What is Sofort!

Sofortüberweisung is an online payment system of Sofort GmbH for cashless payment on the Internet. The procedure is a prepayment system, since the merchant does not receive the payment immediately, but a payment confirmation. As a result, most traders act as in advance and release goods or downloads immediately. Since 2014, the company belongs to the Swedish Klarna group.

The core of each transaction proves to be questionable for the customer’s privacy: the buyer transmits the online PIN of his bank account, which he normally strictly protects against access by third parties, as well as a TAN valid for exactly one transaction to Sofort GmbH , After verification of the account balance, the banker carries out the transfer to the merchant and immediately gives him a confirmation of the transaction. In addition to the account balance, additional data for checking the account funds are called up by the payment service provider, including the current account balance, sales, the credit line of the credit line, the existence of other accounts and their balances. This query is automated, without informing the user.