As previously discussed, there are three major business credit bureaus; Dun & Bradstreet, Experian Business and Equifax Business. Keep in mind that each of these bureaus has their own separate credit profiles so it’s important that you monitor your files on a regular basis.

 

 

Dun & Bradstreet is used by most vendors to extend lines of credit. Experian is used by many credit card companies and none traditional business lenders. Equifax is most important for cash lenders like banks.

 

Let’s take a second and try to wipe away all confusion about the Business Credit Reporting Agencies…. 

 

Along with being able to access all three of your business credit reports, you will have a much clearer understanding of the business credit reporting process, including how your business credit scores are developed.

 

 

Dun & Bradstreet claims that you must pay them anywhere from $299 to $799 or your business file will never be opened. That is simply not true. The next steps will allow your information to be submitted to Dun & Bradstreet to establish your profile and obtain your DUNS number. The unfortunate part about FREE is it is going to take between 30-45 business days to receive that DUNS #. 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.

 

 

Establishing your business credit profile with Experian is little more difficult. The reason is because Experian the only way to establish a small business credit report is when a creditor, supplier or lender reports your company’s payment experience to them. This will be established once we have vendors reporting your credit history. Experian is an extremely valuable source for business credit because it receives the majority of its reporting from commercial banks, equipment leasing companies, revolving business credit card accounts, and many trade vendor lines of credit (Net 10, 15 & 30 accounts).

 

 

This is another credit profile that gets created only when a supplier or lender reports your company’s payment data. Equifax is the one of the most difficult bureaus to get listed with because many of the reporting partners are banks and lenders and will require you to have a loan or line of credit established with them prior to your payment history being reported.

 

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. 

 

By phone: 

You can call 1-800-727-8495 to be mailed a free copy, but only after you’ve applied for business credit under your business name within the last 60 days. So if a business lender or credit provider has checked your business credit with Equifax Commercial Reports within the last 60 days, you can call the 800 number to be mailed a free copy of your Equifax commercial report. Lenders will not pull your Equifax report without your authorization so you should know exactly when a lender has requested it. Remember, It does not matter if you are approved or declined, only that you applied for credit.

 

By mail: 

You can get a free copy of your Equifax commercial report, even if you haven’t applied for any type of business credit in the last 60 days, by simply mailing your request to:

 

Equifax Inc.

P.O. Box 740249

Atlanta, GA 30374-0249

 

Your request letter should say, Please forward to me a copy of the available commercial credit report for: and then provide the exact legal name of your business, your business address, EIN number, business phone number, and owner/officer name. 

 

Remember, if your business is less than 1 year old and you haven’t applied for any sort of business credit yet, there is a good chance an Equifax Commercial file does not exist for your company. However, even if you haven’t applied for any type of business credit under your company name but your company is more than 1 year old, Equifax may have a commercial file for your business.