Published By Janet Gershen-Siegel at August 4th, 2018
Using hacks to get a high business credit score means that your company gets opportunities you never felt you would. You can get new equipment, bid on buildings, and deal with the company payroll. And this is even when times are a bit lean.
This is especially helpful in holiday businesses. This is because you can go for calendar months with only nominal sales.
Given this, you should really work on building your company credit. Improve and maintain your scores and you will have these opportunities. Do not, and either you do not get these chances, or they will set you back you a lot more. And no entrepreneur wants that.
You ought to recognize what affects your business credit before you can make it better. Here are five hacks to get a high business credit score.
Get our hacks to get a high business credit score and get and stay ahead of everyone else.
This is essentially the length of time your firm has been working with company credit. Certainly newer companies will have brief credit histories. While there is not so much you can specifically do about that, do not panic.
Credit reporting agencies will also look at personal credit score and your personal history of payments. If a personal credit is good, and in particular if you have a fairly lengthy credit history, then your individual credit can come to the rescue of your company.
Normally the opposite is also true. If your personal credit history is poor, then it will have an effect on your corporate credit scores until your company and personal credit can be split.
To begin your business credit profile properly, you ought to get approval for vendor accounts that report to the business credit reporting bureaus. Once that’s done, you can then use the credit, repay what you used, and the account is reported to Dun & Bradstreet, Experian, or Equifax.
Tardy monthly payments will influence your company credit score for a good seven years. If you pay your small business debts off, as speedily and as fully as possible, then you can make a very real difference when it involves your credit scores.
See to it that to pay on schedule and you will experience the rewards of punctuality.
Individual credit scores rely on payments but also other elements like credit use percentages. But for corporate credit, the scores really just hinge on if a business pays its debts timely.
Are you having a bad business year? Then it could land on your consumer credit score. And just in case your company has not been in existence for too long, it will directly affect your business credit. However, you can unlink both by taking measures to uncouple them.
Say, if you get credit cards exclusively for your firm, or you open up business checking accounts and various other bank accounts, then the CRAs will begin to treat your individual and corporate credit on an individual basis. Also, make sure to incorporate, or at least file a DBA.
A company will also need a bank account devoted only to it, and it must have every one of the licenses required for operating. These licenses all must be in the exact, accurate name of the corporation, with the same small business address and telephone numbers.
Keep in mind that this means not just state licenses, but possibly also city or even county licenses.
You can also take care of your company’s invoices with your small business credit card or checking account. And make sure it is the company’s full name on the bill and not your own.
Credit utilization rate is the amount on credit, and then divided by total available credit. Lenders ordinarily do not like to see this exceed 30%. So for every $100 in credit, do not borrow on in excess of $30 of that.
If this percent is increasing, you’ll have to spend down and repay your debts prior to borrowing more.
Just like every organization out there, credit reporting bureaus like Equifax and Experian are only as good as their records. If your company’s name resembles another’s, or your name is a lot like another company owner’s, there could be some mistakes.
So keep track of those reports, and your small business report at Dun & Bradstreet, PAYDEX.
Stay on top of these reports and challenge charges with records and transparent communications. Do not just let them stay wrong! You can repair this!
And while you’re at it, monitor the credit reporting agency which solely handles consumer and not business credit, TransUnion. If you do not know exactly how to pull a credit report, do not worry. It is easy. Just use Google to find the links to the CRAs.
Know what is happening with your credit. Make sure it is being reported and fix any errors as soon as possible. Get in the practice of checking credit reports and digging into the particulars, and not just the scores.
We can help you monitor business credit at Experian and D&B for only $24/month. See: https://oldcs.creditsuite.com/business-credit-monitoring.
Know what is happening with your credit. Make certain it is being reported and attend to any inaccuracies as soon as possible. Get in the habit of taking a look at credit reports and digging into the specifics, and not just the scores.
Dun & Bradstreet’s PAYDEX score of your small business can wind up as one of the fundamental reasons that your business acquires credit in any way. D & B has Credit Signal, which is a way to keep an eye on your credit score by having the reports come straight to you, for a price.
D&B costs range from $49.99 to $99.99.
You may discover the cost is well worth it in order to avoid the frustrations that can originate from letting this score slip, and to not have to produce and handle the schedules and reminders you might need to stay up to date with if you don’t use it.
Don’t want to use Credit Signal? It’s no problem, as you can get your business credit report online for by way of D & B and, if needed, you can reach out to their Customer Service department (this department exists as a section of Dun & Bradstreet itself).
At D&B you can monitor at: https://www.dandb.com/credit-builder/.
Additionally, in order to review your PAYDEX report, check out what D & B provides, which is a sample report as well as some higher level suggestions in the way to read it. Get your company’s PAYDEX report at: http://www.dnb.com/about-us/our-data.html.
At D&B, you can update details at: https://iupdate.dnb.com/iUpdate/viewiUpdateHome.htm.
At Experian, you can monitor your account at: http://www.smartbusinessreports.com/Landing/1217/. The cost of monitoring is $19.99.
But if you would rather not get continuing reports (and purchase them), then order a separate Experian report for your business on their website. Get your business credit report online from Experian at: http://www.businesscreditfacts.com/pdp.aspx?pg=SearchForm.
Update the information if there are errors or the details is incomplete. At Experian, do that here: http://www.experian.com/small-business/business-credit-information.jsp.
You always want to know what is happening with your credit. Make certain it is being reported and attend to any inaccuracies as soon as possible. Get into the habit of taking a look at your Equifax credit reports. Dig into the specifics, and not just the scores.
At Equifax, you can monitor your account at: http://www.equifax.com/business/business-credit-monitor-small-business. Monitoring costs $19.99.
Go to the Equifax website and navigate to http://www.equifax.com/business/small-business. Follow directions for updating your records.
We can help you monitor business credit at Experian and D&B for only $24/month. See: https://oldcs.creditsuite.com/business-credit-monitoring.
What’s all this monitoring for? Why, it’s to dispute any errors in your records, of course. Errors in your credit report(s) can be fixed. But the CRAs normally want you to dispute in a particular way.
Get your small business’s PAYDEX report at: http://www.dnb.com/about-us/our-data.html.
And you can get your company’s Experian report at: http://www.businesscreditfacts.com/pdp.aspx?pg=SearchForm.
In addition, get your Equifax business credit report at: http://www.equifax.com/business/credit-information.
Disputing credit report errors normally means you mail a paper letter with duplicates of any proof of payment. These are documents like receipts and cancelled checks. Never send the originals. Always mail copies and keep the original copies.
Disputing credit report mistakes also means you specifically spell out any charges you contest. Make your dispute letter as clear as possible. Be specific about the issues with your report. Use certified mail so that you will have proof that you mailed in your dispute.
Dispute your or your corporation’s Equifax report by following the instructions here: http://www.equifax.com/small-business-faqs/#Dispute-FAQs.
You can dispute errors on your or your company’s Experian report by following the instructions here: http://www.experian.com/small-business/business-credit-information.jsp.
Dun & Bradstreet would rather that you work directly with their Customer Service Department. So D&B’s PAYDEX Customer Service phone number is here: https://www.dandb.com/glossary/paydex/.
Always use credit sensibly! Don’t borrow more than what you can pay off. Track balances and deadlines for payments. Paying on schedule and in full will do more to elevate business credit scores than just about anything else.
Growing small business credit pays. Excellent business credit scores help a corporation get loans. Your lending institution knows the corporation can pay its debts. They know the small business is for real. The small business’s EIN connects to high scores, and lenders won’t feel the need to ask for a personal guarantee.
Business credit is an asset which can help your corporation for years to come. Learn more here and get started toward establishing corporate credit.
Once you learn what affects your small business credit score, you are that much closer to creating better corporate credit. These 5 hacks to get a high business credit score should help.
Learn more here and get started with 5 hacks to get a high business credit score. It’s attached to your company’s EIN and not your SSN.