Your SCHUFA data copy: free, and what it is good for
Before a bank looks at your credit record, you can. It costs nothing, it is your right under Article 15 of the GDPR, and it is the same data the lender will be handed. SCHUFA calls this product the Datenkopie.
In short
Is the SCHUFA data copy really free?
Yes. Article 15 GDPR gives you the right to a copy of the data held about you, at no charge. SCHUFA meets that with the Datenkopie, which you request from it directly and receive by post. A fee may be charged only where a request is manifestly unfounded or excessive.
There is no fixed annual limit: the "once a year" rule comes from the German data protection act before 2018, and the GDPR does not know it. After a correction you can simply request it again. What costs money are the paid products: the online subscription with ongoing access, and the BonitätsAuskunft that many landlords want to see. For a mortgage you need neither — anyone who obtains the free record for you against a fee is selling you something you can apply for yourself in five minutes.
Is the data copy really free?
Yes. Article 15 GDPR gives you the right to a copy of the data held about you, at no charge. A fee may be charged only where a request is manifestly unfounded or excessive.
Only once a year?
No — that was the rule in the German data protection act before 2018. The GDPR sets no fixed annual limit. After a correction you can request it again.
What is it you pay for, then?
The paid products: the online subscription with ongoing access, and the BonitätsAuskunft that many landlords want to see. For a mortgage you need neither.
Who arranges the financing?
Perini Finance & Property — licensed under §34i GewO, 650+ banks compared. I know the lenders whose credit policy works with a thin German file, and I tell you what your record means before a bank reads it.
Data copy, subscription or paid certificate — which paper you need
SCHUFA offers several records and only one of them is the free one. That is why so many people pay: the paid product sits high on the start page, the data copy further down.
- Data copy under Article 15 GDPRfree — everything stored about you, where each entry came from, and the score values. This is the paper you check your own file with.
- Online access by subscriptionpaid — continuous access and notification when something changes. Convenient, but not needed for a one-off check before a financing request.
- SCHUFA BonitätsAuskunftpaid — the shortened version made for showing to someone else, usual for rental applications. It shows less than the data copy.
The data copy is requested directly from SCHUFA. Third-party services that obtain the free record for a fee are selling you a route you can walk yourself in a few minutes.
Requesting it — and when to do that
Before the bank enquiry, not after it. That is the whole trick. A wrong entry can be corrected, but not overnight: SCHUFA has to go back to the company that reported it. Anyone who requests the copy once a bank has already run its check loses weeks — and in a live purchase, weeks are what you do not have.
You need proof of identity for the request, and the copy is sent by post to your registered address; that is part of establishing it is really you asking. Factor in the postal time and file the request as soon as the property search gets serious, not once you have found something.
What the copy shows
The copy lists which contracts and accounts were reported, who has made an enquiry in recent months, and for each entry the date on which it will be deleted. It also carries the score values SCHUFA passes to banks, retailers and landlords, together with the features that fed into them.
Two things regularly surprise people. First, settled contracts that were repaid cleanly stay on file for a while — that is normal and no disadvantage. Second, a bank's conditions enquiry is not the same as a credit enquiry: only the latter is visible to other lenders and can move the score.
A wrong entry: correction and deletion
An entry that is not correct has to be rectified — that is Article 16 GDPR. An entry that may no longer be stored has to be erased, Article 17. You claim both from SCHUFA, naming the disputed entry from your data copy.
SCHUFA then checks back with the reporting company. While that check runs, the entry is marked as disputed. This is why lead time matters: a disputed entry in a live procedure is a different thing for a bank than an unchallenged one.
No SCHUFA because you live abroad — and still buying in Germany
Anyone who has lived in Switzerland, Singapore or the United States for years often has no SCHUFA file at all, or only old entries from before the move. The data copy then shows little or nothing. That is not a blemish; it follows from the bureau recording only what German contract partners report.
For a German bank it is still a hurdle: its standard process expects a record. Some lenders decline at this point because their process provides no alternative. Others replace the missing record with what is actually meaningful — account statements, employment contract, a creditworthiness reference from the bank where you live, evidence of where the income comes from. The work is finding, among 650+ banks, the one whose credit policy provides for that route.
No SCHUFA record — how German banks assess you → · Financing with a residence abroad →
What the bank asks for on top
The record says what others have reported about you. It says nothing about your income, your assets and your running costs — and that is exactly what the bank needs for the creditworthiness assessment. The full list is in the checklist: non-resident mortgage checklist.
The data copy — briefly answered
Does requesting my own copy hurt my score?
How often is it free?
I do not live in Germany — will I be asked for it anyway?
Does the bank see the same document I do?
What if I have no record at all?
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