SCHUFA stores information about the previous payment history of consumers in order to provide authorized recipients with information to assess the creditworthiness of individuals. Therefore, this data cannot simply be deleted.

In 2018, the introduction of the GDPR meant that the specific legal regulations of the old BDSG for review and storage periods for personal data by credit agencies no longer applied. However, in order to ensure that personal data is not stored for longer than necessary, the GDPR still stipulates that companies must provide for corresponding standard periods.

The regulation of review and retention periods was therefore included for the first time in the Code of Conduct (CoC) of May 2018. The CoC was renegotiated in May 2024 in order to continue to create legal certainty and clarity for consumers and companies with regard to verification and retention periods. The credit agencies in Germany are represented by the association "Die Wirtschaftsauskunfteien e.V.". It has agreed a new with representatives of the Data Protection Conference (DSK), which consists of the independent data protection authorities of the federal and state governments, to regulate the review and storage periods. This has been approved by the Hessian Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (HBDI) and binds the association members that have joined it - including SCHUFA - to the deadlines set out therein.

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What about information that is not used for scoring? Can this be deleted?

Data that is only stored for documentation purposes can be deleted when the documentation purpose has been achieved. Such information is, for example, a request for credit terms. It has no influence on the credit score. Requests for credit terms are stored at SCHUFA if, for example, you compare credit offers and the relevant banks carry out a credit check at SCHUFA. As soon as you have seen in your information that the bank has carried out a check with SCHUFA, you can have the information deleted from SCHUFA - because the documentation purpose, namely that you see the request, has been achieved and is therefore no longer applicable. The information can therefore be deleted. However, this information is also automatically deleted after 12 months.

Only up-to-date and correct data leads to secure mutual protection against payment defaults. That is why the quality of our data is our top priority and is continuously monitored by us. If you have checked the data stored about you and found that something is not correct, simply notify our private customer service and we will clarify the matter.

You can have this data deleted or corrected by SCHUFA:

• Information stored for documentation purposes
• Incorrect information
• Outdated information

The new SCHUFA account offers consumers a digital insight into their creditworthiness data and their SCHUFA score.