As soon as you submit a loan application or begin to use a credit card, your credit history starts being recorded at the ZEK (the Swiss credit information centre) in the form of a string of codes, the length of time during which these codes stay on record varying. In these cases, the following questions should be asked:
- What do these codes mean and which are bad credit?
- How long do they stay on record?
- Can they be modified or deleted?
Code linked to personal loans
Rejected loan application
Has your loan application been rejected? A code 99 will be recorded at the ZEK with the grounds for refusal, however you will not suffer because of this, as you are still free to submit a new application.
Have you accumulated multiple rejections? The more rejections you receive, the more the banks will be inclined to refuse your application.
Code 99s stay on record for approximately 12 months.
Codes without negative impacts
Codes 01 and 02: you have an outstanding loan and your commitments have been honoured.
Bad credit – code with average severity
Code 00: you are beginning to deviate from your repayment commitment.
Bad credit – code with high severity
Code 03: your outstanding loan or lease shows payment problems involving late monthly repayments. This remains on record for 5 years.
Code 04: your outstanding loan or lease shows relatively serious payment problems, you are no longer able to make your monthly repayments and you have asked for the latter to be reduced. This remains on record for 5 years.
Code 05: your loan or lease have undergone full or partial loss of financing, which means that the bank has lost money as you have stopped making payments. This remains on record for 5 years.
Code 09: this is a refusal for attempted fraud, for example for the falsification of documents and/or false data transmitted in view of obtaining a loan.
Codes linked to credit cards
Code 21: this code concerns credit cards and shows that you have a payment arrangement in place to repay the amount owed.
Code 22: your card has been blocked as you have exceeded the limit granted and have not paid what you owe.
Code 23: This shows a full or partial loss for the bank on a credit card
Can you do anything about bad credit?
Do you have a bad credit that has a negative effect on your application and want to delete it?
These bad credits can only be contested if the bank has made a mistake; if this is not the case, it is almost impossible to delete the records.
If you believe there has been a mistake, you are entitled to request a ZEK extract free of charge, once yearly, to view the bad code that appear in your file and the author. You can then directly contact the institution(s) involved and try to argue that the code is unjustified. However, let’s be clear: the bad credit is for the large part justified.
ZEK codes & bad credit
As soon as you submit a loan application or begin to use a credit card, your credit history starts being recorded at the ZEK (the Swiss credit information centre) in the form of a string of codes, the length of time during which these codes stay on record varying. In these cases, the following questions should be asked:
Code linked to personal loans
Rejected loan application
Has your loan application been rejected? A code 99 will be recorded at the ZEK with the grounds for refusal, however you will not suffer because of this, as you are still free to submit a new application.
Have you accumulated multiple rejections? The more rejections you receive, the more the banks will be inclined to refuse your application.
Code 99s stay on record for approximately 12 months.
Codes without negative impacts
Codes 01 and 02: you have an outstanding loan and your commitments have been honoured.
Bad credit – code with average severity
Code 00: you are beginning to deviate from your repayment commitment.
Bad credit – code with high severity
Code 03: your outstanding loan or lease shows payment problems involving late monthly repayments. This remains on record for 5 years.
Code 04: your outstanding loan or lease shows relatively serious payment problems, you are no longer able to make your monthly repayments and you have asked for the latter to be reduced. This remains on record for 5 years.
Code 05: your loan or lease have undergone full or partial loss of financing, which means that the bank has lost money as you have stopped making payments. This remains on record for 5 years.
Code 09: this is a refusal for attempted fraud, for example for the falsification of documents and/or false data transmitted in view of obtaining a loan.
Codes linked to credit cards
Code 21: this code concerns credit cards and shows that you have a payment arrangement in place to repay the amount owed.
Code 22: your card has been blocked as you have exceeded the limit granted and have not paid what you owe.
Code 23: This shows a full or partial loss for the bank on a credit card
Can you do anything about bad credit?
Do you have a bad credit that has a negative effect on your application and want to delete it?
These bad credits can only be contested if the bank has made a mistake; if this is not the case, it is almost impossible to delete the records.
If you believe there has been a mistake, you are entitled to request a ZEK extract free of charge, once yearly, to view the bad code that appear in your file and the author. You can then directly contact the institution(s) involved and try to argue that the code is unjustified. However, let’s be clear: the bad credit is for the large part justified.