Overview
- Creditreform is not a public authority
- Signs that your credit rating is costing you business
- What data does Creditreform store?
- When can a Creditreform entry be deleted?
- What rights do those affected have – and does this also apply to a GmbH?
- How long may Creditreform store data?
- The 100-day rule: early deletion of settled claims
- Discharge of residual debt, insolvency and the debtors’ register
- Improving your Creditreform credit rating
- Score and probability of default: not every rating is beyond challenge
- Do you have to provide the agency with replacement data?
- Procedure: how an incorrect entry is corrected
- Why legal advice makes sense
- How LHR helps with Creditreform entries
- LHR has successfully handled numerous Creditreform cases
- Does Creditreform have to pay damages and legal fees?
- Why LHR?
- Further reading: LHR guides to the Creditreform report
- Frequently asked questions about Creditreform and credit ratings
A supplier suddenly demands payment in advance, the leasing company turns down the company car, the bank asks for additional collateral. Behind such refusals there is often a poor rating from Creditreform or another German business credit agency – and many of those affected never find out, because business partners rarely give their reasons.
Creditreform is a private company. Its data processing is subject to the GDPR, the German Federal Data Protection Act (BDSG) and German civil law. You do not have to accept incorrect, outdated or unlawfully stored entries. This page explains when a Creditreform entry must be deleted, how to improve your Creditreform credit rating and how LHR supports businesses in these cases.
Poor credit rating?
Have the entry reviewed before more business falls through.
We review whether an entry can be deleted, corrected or challenged – for incorrect or disputed claims, settled negative entries, outdated company data, mistaken identity and ratings that do not reflect the company’s actual financial position. Businesses with a Creditreform report can first use the free LHR Crefo-Check (in German).
Creditreform is not a public authority
Many business owners treat a Creditreform report like an official finding. It is not. Creditreform is a private business credit agency that collects and assesses information about companies and the people behind them and passes it on to paying customers.
Precisely because this information carries so much weight in business, it has to be accurate. Every storage and disclosure requires a sound legal basis, and the data must be correct, up to date and necessary. Where this is not the case, there are claims to access, rectification, erasure, injunctive relief and, in some cases, damages.
Signs that your credit rating is costing you business
Few companies learn about a downgrade from the credit agency itself. The report is retrieved by business partners, not by you. Typical warning signs are:
- a supplier switches from payment terms to payment in advance or reduces the credit line,
- a supplier’s trade credit insurer lowers or cancels the limit for your company,
- a leasing or financing application is rejected or only accepted against a large down payment,
- the bank requests additional collateral when renewing a facility,
- contract negotiations end shortly before signing without a clear reason.
Each of these events looks like an isolated case, especially since refusals are rarely explained. If several signs occur within a short time, it is worth looking at your own credit report. How to narrow down the cause and what you may ask your business partner is explained in our guide Credit limit cancelled, leasing rejected: Is Creditreform the reason? (in German).
What data does Creditreform store?
The Creditreform business report
A Creditreform business report contains much more than a single score. Alongside the company name, legal form, date of incorporation, capital, officers and shareholdings, it includes in particular:
- the credit rating index (Bonitätsindex) between 100 and 600 with the probability of default over twelve months – the lower, the better; 500 and 600 count as default,
- payment behaviour and credit assessment, each as text with a code,
- a recommended credit limit, which suppliers use to set payment terms,
- the industry according to the German Federal Statistical Office’s WZ code, with the average probability of default for that industry,
- turnover, number of employees and balance sheet data,
- negative entries such as debt collection proceedings, enforcement measures, entries in the debtors’ register or insolvencies.
Which probability of default corresponds to which index value, and why the range around 300 is so often decisive in practice, is shown in our Creditreform credit index table explaining the scale from 100 to 600 (in German).
Other business credit agencies
Which agency a supplier or leasing company uses cannot be seen from the outside. Besides Creditreform, CRIF is a common alternative. Anyone looking for the cause should therefore request a self-disclosure from several business credit agencies.
Special case: the SCHUFA record of managing directors and shareholders
For sole proprietorships, partnerships and smaller GmbHs, banks and leasing companies often look not only at the company report but also at the personal SCHUFA record of owners, managing directors and shareholders – especially when they require a personal guarantee. An incorrect or outdated SCHUFA entry for one of these people can then block the company’s financing, even though the company’s Creditreform report is in order.
In this situation, we review the managing director’s SCHUFA report together with the company report and also take action against the SCHUFA entry. We do not handle private SCHUFA entries that have no connection to a business.
When can a Creditreform entry be deleted?
An entry must be deleted or corrected if it is incorrect, outdated, incomplete, no longer necessary or unlawful from the outset. In our practice, these situations come up most often:
- The claim does not exist or was not due.
- The claim was disputed. In 2026 the German Federal Court of Justice (BGH) clarified that a disputed claim is not reliable credit information (judgment of 12 May 2026, VI ZR 375/24). The case concerned a SCHUFA report, but the same standard applies to Creditreform. Details in our article BGH: a disputed claim is not reliable credit information (in German).
- The claim has been paid but is still shown as outstanding, or the settlement note is missing.
- Someone else’s data has been attributed to you, for example through mistaken identity or incorrect power-of-attorney and officer details (both in German).
- Negative information about shareholdings or officers spills over onto a healthy company, as in our case on the insolvency of an affiliated company (in German).
- Company data is outdated: wrong date of incorporation, an unrecorded legal succession, old turnover and headcount figures or a missing balance sheet.
- The industry is wrong. If a planning office is listed as a construction company, the agency compares it with the wrong peer group. More in our article Wrong industry at Creditreform: how the WZ code affects your rating (in German).
- Retention periods have expired, for example for settled claims, discharges of residual debt or deleted entries in the debtors’ register.
The distinction between incorrect and merely unfavourable information matters. You have a claim to rectification or erasure where facts are wrong. Accurate but unfavourable information – a loss in the last financial statements, a young company, a payment that really was late – does not have to be deleted. Here it helps to submit current figures and explain one-off effects. Why a good financial year is often not enough on its own is explained in our article Poor Creditreform rating despite good figures (in German).
What rights do those affected have – and does this also apply to a GmbH?
Which claims exist depends on whose data is concerned. This distinction is often overlooked in practice.
Sole traders, registered merchants and freelancers
The GDPR applies to natural persons. Their rights include in particular:
- access under Art. 15 GDPR, including the source of the data,
- rectification under Art. 16 GDPR and erasure under Art. 17 GDPR,
- restriction of processing under Art. 18 GDPR while the accuracy is contested,
- notification of the rectification to all recipients under Art. 19 GDPR,
- objection under Art. 21 GDPR and rights regarding automated decisions under Art. 22 GDPR,
- damages under Art. 82 GDPR and a complaint to the data protection authority.
Under Art. 12(3) GDPR, the agency must respond without undue delay and at the latest within one month. In 2023 the Court of Justice of the European Union held that generating a score can itself be an automated decision if the recipient relies on it decisively (judgment of 7 December 2023, C-634/21). In 2025 it added that data subjects can demand an intelligible explanation of how their score was arrived at (judgment of 27 February 2025, C-203/22). From 20 November 2026, the new Section 37a BDSG governs the scoring of natural persons and replaces Section 31 BDSG: on request, agencies must then explain the data and criteria used and their weighting in understandable terms, and address data may no longer be used in the score.
GmbH, UG and AG
The GDPR does not apply to the company data of legal entities. Companies are nevertheless not without protection: anyone who disseminates untrue facts that endanger a company’s creditworthiness is liable under Section 824 of the German Civil Code (BGB). In addition, the company’s general right of personality is protected under Section 823(1) and Section 1004 BGB by analogy. This gives rise to claims for correction and injunctive relief. There is no statutory response period here; you set the deadline yourself.
Managing directors, shareholders and partnerships
The personal data of managing directors and shareholders in a company report is covered by the GDPR, even though the company itself has no GDPR rights. In cases of linked data or mistaken identity, this is often the fastest lever. For partnerships such as a GbR or KG, it must be checked case by case which information also concerns the partners personally.
How long may Creditreform store data?
The retention period is governed by the GDPR and BDSG, case law and the approved codes of conduct of the German credit agencies. The key principles:
- Settled payment defaults: generally three years from settlement. If the claim was paid within 100 days of being reported, deletion after 18 months may be possible.
- Unpaid claims: may remain relevant for longer, but must have been reported correctly, necessarily and lawfully.
- Discharge of residual debt: according to the Court of Justice of the European Union, an agency may not store this information for longer than it is available in the public insolvency register (judgment of 7 December 2023, C-26/22 and C-64/22).
- Debtors’ register: once the register entry has been deleted, it may no longer have an effect at the agency.
There is no automatic deletion simply because a claim has been paid. The German Federal Court of Justice has held that the approved codes of conduct may set the retention period, but that a balancing of interests under Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR remains necessary in the individual case, which may also lead to a shorter period (judgment of 18 December 2025, I ZR 97/25). The earlier line of the Cologne Higher Regional Court, according to which paid claims had to be deleted immediately, has thus been superseded.
The 100-day rule: early deletion of settled claims
For many of those affected, the 100-day rule is the most important lever. It can mean that a settled payment default is deleted after 18 months instead of 36. The requirement is that the claim was paid within 100 days of being reported and that no further negative entries stand in the way.
In addition, there is the individual balancing of interests that the Federal Court of Justice expressly requires. Anyone who quickly paid a minor claim that was missed due to exceptional circumstances may have good arguments for earlier deletion, or at least for the entry no longer being used in the rating. How strongly a single settled item can weigh is shown by our case Creditreform index downgraded – when a single invoice costs 90 points (in German).
Discharge of residual debt, insolvency and the debtors’ register
Data from public registers weighs particularly heavily on creditworthiness. A discharge of residual debt is meant to give the debtor a fresh start. An agency that uses this information for longer than the register defeats that purpose.
The debtors’ register is a special case: as long as the entry exists in the register, the agency may generally adopt it. A letter to Creditreform achieves little in that situation. The right route is usually early deletion from the debtors’ register itself, for example after the creditor has been paid, under Section 882e(3) No. 1 of the German Code of Civil Procedure (ZPO). Once the register entry has been deleted, the agency must follow. The procedure is described in our article Having a debtors’ register entry deleted (in German).
Improving your Creditreform credit rating
Anyone wishing to improve their Creditreform rating cannot simply demand a “better score”. The index is an assessment. It can be challenged if it is based on incorrect or incomplete facts – and in that case it must be recalculated on the corrected basis.
What matters is where to start. According to Creditreform’s own schematic presentation, payment behaviour and credit assessment together account for around half of the weighting, the balance sheet for only a fraction. A single incorrect negative entry therefore weighs more than a good financial year. The most promising steps are:
- clearing negative entries: paid, disputed or third-party claims, missing settlement notes, expired periods,
- correcting master data: date of incorporation and legal succession, capital, turnover, headcount, officers,
- checking the industry: WZ code and weighting for mixed businesses,
- submitting current figures: annual or interim financial statements, with an explanation of one-off effects,
- expressly requesting a recalculation and notification of all recipients of the old report.
A deletion does not automatically restore the previous score. How long a settled item can continue to have an effect is shown by our case Negative entry deleted – score still poor (in German).
From LHR’s practice
Some of our cases show what a well-founded challenge can achieve (all in German):
- Unrecorded legal succession, company age corrected to 41 years: score improved from 294 to 271 points. Read the case
- Debt collection item of EUR 89.67, paid promptly: score restored to 260 points within a few days, with a correction sent to report recipients. Read the case
- Information that had already been deleted or was incorrect still had an effect: rating corrected to 293 points. Read the case
- Incorrect entry deleted, credit index corrected to 283 points, insolvency averted. Read the case
Every case is different. No particular outcome can be predicted.
Score and probability of default: not every rating is beyond challenge
Credit agencies use statistical methods to forecast a probability of default. The agency is entitled to express an opinion. The facts on which it is based, however, must be accurate. Legally, three questions are key:
- Which data was used for the rating?
- Is that data correct, complete and up to date?
- May the agency still use it for the rating at all?
If a poor rating is based on incorrect or outdated data, there is a claim to rectification or erasure and to a new assessment.
Do you have to provide the agency with replacement data?
No. The agency itself is responsible for the lawfulness of its data processing. Anyone who identifies specific errors does not have to compile a new credit report. The agency must check and rectify or erase the data, or restrict processing, where the legal requirements are met.
Voluntarily submitting current figures is nevertheless often worthwhile, because otherwise the agency works with whatever it has. Company data can be updated at Creditreform via its company survey. This does not, however, replace a challenge to incorrect negative entries.
Procedure: how an incorrect entry is corrected
A correction usually takes a few weeks, longer if the facts are disputed. It cannot be guaranteed, but it can be planned:
- Request a self-disclosure. According to Creditreform, a free self-disclosure is available once a year and sent by post to the owner or managing director.
- Check it line by line and back up each discrepancy with evidence: proof of payment, commercial register extract, financial statements, supplier confirmation.
- Raise a specific complaint – entry, location in the report, request for rectification or erasure, recalculation of the index, notification of recipients, a deadline of usually 14 days, with proof of receipt.
- Wait for the response: for natural persons within one month at the latest; for company data of a GmbH, the deadline you set applies.
- Check the result with a new self-disclosure about one month after the response.
- Escalate if there is no response or a refusal: reminder, complaint to the data protection authority, lawyer’s letter, preliminary injunction or court action.
Which deadlines apply in detail and what speeds up the process is explained in our guide How long does a correction at Creditreform take? (in German).
Why legal advice makes sense
Those who contact a credit agency themselves often receive a standard reply: agencies may store data without consent. As a general statement, that is true. But it does not answer the decisive question of whether this particular entry, this particular rating and this particular disclosure are lawful.
Legal advice is particularly useful where:
- an entry is already putting financing, contracts or supplier relationships at risk,
- the agency does not respond or responds only with standard wording,
- the claim is disputed or settled,
- register data, shareholdings or officers are shown incorrectly,
- the credit index does not match the company’s actual financial position,
- a fast court decision is needed.
You do not have to start with a full mandate
- Free review: upload your Creditreform self-disclosure to the LHR Crefo-Check and receive an initial assessment of the points of attack.
- Demand letter for EUR 99 net: individually drafted according to a system developed by our lawyers, for you to send under your own letterhead.
- Legal representation: if Creditreform does not respond or only responds with standard wording, our lawyers take over. The EUR 99 is credited in full.
How LHR helps with Creditreform entries
We first review the stored data, the legal basis and the economic consequences. We then decide with you whether to proceed out of court or whether court action is required. Our services include in particular:
- obtaining and reviewing self-disclosures from Creditreform and other business credit agencies, and where needed the SCHUFA report of managing directors and shareholders,
- analysing individual entries and the factors driving the index,
- reviewing retention periods, the 100-day rule and the individual balancing of interests,
- reviewing insolvency, register and debtors’ register data,
- correcting incorrect company, industry and personal data,
- deleting unlawful negative entries and having the rating recalculated,
- correspondence with credit agencies and the companies that reported the data,
- claims for injunctive relief and damages, preliminary injunctions and court action.
LHR has successfully handled numerous Creditreform cases
We have been acting against incorrect credit reports for many years. An early success in court came before the Cologne Higher Regional Court: after Creditreform had given a cease-and-desist declaration during the proceedings, it was ordered to bear the costs of both instances by order of 8 March 2012 (case no. 18 U 304/11).
From our recent practice (all in German):
- Creditreform index 500 – what a EUR 99 letter achieved and what remained a matter for lawyers
- Improving Creditreform – when a risk score becomes a usable credit report again
- From negative entry to top rating – how quickly credit profiles can recover
- Improving a Creditreform rating: an example from practice
- Incorrect Creditreform entry due to mistaken identity
- Credit agency deletes incorrect power-of-attorney entries after GDPR complaint
That urgent proceedings are possible but not a foregone conclusion is shown by a case before the Bielefeld Regional Court: the preliminary injunction against a Creditreform rating (in German) that was initially granted was lifted after an objection and a change of jurisdiction. An urgent application must therefore be carefully prepared.
Does Creditreform have to pay damages and legal fees?
That depends on the individual case. If Creditreform maintains an unlawful entry despite being aware of it, or continues to disseminate incorrect data, claims for injunctive relief, damages and reimbursement of costs may arise.
Sole traders and managing directors can rely, where their personal data is concerned, on Art. 82 GDPR, which also covers non-material damage. Companies can rely on Section 824 BGB: anyone who disseminates untrue facts endangering creditworthiness is liable even if they did not know the facts were untrue but ought to have known. You must prove the damage – a rejected financing, worse terms, a lost contract. Document every refusal with its date.
Why LHR?
LHR has specialised for many years in reputation protection, data protection law, media law and intellectual property. Incorrect credit reports are not only a data protection issue; they directly affect the commercial reputation of a company and its management. We therefore combine the data protection review with reputation law and strategic enforcement.
“Creditreform is neither a charity nor a public authority. It collects, assesses and commercialises data. That is precisely why it has to abide by the law. Anyone harmed by incorrect or outdated credit data does not have to accept it.”
Further reading: LHR guides to the Creditreform report
This page gives the overview. The specific questions businesses ask about their Creditreform report are answered in separate articles in the LHR magazine (in German):
- Credit limit cancelled, leasing rejected: Is Creditreform the reason?: how to tell that a credit report is behind the refusals.
- Creditreform credit index: what does my score mean?: the scale from 100 to 600 with default rates and risk classes.
- Poor Creditreform rating despite good figures: the most common causes and what you can do.
- Wrong industry at Creditreform: how the WZ code affects your rating and how to have it corrected.
- How long does a correction at Creditreform take?: deadlines, procedure and what you can speed up.
Frequently asked questions about Creditreform and credit ratings
Can a Creditreform entry be deleted?+
What if the managing director’s SCHUFA record is blocking financing?+
Does a negative entry disappear automatically after payment?+
What is the 100-day rule?+
Can the Creditreform credit index be improved?+
Can a GmbH also take action against an incorrect Creditreform entry?+
What helps if an entry in the debtors’ register is dragging down the rating?+
Is there a low-cost first step before instructing a lawyer?+
Can you take Creditreform to court?+
Poor Creditreform rating? Have your report reviewed.
We review your report, identify incorrect or unlawful entries and enforce deletion, correction, re-rating and damages – out of court and, where necessary, in court. You will usually receive an initial assessment within 24 hours.
