A practical guide for internationals moving to Helsinki, Espoo, Tampere, Turku or Oulu — and how PSD2-verified bank payment history from your home country can replace a Finnish credit check when you don't yet have a henkilötunnus or luottotiedot.
You've accepted a job in Finland, or you're joining a partner, or starting a master's degree. You need an apartment before you can register your address at DVV — but most landlords want a Finnish personal identity code (henkilötunnus) and a credit report from Suomen Asiakastieto before signing a vuokrasopimus. Neither exists yet.
Even after you have a henkilötunnus, your Finnish credit file is empty for months. To a landlord's screening tool, an empty file and a bad file look almost the same: unknown risk. That's the gap Maja closes for international renters.
Behind the credit-check requirement is one question: "Will this person pay rent on time, every month?" For a local, past Finnish credit history is the proxy. For an expat, that proxy doesn't exist — but the underlying evidence (you've been paying rent reliably somewhere else) usually does.
PSD2 is the EU open banking regulation. Any bank in the EU/EEA — plus the UK — must provide secure, read-only access to your transactions when you authorise it. Maja uses this to build a verified rent payment history from:
The landlord sees your last 3 months for free, and can unlock 6, 12, or 24 months of extended history. They never see your balance, salary, or unrelated transactions — only the rent payments themselves.
Rent paid from any EU/EEA or UK bank counts — no Finnish credit file needed.
PSD2 access is strictly read-only. Maja cannot move money or see your balance.
Finnish landlords see a verified profile, not screenshots or self-reported claims.
Finnish landlords are practical. A short, honest paragraph in English (or Finnish if you can) works well:
"I'm relocating to Helsinki for a new role at [Company] starting [month]. I don't yet have a Finnish credit history, but I've paid rent on time from my [country] bank for the last 24 months. I can share a PSD2-verified payment history through Maja — the landlord sees the last 3 months free and can unlock more if useful."
Larger private landlords and international-focused agencies (for example those serving the Otaniemi/Aalto and Kumpula/Viikki university clusters, or corporate relocations in Ruoholahti and Keilaniemi) are typically comfortable with expats and English-language applications. Smaller private vuokranantajat also often have more flexibility than the biggest agencies. Verified payment history helps in every case — it turns "we don't know this person" into "we can see they pay rent".
No. You can create a profile and connect a bank from any EU/EEA country or the UK before you have a Finnish personal identity code.
Any bank in the EU/EEA or UK that supports PSD2 — which is effectively all of them. The connection is made through the same trusted infrastructure used across the EU.
Yes. Maja is free for renters. Landlords only pay if they want to unlock more than the free 3-month window.
No. Landlords only see identified rent payments — never your balance, other transactions, or unrelated spending.
Maja can only verify what flows through a bank account. If you paid in cash, ask your previous landlord for a written reference in English instead.
Connect your home-country bank in a few minutes and generate a verified rent payment profile you can share with Finnish landlords — before you even arrive.
Company: Maja App Oy, Business ID 3633958-3, Finland. Questions? Email hello@maja-app.com