Open Banking as an alternative to BIK
PSD2, the 2018 EU directive, forced banks to share account data with external firms on customer consent. The lender asks: „let us look at your account for 90 days”. They see inflows (salary, scholarship), categorised spending, balances. They don't see individual transfer titles, can't access passwords, can't move money. Every regulated firm must hold a KNF licence to aggregate this data.
Lenders running on Open Banking
Vivigo (formerly Vivus): connects the account via Kontomatik, decision in 5 minutes, up to 7 200 PLN over 30 days. InstaFin: same tech, up to 9 000 PLN for repeat clients, RRSO 299.32%. Freezl: Open Banking as an option, classic BIK as an alternative. NetCredit with a virtual credit card: account required, scoring on 6 months of history.
What Open Banking sees, what it doesn't
Sees: inflow amounts, their regularity (monthly or irregular), monthly balances (min, mean, max), spending categories (housing, transport, groceries — aggregated), payments into other loans (bank instalments, ZUS). Doesn't see: individual transfer titles, recipient details, single card transactions. Short version, it sees the money flow, doesn't eavesdrop on your life.
When to refuse the Open Banking consent
If your account shows transfers to other chwilówki, the lender will see them, read them as risk, refuse. If online gambling shows (recognisable recipient addresses), refusal again. If the salary sits below the national minimum (4 666 PLN gross in 2026), a signal that account scoring will be low. In those cases BIK is paradoxically kinder, because it doesn't see the present state of the account.
My take: when Open Banking helps
It helps when BIK looks weak because of historic delays (one late three years ago) and the current account looks clean with a regular salary. Open Banking sidesteps history because the lender picks the present. It also helps freelancers with irregular inflows, because the full year of cashflow is visible rather than a gap between PIT returns. Short version, when the current account looks better than the BIK history.