free self-disclosure: once a year free of charge via meineschufa.de ("data copy under Art. 15 GDPR"). Check that all data is correct – errors do happen!