In March 2026, Schufa introduced a new credit score, which, according to the Federation of German Consumer Organizations (VZBV), was intended to make credit ratings more transparent. However, research by NDR and Süddeutsche Zeitung, as well as confirmation from the company, shows that a second, mortgage-based score, which the research indicates is not visible in the app, is also in use. According to Schufa, banks and companies decide on loan offers and their terms based on their own guidelines and criteria.
The new main score, which according to Schufa is supposed to be the central score, is sent out about 300,000 times per week, according to Süddeutsche Zeitung and NDR.
In April 2025, Schufa announced a new credit rating system, claiming to be the world’s first credit bureau with complete transparency, whose score consumers could calculate themselves using their own data without any statistical expertise. According to the company, it selected twelve criteria from more than 250 possible factors, whereas the six previous industry scores had used a total of around 100 criteria; each criterion receives points, the number of which reflects its weighting in the score. “The objective was to achieve the best possible predictive accuracy while ensuring transparency for consumers,” explained Schufa CEO Tanja Birkholz regarding the development. Schufa had already decided on the project, named Next Generation Scoring, in the fall of 2022, also taking into account a 2018 report by the German Federal Government’s Council of Experts on Consumer Affairs. At the same time, she announced the so-called Schufa account, which was intended to provide free digital insight into the stored credit-relevant data and to show, via an explanatory tool, how individual criteria affect the score based on one’s own data.
Schufa had originally announced the launch for the fourth quarter of 2025, as soon as enough corporate clients were using the score and the digital applications for consumers were available; it was then intended to replace the basic score used since 2006. In July 2026, the Hessian Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information declared the new score fundamentally lawful, because those affected could understand how their score was calculated based on the twelve publicly known criteria and their weighting.
Additional scores besides the central score
Schufa itself stated in response to inquiries from NDR and Süddeutsche Zeitung that it never communicated that there would only be one score in the future; its goal had always been to reduce the number of credit scores from around 50 to just a few. The new score is intended to be the central score and, according to the company, is expected to account for roughly 80 percent of all Schufa credit scores by the end of 2028. In addition, there will likely be a mortgage score, as well as opportunity scores, debt collection scores, and B2B scores, a spokesperson said. According to Schufa, consumers can view the data underlying the aggregation at any time in their Schufa data copy or via the app. Schufa stated that it cannot comment on how banks or companies use this additional information. According to Schufa, banks and other companies decide, based on their own guidelines and criteria, whether and under what conditions they offer a loan agreement.
Consumers reported unexplained devaluations from March to May 2026.
The Federation of German Consumer Organizations (VZBV) analyzed individual case descriptions from consumer advice centers’ consultation practices between March and May 2026 for a report. According to the VZBV, these are detailed descriptions of particularly conspicuous cases, from which conclusions about the frequency of such cases in the consultations or in the general population cannot be drawn. Several consumers reported that their credit score had worsened during the system changeover, even though neither their financial circumstances nor their payment behavior had changed; individual inquiries sometimes yielded no substantive answer or only general, non-case-specific feedback. “Consumers must be able to understand why their credit rating has changed and what factors are decisive,” said Ramona Pop, Executive Director of the VZBV. “Those who postpone important decisions out of uncertainty or concern about their own rating are having their personal freedom restricted,” she added. According to dts, after the research on the mortgage score became public, Claudio Zeitz-Brandmeyer from the association also questioned where the transparency gain of the Schufa offensive lay if, in addition to the new score, there were other scores unknown to consumers; it had been expected that Schufa would speak publicly about this and provide transparent information.
Legal requirements regarding the obligation to declare
A ruling by the European Court of Justice on December 7, 2023, largely subjected the creation of credit scores by credit agencies to the GDPR’s rules on automated decision-making, as the German government explained in response to a parliamentary inquiry. According to the Federation of German Consumer Organizations (VZBV), the classification as an automated decision depends on whether the score plays a significant role in granting credit. A further ECJ ruling from February 2025, according to the Wiesbaden Administrative Court, additionally requires that, in cases of automated decisions where the score is a decisive factor in a contractual relationship, the procedures and principles used to calculate the score must be explained in a precise, transparent, understandable, and easily accessible form. The Hessian data protection authority must therefore take action against Schufa, the court ruled; the means it chooses to do so are at its discretion. Should incorrect data have been stored as a result of the switch to the new score, those affected must submit requests for correction or deletion directly to Schufa, the Hessian supervisory authority explained. On April 17, 2026, the German Bundestag, according to the Federal Government, passed a revised version of the scoring regulations in the Federal Data Protection Act, including provisions on permissible data categories as well as transparency and information obligations. In its report, the Federation of German Consumer Organizations (VZBV) calls for legal clarification as to whether all external credit scores are reliably covered by these new regulations.
From November 2026, the regulations on consumer credit agreements adopted as part of the EU Consumer Credit Directive will come into force. Consumers will then have the right to a human review if the assessment of their creditworthiness is based on automated processing of personal data.
Source: denkstrom.org
