Credit reference agencies and credit assessment
Who checks, and who does not
GIROMATCH does not make enquiries with credit reference agencies. We have no access to their records and cannot have entries changed or deleted there.
When you submit an enquiry through GIROMATCH, we pass your details on to the partners that match it. Those partners are themselves responsible for assessing your creditworthiness. German law requires them to do so (Sections 505a and 506 of the German Civil Code). For that assessment they may obtain reports from credit reference agencies.
Which agencies
Which agency is asked in a given case is the partner’s decision. Not every partner makes an enquiry, and some assess without one. In Germany these are mainly:
- SCHUFA Holding AG, Kormoranweg 5, 65201 Wiesbaden
- CRIF GmbH, Victor-Gollancz-Straße 5, 76137 Karlsruhe
- infoscore Consumer Data GmbH, Rheinstraße 99, 76532 Baden-Baden
Other agencies may be asked as well. What a given agency holds about you, and what rights you have towards it, you will learn directly from that agency. For SCHUFA, see schufa.de/datenschutz.
Rate enquiry and credit enquiry: the difference
There are two kinds of enquiry, and they work differently:
| Rate enquiry (Konditionsanfrage) | Credit or credit card enquiry | |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | to find out terms, without obligation | to apply for a specific product |
| Visible to other banks | no | yes, for a short period |
| Effect on your credit rating | none | may affect it |
How long an entry is stored and remains visible is set by each agency and can change; only the agency’s own information is binding.
The exception: credit cards
For credit cards with a spending limit, a rate enquiry is often not possible for product reasons. There are no individually negotiable terms, only the decision on the card and the limit. Some card providers therefore make a full enquiry for the assessment itself. This creates an entry at the credit reference agency that can affect your credit rating. The entry arises with the enquiry, even if you receive no offer in the end or accept none.
We only include such providers if you say so expressly during your enquiry. Without that statement we do not approach them. Which providers this concerns in your case, we tell you at the point where you decide. According to what our partners tell us, the remaining providers enquire without creating such an entry.
Independently of this: if you later decide on a specific offer from a provider, that provider carries out a full credit assessment. This creates an entry that can affect your credit rating. That is the same with every provider and regardless of whether you came through GIROMATCH.
Where a provider decides automatically
Some partners decide on your enquiry by automated means. The decision is made by the provider, not by GIROMATCH. Your rights under Article 22(3) GDPR, that is to obtain human intervention, to express your point of view and to contest the decision, are to be exercised directly against that provider.
Banking secrecy
Where a partner is bound by banking secrecy, you release it from that duty for the purposes of the preliminary assessment, the preparation of an offer and informing GIROMATCH of the outcome and the terms offered. The release is limited to the details you gave in your enquiry and to the reports obtained for that purpose. Everything beyond that, in particular the reporting of a contract concluded later to a credit reference agency, is governed by the terms of the provider you contract with.
Your rights
You may request information about the data held about you from any credit reference agency free of charge (Article 15 GDPR) and have inaccurate data corrected (Article 16 GDPR). Please contact the agency directly. We cannot change entries there.
Questions about your enquiry with us: datenschutz@giromatch.com
Last updated: 8 September 2026