FAQs
What is CreditTrust?
CreditTrust is a digital certificate on the Ethereum blockchain. The applicant is certified as having a good credit rating based on the ratings of the two largest Swiss credit agencies. This is a digital alternative to conventional extract from the debt enforcement register.
What are the advantages of a CreditTrust certificate?
The CreditTrust certificate has several advantages over an extract from the debt enforcement register:
Advantages for customers:
- Quick and easy - available digitally in 3 minutes
- User-friendly - applied for online and can be reused for multiple applications
- Highest level of data protection - security and protection of sensitive creditworthiness data
Advantages for business recipients:
- Nationally verified creditworthiness - CreditTrust checks the applicant's creditworthiness in parallel with the two leading Swiss credit information databases CRIF and Intrum
- Forgery-proof - the CreditTrust certificate is secured on the Ethereum blockchain. This makes counterfeiting impossible
- Quick and easy integration - ready to use immediately via QR code or integration via REST API
Validity and authentication
How long is a CreditTrust certificate valid?
A CreditTrust certificate has no expiry date. Each point of acceptance decides independently how old the certificates they wish to accept may be. Due to the fact that a person's creditworthiness can change over time, we generally recommend accepting CreditTrust certificates no longer than 3 months after issue.
What makes the CreditTrust certificate forgery-proof?
When the certificate is created, a digital fingerprint (a so-called hash) is calculated, which is backed up over 7,000 times worldwide on the Ethereum blockchain. The verification tool can be used to check the authenticity of a certificate. The tool calculates the digital fingerprint of a certificate and compares it with the digital fingerprints already secured on the blockchain. This makes it impossible to forge a certificate.
How can the authenticity of a CreditTrust certificate be verified?
The authenticity of a certificate can be checked within seconds using the verification tool. Drag the CreditTrust certificate (PDF document) into the designated area or click on the highlighted field. The tool calculates the digital fingerprint of a certificate and compares it with the digital fingerprints already saved on the blockchain.
Alternativen zu CreditTrust
What alternatives are there to CreditTrust?
If a CreditTrust certificate cannot be issued to an individual person, we recommend that persons living in Switzerland request a debt enforcement report from their current municipality of residence. For persons residing abroad or who have recently moved to Switzerland, we recommend either requesting a credit report from their country of origin (e.g. Schufa statement) or alternatively requesting a current salary statement.
Gibt es das CreditTrust Zertifikat auch für juristische Personen?
The CreditTrust certificate is currently only issued to natural persons who are resident in Switzerland and of legal age. If you require creditworthiness information from companies, please contact Intrum or CRIF.
In which case can no CreditTrust certificate be issued?
A certificate cannot be issued if the applicant is not known to CRIF or Intrum or if the person in question has negative creditworthiness information. The person must also be at least 18 years old and resident in Switzerland.
Processed creditworthiness information
Is it possible for a credit report to be positive even though the person has debt collection proceedings (Betreibungen)?
Neither a debt enforcement report nor a CreditTrust certificate offer absolute certainty about a person's current creditworthiness. A debt enforcement extract can be falsified or obtained from another municipality where no negative entries about the person are noted in the debt enforcement register. In addition, a debt enforcement report only contains legally filed debt enforcement proceedings. Sluggish payment behaviour, reminders or threats of debt enforcement cannot be seen in the debt enforcement extract. However, these criteria play a central role in the issuing of a CreditTrust certificate. Thanks to the daily updated data from CRIF and Intrum, a CreditTrust acceptance centre gains more certainty about a person's current creditworthiness. The cumulative informative value of the two leading credit agencies, CRIF and Intrum, is therefore significantly higher than the informative value of a debt enforcement report.
Is it possible to obtain further creditworthiness information about the person?
CreditTrust's credo is to maximise data protection for the holder of the certificate. The security and protection of private creditworthiness data vis-à-vis third parties is important to us. For further creditworthiness information, please contact Intrum or CRIF directly.
I would like to become a CreditTrust point of access
What does it cost to become a CreditTrust point of acceptance?
Becoming a CreditTrust acceptance point is free of charge. Regardless of which connection your company prefers (QR code or interface integration via REST API), you will not incur any onboarding costs or ongoing fees. The costs for issuing a CreditTrust certificate are borne by the customer.
Which CreditTrust connection is the right one for my company?
We offer various integration options. From a personalised QR code to iframe or REST-API connection, everything is possible. We are also partners of various software solutions from the property sector. Some of our partners are emonitor, Huperty, PROPbase, newhome, flatfox and others. Contact us for a non-binding introductory meeting so that we can discuss the best connection option for your company.
Do you have any further questions or are you interested in becoming a CreditTrust acceptance point?
Our team will be happy to help you. Send us an e-mail with your enquiry to contact@credittrust.ch. We look forward to hearing from you!