Number26/N26 Mastercard/Account now for Irish Residents

It looks like on Friday (13th) N26 has submitted records about customers current account to the German Schufa for all bank accounts that were active with them or in the past with Wirecard. Previously this did not happen regularly but only in case of an overdraft, now it's all accounts.

There are some reports that this was not only the case for German residents but also for residents of countries for which the Schufa is offering a cross European service (which includes Ireland).

The German Schufa is similar to the Irish Credit Bureau and the Governments Central Credit Register but way worse (as they collect way more data) so you might now have a record with them. Those records could in theory, especially if they are negative also transmitted to the European Partners of Schufa (ICB).

There are also reports that N26 has also started requesting Schufa European Service for opening of new accounts, it's not fully clear to which extend the ICB and Schufa are working together (as Schufa is not a member of the ICB) but there seams to be some extensive co-operation now. Which in light of the Central Credit Register might be a new method of the ICB to continue to justify it's existence.

Now if they indeed have transmitted data of non German residents they have violated their own terms which state as to Schufa "Consent for Clause 8 [Schufa] is intended solely for end Customers with an address in Germany."

So if you have an account with them (or had one in the past) I would keep an eye out to see if there are more reports about non German residents getting hit with a Schufa data set.

If I see any proof of Irish Residents now having a Schufa entry I'm going to report it, right now it's simply a couple of non German residents venting that they seam to have also gotten an entry. Those are special cases, because they are German citizens which have historic data and hence see that new data was added.

I just though it might be good to share this info here so that you have the full picture.

It also would be very interesting to see how the ICB is co-operating with Schufa, I just might send them an e-mail.

Fred Swanson wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

It's a little bit different than in Ireland.

In Ireland you have the right to ask a company if they have data stored about you for free. If they say they do, you than can request all of that data for a fee.

In Germany, you can't do the first, you need to request a full data under § 34 Bundesdatenschutzgesetz (Data Protection Act).

To do that you need to download a form (here), fill it out and send it to them with a copy of your passport and a copy of the address register to proof where you live. As in Ireland we don't have the last you would need to attach a proof of address like a copy a utility bill.

Now be careful, they will try to sell you more expensive variants of the request, make sure to not indicate those on the form and only use the § 34 Bundesdatenschutzgesetz which is free (one a year in case of credit reporting agencies). Do not enter your bank account info into the field, do not mark the "alternative" as that is fee based.

If you speak German you also can call them on +49611 - 92780 and ask them. In principle the law requires them to provide you with the info if you request if verbally, fax, via e-mail, postal mail or in person, but in practice they require you to fill out the form and attach a copy of your identification document.

But I would wait until more info is available because if there is no record you requesting your record will create a record.

What you also can do to find out about it, is go about it the opposite way. Make a request to N26 under § 34 Bundesdatenschutzgesetz which means they would need to share with you if they have transmitted your data to another company like Schufa. That way you don't create a record with Schufa if you don't have one.

I hope that helps, I would wait until end of next week to see if more people come forward about this.