In the UK at least, credit reports largely happen behind the scenes, and potential landlords etc cannot perform a full credit search. With your permission they can perform a 'soft' search (have you declared bankruptcy or do you have any County Court Judgements) and they may not charge you for doing this.

Further, as of GDPR, you are entitled to all information from the agencies for free. Prior, you could obtain it for a small fee (£2 by post if my memory serves me correctly).

As far as I'm concerned, SCHUFA is basically a scam I am compelled to fall for whenever I want to rent somewhere.