4 ms·
I don’t know how it’s in other countries, but Schufa is a monopolist and feels like simply paying a tax. You have no choice. Interestingly, I didn’t need a cre
by f6v 3y ago
I don’t know how it’s in other countries, but Schufa is a monopolist and feels like simply paying a tax. You have no choice.
Interestingly, I didn’t need a credit check to rent in Belgium and Denmark.
- mschild 3y agoThere are 3 other companies in Germany that offer the same service. Schufa is the most well-known one but far from a monopoly. That said, I agree with you. It needs to go.
- bun_terminator 3y agoI have never heard of that. Schufa is THE thing you need for everything. Hard to believe they're not a monopoly in practice?
- rob74 3y agoMaybe it's the same as with TÜV? There are other companies that offer the mandatory recurring technical inspection of your car ("Hauptuntersuchung"), e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dekra https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dekra, but "TÜV" has become synonymous with the process itself...
- Aachen 3y agoSame in the Netherlands, and I can personally corroborate that you don't need it in Belgium. Finland also didn't need it but for a temporary student apartment that might be different. Currently in Germany, yeah... we paid the Schufa tax twice over because we're two people renting together, and the GDPR data export thingy conveniently omits the credit score they've computed about you... Was considering whether one can make use of the 14-day return thing, but they've thought of that: it uses a sealed envelope that's hard to open without leaving evidence (under a guise of having a nice opener mechanism).
- pjmlp 3y agoI only know something like Schufa here in Germany, never needed something like that in Portugal, UK, France, Switzerland.
- hocuspocus 3y agoIn Switzerland for a proper lease, you likely need to provide a (clean) record from the debt collection register. But it's a government run agency, as it should. No score. Debt collectors can file claims a bit too easily and there are errors, but you can also challenge them easily.
- bombcar 3y agoMost countries have something allowing liens against property; liens against persons are harder to keep track of (hence things like credit burros spring up).
- pjmlp 3y agoBack when I was actually living there, 2003 - 2004, it was only the painful interview process as if applying for a job, but I didn't had to provide anything else.
- hocuspocus 3y agoDebt collection records were definitely a thing 20 years ago. But it sounds like you were dealing with an individual landlord, that's kinda rare. They might be more willing to use common sense and not ask useless documents from someone who just arrived in the country. On the other hand, big property management companies will typically not bother with an application that doesn't tick all the boxes.
- pjmlp 3y agoBeing at CERN helped, it wasn't individuals, but it took about three months, and several attempts.
- hulitu 3y ago> I don’t know how it’s in other countries, but Schufa is a monopolist and feels like simply paying a tax It looks more like the Mafia. You pay a protection tax but this does not guaranty anything.
- harha 3y agomight be worth fixing the problem all together by making it easier to kick out people who don't pay rent.
- tetris11 3y agoIn a better world I could maybe believe that giving landlords more power could make the system more efficient, but... well...
- harha 3y agoThe amount of paperwork to rent in Germany is just silly, so the landlord can have a higher likelihood of getting the agreed rent paid. That’s an additional cost when I want to rent a place and I’d rather not have a that at the cost of being kicked out when I don’t pay.
- ClumsyPilot 3y agoBecause landlords have never abused their power for financial gain, malice or outright to get sexual favours from desperate tenants It took nearly 10 for my previous landlord to face the justice. She was completely outrageous and shameless in her crimes - blatantly in violation of registration for HMC, violation of planning permissions, squalor, disrepair, the houses had rats and literal hole in the wall for rain and wind. She would harass gullible and naive students, illegally evict them, etc. and all her crimes were on written record. And she was doing it with impunity for years. For all that, her punishment is a slap on the wrist - https://www.birmingham.gov.uk/news/article/266/rogue_landlord_ordered_to_pay_ground-breaking_fine https://www.birmingham.gov.uk/news/article/266/rogue_landlor...
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- jonp888 3y agoYou don't need to pay. You can get a report for free showing all the information they have about you. It just doesn't show the score. I have never known anyone to demand the paid version.
- shellfishgene 3y agoThis is exactly what the lawsuit is about, they hide the free version and it does not contain all information.