Overview
- Schufa’s risk report showed a clear deterioration in consumer credit at the end of 2025 with 8.1% of adults carrying at least one negative entry and about 88,000 private insolvency filings, the highest level since 2021.
- Growth in the market is driven by small instalment loans under €1,000 and buy‑now‑pay‑later products, with 7.5 million such contracts in 2025, an 11% increase from the year before.
- The rise of many small obligations is making repayment opaque for households: 74,000 people were repaying more than ten instalment loans at once, 28 times the figure from five years earlier.
- Consumer advocates say some providers, including Klarna and PayPal, performed weak affordability checks and lawmakers will require stronger creditworthiness checks and referral to debt counselling starting 20 November 2026.
- Debt‑advice services are already overburdened, with only about one in ten overindebted people getting help and months‑long waits common, so the new rules may curb future lending but will not resolve current overindebtedness.