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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

#161

Post by [deleted] »

lupire wrote: post #134
greenavocado wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

INOVA in Northern Virginia charges $3000 for an uncomplicated vaginal birth. They have a code which rolls up many services into that code. There are additional in-hospital expenses such as the newborn hearing test which aggregate to about $400. If you have insurance your maximum cost out of pocket for the calendar year is between 5 and 15 thousand dollars (insurance covers everything above it). If you can't pay it al…

Why do I pay $25K/yr for my family? Is yours high deductible?

[deleted]

Re: German credit agency earns millions through unlawful customer manipulation

#162

Post by pjmlp »

hocuspocus wrote: post #55
pjmlp wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Back 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.

Re: German credit agency earns millions through unlawful customer manipulation

#163

Post by tumetab1 »

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 Portugal most of times you need to provided an income tax statement which I think servers the same purpose.

Re: German credit agency earns millions through unlawful customer manipulation

#164

Post by Sebguer »

shellfishgene wrote: post #141
beezlebroxxxxxx wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is incredible the amount of private information that gets exchanged in Germany to access certain things. You brought up landlords, but I've heard crazy stories about job applications or applications to services that "require" an incredible amount of private information (often even including pictures too!) handed-over for completely obscure reasons with no recourse if your application is denied or simply ignored.

Are US "background checks" any better?

A US background check for most jobs is generally just a literal check on whether you've been charged with any crimes, and doesn't go much more detailed than that.

Re: German credit agency earns millions through unlawful customer manipulation

#165

Post by pjmlp »

tumetab1 wrote: post #163
pjmlp wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

In Portugal most of times you need to provided an income tax statement which I think servers the same purpose.

Is definitely not the same, schuffa has a complete history of anything financial related to your life, including a credibility score that we don't have any clue how they come up with it.

Re: German credit agency earns millions through unlawful customer manipulation

#166

Post by mschuster91 »

greenavocado wrote: post #131
mschuster91 wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> High taxes with no matching value behind them That is not the case for Germany. We have - even with all its shortcomings - a decent education system that's largely free and accessible for everyone, a decent healthcare system, a decent public transport system on local, regional and federal system, and a very decent social security network that covers unemployment, pension and elderly care. The US in contrast has nei…

INOVA in Northern Virginia charges $3000 for an uncomplicated vaginal birth. They have a code which rolls up many services into that code. There are additional in-hospital expenses such as the newborn hearing test which aggregate to about $400. If you have insurance your maximum cost out of pocket for the calendar year is between 5 and 15 thousand dollars (insurance covers everything above it). If you can't pay it al…

> INOVA in Northern Virginia charges $3000 for an uncomplicated vaginal birth.

In Germany all of that is being covered by the government insurance scheme. The only thing you have to pay is stuff like a private room for postnatal recovery time [1]. Oh and you get a very long time paid post birth to recover and bond with your child. No such nonsense as giving birth and having to work the next day like it's common in the US.

> If you have insurance your maximum cost out of pocket for the calendar year is between 5 and 15 thousand dollars (insurance covers everything above it).

We don't have that at all, insurance covers everything, you never even see a bill or have to deal with stuff like "in network". The only thing is a 5-10€ co-pay per prescription (utter nonsense if you ask me, it was introduced as a "cost control" measure to prevent people from... diverting medication? idk, it's ridiculous but small enough that it's harmless).

> Bankruptcy is much more problematic in Europe for the individual. Americans can keep their assets in a Chapter 13 bankruptcy.

Agreed on that one. It's also a huge contributing factor into why Americans have it easier to start up side hustles.

> Health insurance in America costs between $500-$1000 a month for an entire family.

Assuming I were the sole earner and my wife would be a SAHM with an arbitrary number of children, I'd (at a gross wage of 52k/y) pay 340€ a month to health insurance and my employer another 340€, so in total (including a per-insurance surcharge of, in my case, .5%) my healthcare costs are capped at about 700€ - for all of us.

On top of that we'd get, like all parents in Germany, "Kindergeld" of 250€/month per childpaid by the government to assist in child rearing.

Pretty awesome if you ask me. I honestly don't know how y'all survive.

[1] https://www.eltern.de/kosten-geburt

Re: German credit agency earns millions through unlawful customer manipulation

#167

Post by Nextgrid »

mathgradthrow wrote: post #153
Nextgrid wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, that's my problem with high taxation, as someone who got burnt by it by virtue of living and paying taxes in the UK. I don't mind paying my fair share of tax if it means I get good value out of it, but the state of our healthcare here means that in practice the public healthcare system is no longer fit for purpose, so we are being forced to pay for a system that doesn't work and end up having to go private (and…

private enterprise is not "bound by competitive pressure". Companies only compete by virtue of the government forcing them to. Are you arguing that humans, inventors of civilization, are too stupid to figure out how to cooperate?

I disagree that companies only compete thanks to regulation. Companies competing is the default - regulation sometimes (either as an unintended oversight or malicious intent thanks to lobbying/corruption) prevents it though.

There are many valid scenarios where competition is lacking, but generally speaking the reason it’s lacking is due to regulation/law making it impossible.

Telecoms for example is impossible because the incumbents have exclusive control of the physical infrastructure (poles/ducts under the street) or spectrum auctions where the price makes it impossible for a new entrant to enter.

Tech network effects are maintained by copyright law being abused to prevent adversarial interoperability.

Re: German credit agency earns millions through unlawful customer manipulation

#168

Post by albert180 »

tietjens wrote: post #69
albert180 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You know, I'm a med student, so I have a bit more experience :) The Head/Experienced Doctor is still letting the Learning Doctor doing everything and pops in only for the visit. Also the "standard" Patients get also checked by a Oberarzt regularly. The difference is miniscule. The Rooms are sometimes nicer I agree, but the care you get is still 100% the same. The Hospital also doesn't get extra money for the treatment besides the Fee for the "Chefarzt" and the nicer room. Otherwise they'll only get the same DRG payout as for a "public patient"

Re: German credit agency earns millions through unlawful customer manipulation

#169

Post by glfharris »

odiroot wrote: post #83

In the process of renting a flat in Germany, SCHUFA is not even the biggest travesty. The worst part is potential tenants handing over full dossiers about their background to the prospective landlords. Passport copies, payslips, account statements and more. And as a tenant, you have no way of knowing when does it all end up. At best it will be dumped into a paper recycling bin. But who knows if all these documents ar…

It's very similar in the UK. Most estate agents will use a third party these days, but the amount of information you have to hand over is ridiculous.

Re: German credit agency earns millions through unlawful customer manipulation

#170

Post by rusticpenn »

dkekenflxlf wrote: post #138
greenavocado wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

INOVA in Northern Virginia charges $3000 for an uncomplicated vaginal birth. They have a code which rolls up many services into that code. There are additional in-hospital expenses such as the newborn hearing test which aggregate to about $400. If you have insurance your maximum cost out of pocket for the calendar year is between 5 and 15 thousand dollars (insurance covers everything above it). If you can't pay it al…

500-1000 USD per month for a WHOLE family is fucking cheap!? In Germany, i'm paying more than 1150€ per month as single (and im not privately insured but publicly)

I think the upper limit is 800€
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