How to Request Your Free SCHUFA Datenkopie

The Datenkopie under Art. 15 GDPR is the free report showing what data SCHUFA stores about you, including your score. You request it yourself, and it is meant for your own review rather than as an application document. You can find waitlists in Hamburg at Waitly.

Last updated: 13 September 2026.

In short

Anyone can find out what data credit agencies hold about them. The Verbraucherzentrale points out that this report is free of charge and that SCHUFA calls it the Datenkopie under Art. 15 GDPR. It contains more than a landlord needs to see. Check it before you start apartment hunting, so you have time to get wrong entries corrected.

What is the Datenkopie under Art. 15 GDPR?

A complete overview of the data stored about you. That includes current and closed contracts, payment defaults, queries made by companies, and your score.

Its purpose is review, not submission. That is exactly why it is more extensive than what a rental decision requires, and exactly why a landlord may not request it from you.

How do you request it?

Directly from the credit agency, not through intermediaries. For SCHUFA, the Verbraucherzentrale describes the route via meineSchufa.de and selecting the Datenkopie under Art. 15 GDPR there. The report is sent by post.

Make sure you actually select the free product. There are also paid subscriptions and add-on products alongside it, none of which you need simply to check your own data.

How often is it free?

At least once a year. The Verbraucherzentrale states that one report a year is free in any case, and that additional reports after the correction of incorrect entries are also free.

That matters in practice. If you have an entry corrected, you can confirm the result with a fresh Datenkopie without paying for it.

What should you do if an entry is wrong?

Write to two places, not one. Request the correction both from the credit agency and from the company that reported the data.

While the accuracy is being checked, the agency must block the disputed entry from being passed to third parties. This is why raising a dispute is worthwhile even when the check takes time: a blocked entry does not reach an enquiring landlord during that period. The Verbraucherzentrale describes the procedure in detail.

Why not hand the Datenkopie over as it is?

Because it reveals too much. All that matters for the rental decision is whether you can pay the rent, not which bank you use or which contracts you have running.

If you do pass on the full report, black out everything that is not required, such as account and credit card numbers. For the application itself, the credit record limited to rental purposes is the right document.

Key takeaways

Request the Datenkopie before you start applying for apartments, not in the middle of it. That gives you time to have wrong entries blocked and corrected, and you know in advance what a landlord would see. In parallel it pays to keep several lists open: you can sign up for waitlists through Waitly and also join interest lists.

A landlord may only request a credit record limited to rental purposes, and only once they have decided in your favour. We also cover the storage periods and what to do about a negative entry. For an overview of where to search, see rental portals in Germany.