
Anyone who makes major purchases in Germany, agrees payment plans, takes out a loan or rents an apartment often has to show positive Schufa information. The fact that credit bureaus tap data from mobile phone contracts from millions of customers for this purpose without any cause calls for consumer advocates.
Consumer protection alarms: Schufa saves data on cell phone contracts
Anyone who has a mobile phone contract knows: The chosen provider has personal data, knows whether payments are made on time and reliably, and much more. One does not necessarily expect that a lot of data will not stay with the cell phone provider. But the Schufa and other credit agencies store information from millions of cell phone users in Germany.
According to consumer advocates, this is only possible with express consent (source: Tagesschau) - and has been doing so since May 2018. This was reiterated in a follow-up decision from September 2021. According to this, credit agencies are only allowed to store the data of debtors or fraudsters. But anyone who has not become conspicuous should not be known to the Schufa via his or her mobile phone contract. A dispute about this has already landed before EU judges.
Anyone who attracts attention through cell phone data has a bad chance
"We are very worried that people will be made transparent here and that they may not get any contracts in the future because they like to change providers from time to time and so they may be exhausting from the company's point of view. That is the wrong way, "says Klaus Müller, head of the German Consumer Association (VZBV). Even tougher rules would be conceivable.
As the VZBV boss feared, changers could be disadvantaged without getting into debt . If frequent provider changes are included in your Schufa score, a new provider could reject you as a customer.
Even if you should stand out at the Schufa, it makes sense to terminate the mobile phone contract:
The processing of data on mobile phone contracts is "a decades-long practice that has not been objected to, and which, at best, has only been criticized by consumers", says the Association of German Credit Bureaus. (Source: The credit reporting agencies). Schufa and Co. see the benefit in the fact that consumers can receive such a positive rating, even if, for example, they have never taken out a loan. Everything will be done to maintain the procedure.
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