Live data from Hacker News

German credit agency earns millions through unlawful customer manipulation

noyb.eu

61–70 of 271 posts

Re: German credit agency earns millions through unlawful customer manipulation

#61

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…

That's utter bullshit. Your quality of care in the hospital is exactly the same as with public health insurance. Also sometimes private insurance is even worse when it comes to addiction and psychological treatments

Re: German credit agency earns millions through unlawful customer manipulation

#62
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

It's a collective payment system whereby everyone receives the same treatment, but high earners subsidize low earners, students and pensioners. Whether that is a good idea or not is of course a matter of debate, but it doesn't make sense to compare the benefits with the cost because they are not linked.

If you are a really high earner you can opt out and pay a private risk-based premium instead.

Re: German credit agency earns millions through unlawful customer manipulation

#63

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…

That's an overly negative and hyperbolic view. Nothing is entirely wrong here, but you're painting every single point in the most negative way possible.

You can certainly argue about how good the healthcare system is in the end, but it isn't categorically inaccessible. And if you pay 400 EUR/month you're earning enough money and can choose the private health system if you prefer that.

The credit ranking also works in very different ways than in the US, so I wouldn't compare them directly. I'm not sure what you mean by anti-consumer contract rules.

Re: German credit agency earns millions through unlawful customer manipulation

#64
post #51

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€…

> 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.

Not everybody is employed.

Re: German credit agency earns millions through unlawful customer manipulation

#65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

While liquidity is a reasonable argument, I only know this from "rich people doing things/investments"; e.g. not selling shares in your company when building a new house, or a company building a warehouse.

I am not sure it actually applies to the cost of a phone. Chances are, if those matter, you'd be better off with a cheaper phone to begin with. (Substitute phone with other luxury articles).

Re: German credit agency earns millions through unlawful customer manipulation

#66
post #14

Some fun features of SCHUFA in Germany: 1. If you apply for a loan, this affects your credit rating. Yes - not get a loan, or default on a loan, simply by applying for a loan, your SCHUFA can be affected negatively. Especially if you are shopping around for loans, this is infuriating. This happens because your SCHUFA is affected simply by another entity checking your SCHUFA score. This is also really annoying because…

These aren’t random factors though, they are all correlated when higher risk of default.

Would you like the models to ignore these predictors of financial strength? Because, you don’t like it?

Re: German credit agency earns millions through unlawful customer manipulation

#67

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…

That's utter bullshit. Your quality of care in the hospital is exactly the same as with public health insurance. Also sometimes private insurance is even worse when it comes to addiction and psychological treatments

You're treated the same in big hospitals but when I was in Berlin, private vs public meant I could get an appointment at a dermatologist tomorrow instead of in two months.

Re: German credit agency earns millions through unlawful customer manipulation

#68

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…

That's an overly negative and hyperbolic view. Nothing is entirely wrong here, but you're painting every single point in the most negative way possible. You can certainly argue about how good the healthcare system is in the end, but it isn't categorically inaccessible. And if you pay 400 EUR/month you're earning enough money and can choose the private health system if you prefer that. The credit ranking also works in…

While choosing to be in the private system is an option, it only "makes sense" if you make at least 70k€ a year, so definitly not for everyone.

The issue is not getting in - but getting back out before you retire and don't have enough available income to pay the rates anymore.

Re: German credit agency earns millions through unlawful customer manipulation

#69

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…

That's utter bullshit. Your quality of care in the hospital is exactly the same as with public health insurance. Also sometimes private insurance is even worse when it comes to addiction and psychological treatments

This is not true. Private insurance means better care in hospitals in Germany. Better access to appointments, choice of head/experienced doctors, even can mean better rooms.

Re: German credit agency earns millions through unlawful customer manipulation

#70

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…

[deleted]
Post reply on HN