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German credit agency earns millions through unlawful customer manipulation

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Re: German credit agency earns millions through unlawful customer manipulation

#51

Post by ffsm8 »

ArmandGrillet wrote: post #37

Finally. Germany combines some of the worst aspects of the US (credit ranking, complicated abortion process, private healthcare if you want decent treatments) with the worst aspects of Europe (low digitalization, high taxation, recursive federalism: within the country and within the EU). A country like the Netherlands has its own issues (mainly housing) but doesn't have the myriad of pain points you can find in Germa…

> public healthcare inaccessible despite paying more than 400€/month for it as a single individual.

That's a pretty new thing though (been getting worse for the last 10 yrs). And the person responsible for the legislature that caused this change is the current health minister.

Also... 400€? It's a percentage of your salary. And you're omitting that the employer pays the same amount, so you're effectively paying 800€ at the very least.

Re: German credit agency earns millions through unlawful customer manipulation

#52

Post by harha »

tetris11 wrote: post #40
harha wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

might be worth fixing the problem all together by making it easier to kick out people who don't pay rent.

In a better world I could maybe believe that giving landlords more power could make the system more efficient, but... well...

The 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.

Re: German credit agency earns millions through unlawful customer manipulation

#53

Post by generic92034 »

ffsm8 wrote: post #51
ArmandGrillet wrote: post #37

Finally. Germany combines some of the worst aspects of the US (credit ranking, complicated abortion process, private healthcare if you want decent treatments) with the worst aspects of Europe (low digitalization, high taxation, recursive federalism: within the country and within the EU). A country like the Netherlands has its own issues (mainly housing) but doesn't have the myriad of pain points you can find in Germa…

> public healthcare inaccessible despite paying more than 400€/month for it as a single individual. That's a pretty new thing though (been getting worse for the last 10 yrs). And the person responsible for the legislature that caused this change is the current health minister. Also... 400€? It's a percentage of your salary. And you're omitting that the employer pays the same amount, so you're effectively paying 800€…

> And the person responsible for the legislature that caused this change is the current health minister.

Could you please explain that a bit more?

Re: German credit agency earns millions through unlawful customer manipulation

#54

Post by chmod775 »

josefx wrote: post #28
BadBadJellyBean wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It isn't. I financed my phone for free via Klarna. I could easily pay it at once but why would I. In the end I save a bit because of inflation.

> I financed my phone for free via Klarna So how do they make money? Sounds like they would be losing money to inflation by offering that service for free.

> So how do they make money?

Generally the logic on "free" financing by the seller is that without it, they may have not made a sale at all. Sure it cuts into their margins, but offering rebates would have had a similar effect.

Klarna probably still charges the vendor a few bucks for handling the thing.

Re: German credit agency earns millions through unlawful customer manipulation

#55

Post by hocuspocus »

pjmlp wrote: post #19
f6v wrote: post #6

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.

I only know something like Schufa here in Germany, never needed something like that in Portugal, UK, France, Switzerland.

In 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.

Re: German credit agency earns millions through unlawful customer manipulation

#56

Post by chmod775 »

TheNorthman wrote: post #33
vdaea wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless either your salary or the price of the phone increased in those months, you didn't save anything.

He can't predict the future. The relevant metric must be 1. The chance, weighted by amount, of a price hike/salary increase 2. The chance, weighted by amount, of a price decline/salary decrease. As inflation is generally an upward trend, clearly no. 1 is more likely and thus the best bet.

Another advantage of financing even though you would have had the money on hand is that you have more liquidity/the option of doing something with that money in the meantime.

Also someone may have some assets they could turn into liquid cash if I really needed to but may not have a lot of liquid cash on hand, so there would be little risk in paying something in installments as long as their assets would be enough to cover it in a pinch.

Re: German credit agency earns millions through unlawful customer manipulation

#57

Post by jonp888 »

f6v wrote: post #6

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.

You 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.

Re: German credit agency earns millions through unlawful customer manipulation

#58

Post by carlosjobim »

ffsm8 wrote: post #51
ArmandGrillet wrote: post #37

Finally. Germany combines some of the worst aspects of the US (credit ranking, complicated abortion process, private healthcare if you want decent treatments) with the worst aspects of Europe (low digitalization, high taxation, recursive federalism: within the country and within the EU). A country like the Netherlands has its own issues (mainly housing) but doesn't have the myriad of pain points you can find in Germa…

> public healthcare inaccessible despite paying more than 400€/month for it as a single individual. That's a pretty new thing though (been getting worse for the last 10 yrs). And the person responsible for the legislature that caused this change is the current health minister. Also... 400€? It's a percentage of your salary. And you're omitting that the employer pays the same amount, so you're effectively paying 800€…

> you're effectively paying 800€ at the very least.

That makes it worse! Not better.

Re: German credit agency earns millions through unlawful customer manipulation

#59

Post by AlexandrB »

vdaea wrote: post #26
BadBadJellyBean wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It isn't. I financed my phone for free via Klarna. I could easily pay it at once but why would I. In the end I save a bit because of inflation.

Unless either your salary or the price of the phone increased in those months, you didn't save anything.

Just by keeping that money in a savings account you'd save something.

Re: German credit agency earns millions through unlawful customer manipulation

#60

Post by jonp888 »

ArmandGrillet wrote: post #37

Finally. Germany combines some of the worst aspects of the US (credit ranking, complicated abortion process, private healthcare if you want decent treatments) with the worst aspects of Europe (low digitalization, high taxation, recursive federalism: within the country and within the EU). A country like the Netherlands has its own issues (mainly housing) but doesn't have the myriad of pain points you can find in Germa…

I'm a bit surprised you would consider the credit system the same as the US. It doesn't have the bonkers bit of the US system where you have to take great care to be in a small amount of debt even if you don't need to be, in order to "prove" your creditworthiness so that you can be in a lot of debt later.
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