Home Business credit scores and reports How to Check Your Business Credit Score
How to Check Your Business Credit Score
A business owner can see their own business credit score and report. Here is what the score is, who reads it, and where to look.
Written
Business owners can look at their own company's credit score and report. The score stands apart from the credit file of the owner as an individual. Here is what it is, who reads it, and how to check it.
What a business credit score is and who looks at it
Experian's page says business credit reports include credit scores and risk factors to monitor customers' ability to pay. D&B says strong business credit scores help creditors decide whether to lend and on what terms.
Lenders are not the only readers. Equifax says a business credit report is reviewed by banks. Lenders review it. Insurance carriers review it. Even customers review it too. D&B says potential clients can use business credit scores. They can judge a company's financial reputation before partnering. Good scores matter for small business growth and long-term success, D&B adds.
Why business owners check their own score and report
Equifax says pulling your own report helps you. It helps you correct inaccuracies. It also helps you watch your borrowing history and improve your access to funding. Good business credit helps in other ways too. Equifax says it can help a business negotiate better rates and terms with lenders. It can also shore up contracts and bids by showing that the firm's finances are steady.
Where to check a business credit score
Some reports are sold through resellers. Equifax says you order its business credit report. You order it through eCredable. That firm is an approved Equifax reseller. Equifax also has a partnership with Nav. Nav lets business owners buy Nav Prime. Nav Prime is a monthly credit monitoring product.
Want more detail? See our pages on the business credit report Experian offers. Also see the business credit report Equifax offers.
What a business credit report and score include
Equifax says its report offers a snapshot. It is a snapshot of a business's financial health. It also covers credit quality. It covers risk indicators too. It includes company profiles, debts, public records, and signs of credit risk.
Experian says its business credit reports include:
- Business background details, such as who owns the company. It also includes any parent companies. It includes subsidiaries too.
- Company financial information is used to assess credit risk. It shows the risk of extending terms.
- Credit scores and risk factors
- Bank, trade and collection records, a trail of how the company has paid
- Liens, judgments, and bankruptcy records
- Uniform Commercial Code filings, which show a company's credit position in relation to other creditors
How business and personal scores relate
Experian says a business score does not affect the owner's personal score. And a personal score does not affect a business score. The two files are separate.
How to monitor a business credit score over time
A single look shows the file on one day. Equifax says watching a business credit file helps a business. It lets a business check for errors. It also helps a business check for possible fraud. Equifax says staying on top of the file helps a business spot errors. It helps a business spot accounts it never opened. Then the business can fix them fast.
What to do if you spot inaccurate information
Equifax says reviewing a business credit report is the best way to catch and dispute inaccurate information. Read the report line by line. Look for accounts the company never opened.
A dispute is for information that is wrong, not for accurate information.
A clean file is one part of building business credit. Checking it is where that work starts.