So it is with your creditworthiness

The Schufa wants to become more transparent – a big promise after years in which the credit agency has been watching over its most important business secret with eagle eyes: the Schufa score. In the meantime, however, consumers can easily find out what their finances are like according to Schufa.

Score simulator ready: Schufa opens her book with seven seals

The Schufa has kept its promise. A simulation enables consumers to better understand how the often notorious Schufa score is composed. “The score simulator is another milestone on the way to the Schufa more transparency and consumer friendliness. This makes the scoring principle of the Schufa comprehensible for the first time,” said Tanja Birkholz, Chairwoman of the Schufa, on the occasion of the presentation of the simulator (source: Schufa).

But what exactly can consumers do with it? The Score simulator can be accessed online via the Schufa website. Based on seven questions you click through data that Schufa also uses for scoring: You are asked, for example, how old your oldest checking account is, whether you are servicing one or more current installment loans or buying online on account.

The Schufa receives it no private data of you. Instead, you choose the answer options that best suit you from the given options. There is an explanation for each question as to why and how the information plays a role in the assessment of the Schufa.

You will then get one of as a result five ratings: excellent, good, acceptable, sufficient or insufficient. The latter corresponds to the negative Schufa score. You only end up here if you have not paid outstanding bills despite a reminder or, for example, go into personal bankruptcy. Consumers can only get out of this category, even with the real Schufa score, if the outstanding claims have been settled.

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Good news for consumers: The simulator should provide reliable assessments

The score simulator does not provide a complete picture. More and more precise data is included in the real Schufa score. The Schufa had already given a first insight. If you answer the questions in the simulator honestly, you can still, according to Schufa a reliable result come out.

In 60.4 percent of cases should Result of the simulator correspond to the result class of the Schufa base score. This is calculated for orientation on the basis of the data known to Schufa about a person. According to the Schufa, 38.2 percent of people even get a better result in the base score than in the simulator, while only 1.4 percent do better in the base score than in the simulation – and are therefore less likely to be able to rely on the simulator result.