Business Credit is a company’s ability to make a purchase now and make a payment later. Below are the four agencies that need to be optimized:

1. Experian is the most open and accessible. You can easily buy your report online and there is no fee for setting up your file. Experian Smart Business Reports is used by many credit card companies, vendors, non-traditional lenders, and banks.
2. CreditSafe is the largest Worldwide business credit reporting agency. Relatively new to the U.S. market but already has over 10,000 credit providers utilizing their business reports to make approval decisions. Critical to have yours up-to-date.
3. Equifax also allows business owners to purchase a copy of their reports online but is typically the most difficult to establish a file with. This is because their requirements on credit providers who would report your payment history are less open.
4. Dun & Bradstreet assigns businesses a D-U-N-S number. Along with some conventional business lenders for underwriting, D&B is used by many vendors to determine if they will extend your business net terms, and landlords use them to approve office leases.

If your file is open in Experian, here are some of the information you can get when you run your Experian business credit report:

• Trade Lines – This indicates the number of reporting credit accounts that are currently in your file. These are made up of; Vendors, Credit Cards, Banks, Leasing Companies, etc, which show up as a “trade line” that is reporting your payment history.
• Credit Score – Experian typically opens your business credit file from public records. So, once you Incorporate or form an LLC, Experian will pick that information up from your Secretary of State records and open your file. Your business will develop a Credit Score once trade lines begin reporting payment histories on your file and are aged a few months.
• Recent Inquiries – This displays as “Yes” when an outside party has checked your business credit profile with Experian. If you see a “Yes” for Recent Inquiries you’ll definitely want get access to your Experian business report to review it for accuracy. 

Your Experian business credit report and score is most important if you are looking for a bank loan, credit cards or vehicle financing/leasing. Experian credit reports are looked at by many revolving credit account issuers such as store and fleet credit cards. 

CreditSafe Rating
The Creditsafe Rating measures your business’s ability to pay on-time. It combines variables such as: trade payment information, public information, lender compliance, and other performance indicators to predict the likelihood of your business default. Default is defined as the likelihood your business will default (over 90 days past due) within the next 12 months or that your business will go bankrupt.

The Creditsafe Rating scores businesses from 0 to 100 scale where a 70 or higher score indicates a lower risk of default and a score of under 60 identifies your business as a high risk of default.

Creditsafe also provides Credit Limit recommendations to lenders or vendors considering extending your business financing. This limit is the total amount of credit that should be outstanding at any one time.

Currently Creditsafe is primarly used by landlords and service companies such as alarm companies, internet providers, phone providers, which makes it still important to develop their report and score.

Equifax Small Business Credit Report
Currently, most U.S. banks report to Equifax on their business loans as well as most business credit cards that are underwritten by banks. Therefore, by opening accounts with many of the business credit cards in our system you will also be building your Equifax small business credit score and profile.

There is a good chance your credit profile will not be available. This is especially true if your business is newer. It typically takes more time to create a file with Equifax Small Business. This is why it’s important to apply with the credit providers who report to Equifax wherever possible. It is mostly banks and larger commercial lenders that report to Equifax so if you have not had a bank or commercial loan you will most likely not have an Equifax business report yet. 

Equifax used to be the exclusive business credit reporting agency for all U.S. banks, however that is not the case any more with many banks now using Experian business credit reports. Equifax still has a large footprint in commercial bank lending so it is important to develop their rpeort and score for your business if you intend to go after bank related lending.

Dun & Bradstreet Business Credit Reporting
You need a D&B credit file number, or D-U-N-S #, whether your business has an active file or not.

D&B compiles the most reporting data on Net-Terms trade credit and can be the quickest profile to build. Obtaining a Dun and Bradstreet number (D-U-N-S #) begins the process of building your business credit profile with them. Your D-U-N-S # will also play an important role in enabling your business to borrow without a personal guarantor.

D & B credit profiles are mostly checked by vendors looking to issue your firm a line of credit for their products and services or in the government contracting area. Bank type lenders and those lenders who will provide your business with cash loans or cash lines of credit will rarely pull a D & B credit report on your business.

Run a Free Business Scan to check how does your business would look like in the eyes of the lenders. Know what specific actions you need to take in order to get the maximum funding that you deserve.