What is Your Experian Credit Report All About?

Did You Want to Learn About Your Experian Credit Report?

This is a terrific time to learn about your Experian credit report.

But first we should start with some definitions and background on business credit.

Business Credit

This is credit in the name of a business. It is not tied to the creditworthiness of its owner or owners. Rather, business credit scores depend on how well a company can pay its bills. Hence consumer and business credit scores can vary dramatically.

Business Credit Benefits

Also, there are no demands for a personal guarantee. You can quickly get business credit regardless of personal credit quality. And there is no personal credit reporting of business accounts. Business credit utilization won’t affect your consumer FICO score. Also, the business owner won’t to be personally liable for business debts.

Business Credit Details

Getting business credit is not automatic. Building business credit requires some work. Some of the steps are intuitive. But some of them are not.

Fundability

Fundability is the current ability of our business to get funding. Some factors are in your control. Others (like your time in business) are not. Your online presence and data are one area which is at or close to 100% with your control.

Business Credit, Fundability, and Business Funding Applications

The better your business credit and fundability are, the more likely you will get approval for business financing.

Lenders Use Data to Decide on Your Application

They check information from a variety of sources, and they do not tell you about any of them. Knowing what these secret sources measure can only help you. Understanding what matters the most makes getting a loan A LOT easier, because you know what to improve first. This information is the difference between getting an approval and getting a denial.

Records Congruency

Keep your records consistent! This includes your online records. Lenders and business credit bureaus are looking at everything, so it had better match.

Inconsistent records lead to a denial due to fraud because it’s how lenders interpret inconsistencies. Fixing this is in the business owner’s hands. You can change and correct this.

This means your business name, address, phone number – everything! – must look the same in these places and more:

Every place your business has an online presence (your website, Yelp, SoTellUs, etc.)
IRS records
Records with Dun & Bradstreet, Experian, and Equifax
All licenses needed to run your business
Incorporation documents

Copy/paste this information; do not chance it with retyping.

There are Three Major Credit Bureaus – But What Makes Your Experian Credit Report so Different?

What distinguishes the three different main credit bureaus? Why is your Experian credit report such an outlier? And can you use this information to your advantage?

Business Credit Reporting Agencies

There are three different large credit bureaus for business: Dun & Bradstreet, Experian, and Equifax. FICO SBSS and CreditSafe are also players.

In the business world Equifax and Experian are up there, but it is Dun & Bradstreet which is the major player.

Dun and Bradstreet has more than 10 times the records of the next closest reporting agency. In the business credit world there really is one major player, with two other much smaller ones. See dnb.com/about-us/company.html. It makes sense to start with Dun and Bradstreet when comparing the business CRAs. This is because you’ll have to start the business credit building process with them anyway.

Dun & Bradstreet

Dun and Bradstreet is the oldest and largest credit reporting agency. Go to Dun and Bradstreet’s website and look for your business, at dnb.com/duns-number. Can’t find it? Then get a free D-U-N-S number. You will always need a D-U-N-S number to start building business credit. Go here to get a D-U-N-S number: dnb.com/duns-number/get-a-duns.html.

A D-U-N-S number is how Dun and Bradstreet gets your company into their system. And a D-U-N-S number plus 3 payment experiences leads to a PAYDEX score. A payment experience is a record of a purchase from a business which reports to a credit reporting agency. In this case, Dun and Bradstreet. Once you are in Dun and Bradstreet’s system, search Equifax and Experian’s sites for your business. You can do so at creditsuite.com/reports.

Keep your business protected with our professional business credit monitoring.

Experian Business Credit

Business credit is in a business’s name, and it depends on how well a company can pay its bills. But Experian uses both consumer and business credit data to gauge risk.

“By combining personal and commercial credit information in one report, Experian provides a complete picture of the creditworthiness of small businesses”

You Will Need to Get Set Up with Experian

Get a BIN (Business Identification Number) from Experian. Experian’s BizSource assigns a BIN.

How Long Data Stays on Your Reports at the Different Credit Bureaus

Per Experian Business, bankruptcies stay for 7 to 10 years on your Experian credit report. Chapter 13 bankruptcy rolls off your credit report 7 years from the filing date. While Chapter 7 bankruptcy stays for 10 years from the filing date. Trade data stays on for 36 months. Judgments, collections, and tax liens stay on for 6 years and 9 months. UCC filings stay on for 5 years. See experian.com/small-business/how-long-credit-report. There are similar time frames for the two other main credit bureaus.

Let’s Look at an Experian Credit Report

We’ll look at a Typical Experian Business Credit Advantage SM Report. Experian provides a sample report where you can get an idea of what to expect. Experian changes its reports at times. So the best, most accurate and up to date source for this information is the Experian website. Find it online at https://sbcr.experian.com/pdp.aspx?pg=Sample-BCAI&hdr=report.

Business Background Information

The first part of a report contains:

Name
Address
Main phone number
Experian BIN
Annual sales
Business type (corporation, etc.)
Date Experian file established
Years in business
Total number of employees
Incorporation date and state

Experian Business Credit Score

Business Credit Scores range from 1 to 100. Higher scores indicate lower risk. This score predicts the chance of serious credit delinquencies in the next 12 months. It uses tradeline and collections data, public filings as well as other variables to predict future risk. This section of the report has a graph to visually indicate the score.

Key Score Factors:

Number of commercial accounts with terms other than Net 1-30 days
The number of commercial accounts that are not current
Number of commercial accounts with high utilization
Length of time on Experian’s file

Experian Financial Stability Risk Rating

Financial Stability Risk Ratings range from 1 to 5. Lower ratings indicate lower risk. A Financial Stability Risk Rating of 1 indicates a 0.55% potential risk of severe financial distress. So this is in the next 12 months.

Experian puts all businesses in one of the five risk segments. This rating predicts the chance of payment default and/or bankruptcy, in the next 12 months. This rating uses tradeline and collections information, public filings, and other variables to predict future risk.

Key Rating Factors:

Number of active commercial accounts
Risk associated with the business type
Risk associated with the company’s industry sector
Also, the employee size of business

Credit Summary

This section contains several counts of various data points. For the most part, the details are available further into the report.

The information outlined contains:

Current Days Beyond Terms (DBT)
Predicted DBT for a particular date
Average industry DBT
Payment Trend Indicator (stable, or not)

This section also contains:

Lowest 6 month balance
Highest 6 month balance
Current total account balance
Highest credit amount extended
Median credit amount extended
Number of payment tradelines
How many lender consortium experiences
Number of business inquiries
Also, the number of UCC Filings

Payment Trend Summary

This section starts with two graphs. They show the company in question versus its industry on Monthly payment trends and Quarterly payment trends.

These are the percentages of on-time payments by month and quarter, respectively.

This part then shows tables with recent payment information by month and quarter. Then there are three more graphs:

Continuous Payment Trends: continuous distribution with DBT (days beyond terms)
Newly Reported Payment Trends: newly reported distribution with DBT
Combined Payment Trends: combined distribution with DBT

Trade Payment Information

This next part shows details on payment experiences (financial trades). There is also data on lender consortium experiences (financial exchange trades):

Tradeline experiences (continuous trades)
Aged trades
Payment trend detail
There is also a link to send any missing payment experiences

Keep your business protected with our professional business credit monitoring.

Inquiries, Collection Filings, and Collections Summary

The Inquiries part contains the industry making the inquiry and a total made during a given month. The Collection Filings sector has the date, name of the agency, and status (open or closed). If a collection is closed, the Collection Filing sector also contains the closing date. The Collections Summary shows: status, number of collections, dollar amount in dispute, and amount collected (even if $0).

Commercial Banking, Insurance, Leasing

For leasing, this section shows:

Leasing institution name and address
Product type
Lease start date and term
Original and remaining balances
The scheduled amount due
And the number of payments per year
Also, the number of payments which are current, late, or overdue

Judgement Filings

This sector includes:

Date and plaintiff
Filing location
Legal type and action
Document number
Also, liability amount

This sector includes cases where the company in the report is the plaintiff or the defendant

Tax Lien Filings

This part has:

Date and owner
Filing location
Legal type and action
Document number
Liability amount
Also, description

UCC Filings

This section has:

Date
Filing number
Jurisdiction
Secured party
Also, Activity (filed, or not)

Keep your business protected with our professional business credit monitoring.

UCC Filings Summary

This part shows:

Filing period
Number of cautionary filings
Total filed
The total released
Total continued
Also, Amended/Assigned

Cautionary UCC Filings include one or more of the following collateral:

Accounts
Accounts receivable
Contracts
Hereafter acquired property
Leases
Notes receivable, or
Proceeds

Score Improvement Tips

Experian offers suggestions on how to improve your reports, such as:

Getting net-30 terms, if possible, from existing and future tradeline suppliers
Paying accounts on time or working with the tradeline supplier to work out a payment plan so a business is not reported delinquent
Lowering credit utilization
Also, making sure all the information in the report is correct

Disputing Issues with Your Experian Business Credit Report

None of the different business bureaus will change your scores without proof. They are starting to accept more and more online disputes. But include proofs of payment with it. These are documents like receipts and cancelled checks.

Fixing credit report errors also means you specifically spell out any charges you challenge. Make your dispute as crystal clear as possible. If you need to snail mail anything in, then use certified mail. This is so you have proof you sent in your dispute. Also, be specific about the concerns with your report.

You can correct Experian issues at: experian.com/small-business/business-credit-information.

Monitoring Your Experian Credit Report and Scores

The costs of monitoring at all three big business credit reporting agencies can add up fast. At Experian, your best (least expensive) bet would be a Business Credit Advantage. Subscription Plan. It currently costs $189 per year. See sbcr.experian.com/pdp.aspx?pg=Sample&link.

Monitor Business Credit at D&B, Experian, and Equifax for Less

Experian’s reports are expensive! But did you know you can get business credit monitoring for all 3 of the big business CRAs, and all in one place – for less? Credit Suite offers monitoring through its Business Finance Suite (through Nav). See what credit issuers and lenders also see, so you can directly improve your scores and get the business credit & funding you need. See suitelogin.com and creditsuite.com/monitoring.

Improving Your Company’s Experian Credit Report

Make sure vendors are reporting your payments, and not just with Experian. Pay bills early or on time, in full. For Experian, historical behavior (payment history) = 5-10% of total score. Try to maintain your personal credit utilization at about 20 – 30% of your limits or less. Don’t close positive accounts even if you no longer use them. And try to avoid derogatories like liens.

Your Experian Credit Report: Takeaways

Experian has revamped their reports dramatically. Also, this major business credit reporting agency is committed to correct data, and to helping companies improve their reports. So to monitor Experian, Equifax, and Dun and Bradstreet for a lot less, monitor through Credit Suite!

The post What is Your Experian Credit Report All About? appeared first on Credit Suite.

Get to Know Your Experian Business Credit Report

Do You Want to Learn About Your Experian Business Credit Report?

This is a good time to learn about your Experian business credit report.

But first we should start with some definitions and background on business credit.

Business Credit

This is credit in the name of a business. It is not tied to the creditworthiness of its owner or owners. Rather, business credit scores will depend on how well a company can pay its bills. Hence consumer and business credit scores can vary dramatically.

Business Credit Benefits

There are no demands for a personal guarantee. You can quickly get business credit regardless of personal credit quality. And there is no personal credit reporting of business accounts. Business credit use won’t affect your consumer FICO score. Plus the business owner won’t be personally liable for the debt the business incurs.

Business Credit Details

Being accepted for business credit is not automatic. Building business credit requires some work. Some of the steps are intuitive, and some of them are not.

Fundability

Fundability is the current ability of our business to get funding. Some factors are within your control. Others (like your time in business) are not. Your online presence and data are one area which is at or close to 100% with your control.

The better your business credit and fundability are, the more likely you will get approval for business financing.

Build Fundability on Business Credit Applications to Avoid Denials

Keep your business looking fundable (legit) with:

A professional website and email address
A toll-free phone number
List your phone number with 411
A business address (not a PO box or a UPS box)
Get all necessary licenses for running your business

Online Fundability

There are some aspects of fundability where you should pay particular attention to what is online. Such as:

Business owners listed and listed ownership uniform
Business name and address uniform
Industry aligned
Company domain
Data uniform on all records

Business Ownership Listings

Records consistency matters here. Your website should show who owns your business. And that info must be consistent. So if the owner is named Susan Johnson on your website’s About page, then she should not be listed as Sue Johnson on your Contact page. If your business ownership changes, you need to show that here.

Business Name and Address Uniformity

Abbreviations can be your downfall here, as can punctuation like hyphens, commas, and colons. Maybe your Contact page says your main office is on Main Street. Then your About page should not say it is on Main St.

If your business moves, or you add subsidiaries and other locations, then you need to update that info everywhere. This even means whether you use your 5-digit ZIP code, or a ZIP plus 4 code (9 digits).

Fundability: Industry Alignment

If your business is over the road trucking, then it needs to be listed that way. Pro tip: when your industry can be called several different names, mention those other phrases on your site.

Your Business Email and Website: Company Domain

When your company domain matches your business name, it helps with fundability. Pro tip: try to match what people are searching for online. So if the word ‘brothers’ is in your company name, then determine if ‘brothers’ or ‘bros’ is used by people searching for your company online.

Keep your business protected with our professional business credit monitoring.

There are Three Different Credit Bureaus – But What Makes Your Experian Business Credit Report Special?

What distinguishes an Experian business credit report from reports through the two other big credit bureaus? And can you use that data to your advantage?

There are three major credit bureaus for business: Dun & Bradstreet, Experian, and Equifax. FICO SBSS and CreditSafe are also players.

In the business world Equifax and Experian are up there. But it is Dun & Bradstreet which is the major player.

Dun and Bradstreet has more than 10 times the records of the next closest reporting agency. See dnb.com/about-us/company.html. It makes sense to start with Dun and Bradstreet even when going over your Experian business credit report. This is because you must start the business credit building process with them anyway.

Dun & Bradstreet

Go to the Dun and Bradstreet website and look for your business, at dnb.com/duns-number. But just what happens if you are unable to find it? Then get a free D-U-N-S number. You will always need a D-U-N-S number to start building business credit. Go here to get a D-U-N-S number: dnb.com/duns-number/get-a-duns.html.

A D-U-N-S number is how Dun and Bradstreet gets your company into their system. And a D-U-N-S number plus 3 payment experiences leads to a PAYDEX score. A payment experience is a record of a purchase from a business which reports to a credit reporting agency. In this case, Dun and Bradstreet. Once your business is in Dun and Bradstreet’s system, search Equifax and Experian’s sites for your business. You can do so at creditsuite.com/reports.

Your Experian Business Credit Report

Business credit is in a business’s name. And it depends on how well a company can pay its bills. But Experian uses both consumer and business credit data to gauge risk.

They have found that blended data and reports work a lot better for them. For troubled businesses, blended scores dropped an average of 30% over the four quarters leading up to a bad event. The owner’s consumer scores showed no statistically significant decline during the same period.

53% of the time, the first signs of credit problems were on the business credit reports. 46% of the time, the first signs of credit problems were on the owner’s personal report. Blended scores outperformed consumer or business alone by 10 – 20%.

Per Experian:

“By combining personal and commercial credit information in one report, Experian provides a complete picture of the creditworthiness of small businesses”

You Must Get Set Up with Experian

Get a BIN (Business Identification Number) from Experian. Experian’s BizSource assigns a BIN.

How Long Data Stays on Your Reports at the Different Credit Bureaus

Per Experian Business, bankruptcies stay for 7 to 10 years. Chapter 13 bankruptcy rolls off your credit report 7 years from the filing date. While Chapter 7 bankruptcy stays for 10 years from the filing date. Trade data stays on for 36 months. Judgments, collections, and tax liens stay on for 6 years and 9 months. UCC filings stay on for 5 years. See experian.com/small-business/how-long-credit-report. There are similar time frames for the two other big business credit bureaus.

Keep your business protected with our professional business credit monitoring.

Your Experian Business Credit Report: The Particulars

We’ll look at a Typical Experian Business Credit Advantage SM Report. Experian provides a sample report where you can get an idea of what to expect. Experian changes its reports at times. So the best, most accurate and up to date source for this info is the Experian website. Find it online at https://sbcr.experian.com/pdp.aspx?pg=Sample-BCAI&hdr=report.

Business Background Information

The first part of a report has:

Name
Address
Main phone number
Experian BIN
Annual sales
Business type (corporation, etc.)
Date Experian file established
Years in business
Total number of employees
Incorporation date and state

Experian Business Credit Score

Business Credit Scores range from 1 to 100. Higher scores mean lower risk. This score predicts the chance of serious credit delinquencies within the next 12 months. This score uses tradeline and collections info, public filings as well as other variables to predict future risk. This part of the report has a graph to show the score.

Key Score Factors:

Number of commercial accounts with terms other than Net 1-30 days
The number of commercial accounts that are not current
Number of commercial accounts with high utilization
Length of time on Experian’s file

Experian Financial Stability Risk Rating

Experian puts all businesses in one of five risk segments. This rating predicts the chance of payment default and/or bankruptcy, in the next 12 months. This rating uses tradeline and collections data. It also uses public filings and other variables to predict future risk.

Key Rating Factors:

Number of active commercial accounts
Risk associated with the business type
Risk associated with the company’s industry sector
Employee size of business

Credit Summary

This part has several counts of various data points. For the most part, the details are further within the report.

The data outlined shows:

Current Days Beyond Terms (DBT)
Predicted DBT for a particular date
Average industry DBT
Payment Trend Indicator (stable, or not)

This part also shows:

Lowest 6 month balance
Highest 6 month balance
Current total account balance
Highest credit amount extended
Median credit amount extended
Number of payment tradelines
Also, how many lender consortium experiences
Number of business inquiries
Number of UCC Filings

Payment Trend Summary

This part starts with two graphs. They show the company in question versus its industry on Monthly payment trends and Quarterly payment trends.

These are percentages of on-time payments by month and quarter, respectively.

This part then shows tables with recent payment info by month and quarter. Then there are three more graphs:

Continuous Payment Trends: continuous distribution with DBT (days beyond terms)
Newly Reported Payment Trends: newly reported distribution with DBT
Combined Payment Trends: combined distribution with DBT

Trade Payment Information

This next part shows details on payment experiences (financial trades). There is also data on lender consortium experiences (financial exchange trades):

Tradeline experiences (continuous trades)
Aged trades
Payment trend detail
There is also a link to send any missing payment experiences

Keep your business protected with our professional business credit monitoring.

Inquiries, Collection Filings, and Collections Summary

The Inquiries part shows the industry making the inquiry and a total made during a given month. The Collection Filings sector has the date, name of the agency, and status (open or closed). If a collection is closed, the Collection Filing sector also shows the closing date. The Collections Summary shows: status, number of collections, dollar amount in dispute, and amount collected (even if $0).

Commercial Banking, Insurance, Leasing

For leasing, this part shows:

Leasing institution name and address
Product type
Lease start date and term
Original and remaining balances
The scheduled amount due
Also the number of payments per year
The number of payments which are current, late, or overdue

Judgement Filings

This part shows:

Date and plaintiff
Filing location
Legal type and action
Document number
Liability amount

This part shows cases where the company in the report is plaintiff or defendant.

Tax Lien Filings

This part has:

Date and owner
Filing location
Legal type and action
Document number
Liability amount
Description

UCC Filings

This part has:

Date
Filing number
Jurisdiction
Secured party
Activity (filed, or not)

UCC Filings Summary

This part shows:

Filing period
Number of cautionary filings
Total filed
Also the total released
Total continued
Amended/Assigned

Cautionary UCC Filings have one or more of the following collateral:

Accounts
Accounts receivable
Contracts
Hereafter acquired property
Leases
Notes receivable, or
Proceeds

Score Improvement Tips

Experian offers suggestions on how to improve your reports. Such as:

Get net-30 terms, if possible, from existing and future tradeline suppliers
Pay accounts on time or work with the tradeline supplier on a payment plan so a business is not delinquent
Lower credit utilization
Make sure all the data in the report is correct

Disputing Issues with Your Experian Business Credit Report

Fixing credit report errors also means you specifically spell out any charges you challenge. Make your dispute as crystal clear as possible. If you need to snail mail anything in, use certified mail. This is so that you have proof that you sent in your dispute. With all the different credit bureaus, be specific about the concerns with your report.

You can correct Experian issues at: experian.com/small-business/business-credit-information.

Monitoring Experian Credit Scores and Reports

Monitor Business Credit at D&B, Experian, and Equifax for Less

All of Experian’s reports are expensive! But did you know that you can get business credit monitoring for all 3 of the big business CRAs. And all in one place – for less? Credit Suite offers monitoring through its Business Finance Suite (through Nav). See what credit issuers and lenders see. So you can directly improve your scores and get the business credit and funding you need. See suitelogin.com and creditsuite.com/monitoring.

Your Experian Business Credit Report: Takeaways

So Experian has revamped their reports dramatically. They no longer use the term ‘Intelliscore’. This major business credit reporting agency is committed to correct data, and to helping companies improve their reports. To monitor Experian, Equifax, and Dun and Bradstreet for a lot less, monitor through Credit Suite!

The post Get to Know Your Experian Business Credit Report appeared first on Credit Suite.

Get to Know Experian Commercial

What is Experian Commercial all about? What are details about its most important scores? Check out the details on this major business credit reporting agency. Plus, find out how to improve your business credit scores with Experian. And learn how to monitor your scores for 90% less than it would cost at that business CRA. Understanding and improving your business credit scores is more important than ever in a recession. With Experian, there is a lot you can do to keep your scores high.

So in particular, Experian reports on both business and personal credit. In fact, they blend the two. And this is virtually always what happens with startup ventures. Therefore, by keeping your personal credit scores high, you can directly influence your business credit scores.

Business Credit and Experian Commercial

Let’s look at business credit, even in a recession. Business credit is credit which is in a business’s name. So it is not tied to the owner’s creditworthiness. Instead, business credit scores mainly depend on how well a company can pay its bills. Hence, consumer and business credit scores can vary dramatically. So this is true for Experian as well.

Consider the main credit reporting agencies. There are three large business credit reporting agencies. So they are Dun & Bradstreet; Equifax; and Experian. There is also a FICO SBSS business score. But let’s concentrate on Experian Commercial today. Knowledge is power. And at no time is that more important than during a recession.

What Sort of Data Does Experian Commercial Use?

Experian, like the other business credit reporting bureaus, focuses on providing quality data and analytics. They offer this info to businesses to help them better assess risk. They have a massive consumer and commercial database. So they manage it to help businesses get the best and most up to date info. Experian extracts significant extra value with this data. So they do so by applying their own proprietary analytics and software.

Experian uses both consumer and business credit information to gauge risk.

“By combining personal and commercial credit information in one report, Experian provides a complete picture of the creditworthiness of small businesses”.

See: experian.ae/en/credit-services/index.

Experian PLC is listed on the London Stock Exchange (EXPN). And it is also in a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.

Keep your business protected with our professional business credit monitoring. Save money even during a recession.

Experian Commercial: The Experian Intelliscore Plus℠ Score

Now let’s look at Experian’s Intelliscore Plus business credit score. For Intelliscore Plus, business credit scores range from 0 to 100. So 0 represents a high risk and 100 represents a low risk. The 0 to 100 part is a percentile score. It shows the percentage of businesses scoring higher or lower than the business under review.

Intelliscore Plus is widely used. Many large financial institutions around the world use it. So do more than half of the top 25 property and casualty insurers. And so do most major telecommunications and utility firms. Industry leaders in transportation, manufacturing, and technology also use Intelliscore Plus as their main risk indicating model.

Intelliscore Plus has more than 800 aggregates or factors. These affect business credit scores. There are scores on the millions of businesses in the Experian database. It is a percentile score.

What does Intelliscore Plus measure? It is a highly predictive score. It provides a detailed and accurate reflection of a business’s risk. Intelliscore Plus blends commercial data with the consumer data for the business owner or guarantor.

The Intelliscore Plus℠ Analytical Approach

Check out various Intelliscore Plus analytical approaches. Intelliscore Plus uses three separate analytical approaches to provide risk insights for small businesses.

The Emerging Market Model

The first analytical approach is business data including an emerging market model. That one is designed for microbusinesses.

The Blended Model

The second analytical approach is a blended one. This model incorporates business and consumer credit information on the owner or guarantor. Experian uses a cascading approach when combining the differing data sources.

The Consumer Data Only Model

So this third analytical approach is a consumer data only model. It is for startups because they have no business history.

For more information on these three analytical approaches, see: experian.com/content/dam/marketing/na/assets/bis/business-information/brochures/intelliscore-plus-v2-product-sheet.pdf

Get to Know the Data in an Intelliscore Plus℠ Report

So, which data is in an Intelliscore Plus report? The report contains key information like business address, how long a business has been in Experian’s database, etc. It also has legal filings and collections that may impact business performance. There is a summary of the number of trades, amount of credit extended, etc. And there is a summary of the owner or guarantor’s consumer credit account performance. This includes bank cards, revolving, auto lease, and real estate accounts.

More Data Details

More data includes business credit information like the number of days beyond terms. There’s also the Intelliscore Plus score and the business’s risk class. The report also has owner account information and derogatory information like collections, etc.

For more information on Intelliscore Plus reports, see: bci2experian.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/2013-06-Enhanced-Risk-Assessment.pdf

Keep your business protected with our professional business credit monitoring. Save money even during a recession.

Experian Commercial: The Experian Financial Stability Risk Score

Check out the Experian Financial Stability Risk Score (FSR). The FSR predicts the potential of a business going bankrupt or defaulting on its obligations. The score identifies the highest risk businesses by making use of payment and public records. These records include severely delinquent payments of 61 or more and 91 or more days. They also include high utilization of credit lines; tax liens; judgments; collection accounts; industry risk; and short time in business, etc.

The Financial Stability Risk Score shows a 1 to 100 percentile score, plus a 1 to 5 risk class. The risk class puts businesses into risk categories. So the highest risk is in the lowest 10% of accounts.

For more information on the Financial Stability Risk Score, see: experian.com/content/dam/marketing/na/assets/bis/business-information/brochures/financial-stability-risk-score-ps.pdf

What if you have a score of 66 to 100? And you have a risk class of 1? Then it means there is a low risk of default or bankruptcy. But what if you have a score of 1 – 3? And you have a risk class of 5? Then it means there is a high risk of default or bankruptcy.

Experian Commercial: Derogatory Data

So, how long does derogatory data stay in Experian’s database? Trade data stays on your report for 36 months. So does bank, government, and leasing data. Uniform Commercial Code filings stay on your report for 5 years. So note: Uniform Commercial Code filings are in support of loans.

Judgments, collections, and tax liens all stay on your report for 6 years and 9 months. And bankruptcies stay on your report for 9 years and 9 months.

For more information on derogatory data in Experian Commercial reports, see: experian.com/small-business/how-long-credit-report

Experian Commercial: Improving Your Company’s Experian Reports

To improve your credit terms, you should be looking at improving your company’s Experian reports. Also make sure vendors are reporting your payments. The more vendors which report a positive credit history to the credit reporting agencies, the better. Because then the higher your business credit rating will be. And this is not just the case with Experian.

So improving your scores is pretty straightforward. Always pay your bills early or on time and pay them in full. Try to maintain a balance at about 20 to 30% of your limits or less. Do not close positive accounts. And try to avoid derogatory report entries like tax liens.

This advice works just as well for personal credit as for business credit. Because Experian reports on both – and blends them – doing the same good things for both types of credit is helpful. Because it will help you even more.

Keep your business protected with our professional business credit monitoring. Save money even during a recession.

Experian Commercial: Business Credit Monitoring

To improve your Experian business credit scores, you should be looking into Experian business credit monitoring. Experian offers monitoring services. So these prices are current as of June 2020. Business Credit Advantage costs $189 per year. You can monitor business credit for one year. And you’ll get alerts of changes.

Business Credit Score Pro costs $249 per month. So it gives you access to multiple business credit reports. And Profile Plus costs $49.95 for a single report. So a Credit Score Report costs $39.95. With that one, you will get a credit summary report with a score. Or you can monitor your business credit with us for 90% less.

Experian Commercial: Takeaways

So Experian gathers diverse data to attempt to understand risk. And Experian works to predict a business’s chance of going delinquent on payments or bankrupt. They combine business and personal credit info for business owners or guarantors. This provides a more detailed picture of risk.

But derogatory data will stay on your Experian business credit reports for years. You can improve your Experian Commercial report by acting to better manage your finances.

And as you improve your personal credit scores with Experian, that will directly affect your business credit scores. Responsible financial stewardship is not just a good idea; it will likely save you money! So with better scores come better rates. Plus, you will have more choices. You will not have to settle for the one and only loan or credit card you can get.

Monitoring your business credit reports with Experian will also help you improve your reports. We offer competitively priced monitoring of your Experian business credit reports.

The post Get to Know Experian Commercial appeared first on Credit Suite.

Make it or Break It: Your Experian Background Check

Experian does more than just credit scores. They also provide a background check service. Not just for you personally either. They have 2 different business background check reports they can provide. Many people are scared of what it on their background check because it can make or break your chance at funding. It is vital that you know what type of information lenders are seeing when they run an Experian background check on your business.

An Experian Background Check on Your Business May Contain More than You Expect

There are two different Experian background check reports for businesses. Experian refers to it as tenant screening. They offer this for individuals as well as businesses. The two different reports are the Business Profile Plus Report and the Business Credit Score Report. Before we get into the detail of each of these however, you need to understand the Experian business credit scoring process. Your business credit score affects each of these reports.

Keep your business protected with our professional business credit monitoring.

Experian Background Check: Intelliscore Plus

The Intelliscore Plus credit score is a credit-risk evaluation based on statistics. The goal is to help those offering funding make decisions about whether or not your business is a good investment.

It’s similar to how lenders use your personal credit score. Before they decide to lend money to you, they check your credit score. The Intelliscore Plus can provide an idea of the credit risk associated with a specific business.

Intelliscore Plus Credit Score Range

The scores range from 1 to 100. The higher your score, the lower your risk class. Alternatively, the lower your score, the higher your risk class. The chart below describes each range and what it means to lenders.

Score Range Risk Class

76 — 100 Low

51 — 752 Low — Medium

26 — 503 Medium

11 — 254 High — Medium

1 — 105 High

How Is an Intelliscore Plus Credit Score Calculated?

In the credit world, Intelliscore Plus is one of the best tools for predicting risk. One reason is that they identify key factors that show how likely a business is to pay their debt.

There are over 800 of these factors. However, they can all fit into the following general categories.

Payment History

Not surprisingly, this is how well you are making payments. It includes the number of times your accounts become delinquent. It also shows the percent of accounts that are currently late. Your overall trade balance is listed too.

Frequency

Frequency refers to the amount of times your accounts have been sent to collections. It includes the number of liens and judgments you may have. Any bankruptcies related to your business or personal accounts also show up here.

In addition, frequency has to do with your payment patterns. Were you regularly slow or late with payment? Did you start off paying bills late but get better over time?

Financial

This specific factor focuses on how you use credit. For example, how much of your available credit is currently in use? Do you have a high ratio of delinquent balances in relation to your credit limits?

If you are about to start a business or are somewhat new to this game, the list above may seem a bit overwhelming. If your business is not yet in operation or you do not have a long history of business transactions, how will they rate you?

Keep your business protected with our professional business credit monitoring.

In this case, a blended model is used to establish your score. That means they consider your personal consumer credit score with your business’s credit score.

Experian Background Check: Commercial Tenant Screening

When it comes to a business Experian background check, there are two different options. They each contain similar information. One is just more detailed than the other. As a result, there is a slight price difference between the two reports as well.

Business Credit Score Report

According to Experina, this contains summary information on the following:

Business Address, Key Personnel, Sales, Total Employees and SIC Code/Description
Credit Ranking and Key Score Factors
Payment Summary
Collection, Tax Lien and Judgment Filings

This report costs $39.95.

Business Profile Plus Report

This is the more detailed version of the Business Credit Score report. It includes detailed information on the following:

Business Address, Key Personnel, Sales, Total Employees and SIC Code/Description
Credit Ranking and Key Score Factors
Trade Payment Detail and Trends
Inquiries
Collection, Tax Lien, Judgment and UCC Filings

This report costs $49.95.

Surprising to many is the fact that so much more than credit history is included in the Experian background check. Of course, often there is no background check when simply applying for a business loan. The thing is, Experian offers reports that contain similar information to lenders as well as potential landlords. Basically, they are providing a more complete picture of overall fundability. Of course, that is affected by much more than the business credit score.

Other Experian Reports

In addition to the reports offered with the Experian Background check, Experian offers a number of other products. These include reports designed to help you as the owner monitor your business credit.

Business Credit Advantage Plan

This one is currently $149 monthly and contains mobile-friendly alerts and score improvement tips.

Profile Plus Report

This report is currently priced at $49.95. It features comprehensive financial payment data and predictive information on payment behavior.

Credit Score Report

This is the least expensive of the reports, currently priced at $39.95. Basically, it includes comprehensive business and credit information. Also, there is a summary of financial payment data.

Valuation Report

This report sells for $99 right now. It shows the value of your company and contains Key Performance Indicators. Additionally, it shows your business’s fair market value.

Premium Corporate Profiles

Experian also furnishes premium corporate profiles at an additional cost. The enhanced profiles contain even more detail including:

Sales figures
size
contact details
products and operations
credit summary
any Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) filings
fake business names
payment and collections history

Keep your business protected with our professional business credit monitoring.

This is in addition to the data supplied in their basic corporate profiles. They also have information on credit inquiries made in the past nine months.

Keep an Eye on What Experian Has on Your Business with Credit Alerts

Not surprisingly, you can subscribe to business credit alerts. Experian’s Business Credit Advantage program serves as a self-monitoring service. You get unlimited access to your business’s business credit report and score. You can make use of this tool for proactively handling your business credit. Alerts are sent for:

Company address changes
Changes in your business credit score
Credit inquiries on your business profile
Newly-opened credit tradelines
Any USS filings
Collection filings and
Any public record filings, for example, liens, bankruptcies, and judgments

By taking advantage of this, you can always be ahead of the game. Then, you won’t have to be surprised by what your Experian background check turns up.

What if There is a Problem with your Experian Background Check?

Experian Reporting and Scores

While there are many problems that could potentially pop up, the business credit score issue is one of the most common. It is possible to improve it however. Here’s how.

Make On-Time Payments Consistently

Paying your bills on time will help establish your small business as one that meets financial obligations. This will eventually help push your score up. As a result, lenders will view your business as low risk.

Use the Credit

Keep your debt low. That’s good advice. Still, opening business credit accounts can help raise your credit score. The key is to use all credit responsibly.

Keep Your Personal Credit in Check

By now, you’re aware that your personal credit is fair game when it comes to your Intelliscore Plus score. Running a business is hard work. However, don’t let your personal finances suffer. See to it you stay on top of your personal debt. Steer clear of credit checks that are not necessary. Basically, do not compromise your personal credit for business needs.

Your Experian Background Check and Fundability

Many of the factors that show up on your Experian background check reports are fundability factors. There are fundability factors that will not show up directly on these reports. However, some will still affect your report indirectly. Others are outside of the reports all together. You need to know what they are and understand how they can affect your ability to get funding.

Factors that Affect Fundability

Here are a few things you need to keep on your radar when it comes to your Experian background check and managing fundability.

Other Business Data Agencies

There are other agencies that collect business information. The information these businesses have can indirectly affect reports from business credit agencies. Two examples of this are LexisNexis and The Small Business Finance Exchange. These two agencies gather data from different sources. Those sources include public records. That means they could have access to information relating to automobile accidents and liens. You may not be able to access or change the data these agencies have on your business. However, you can ensure that any new information they receive is positive. Enough positive information can help distract attention from negative information.

Business Information

On the surface, it seems obvious that all of your business information should be the same across the board. However, when you start changing things up, like adding a business phone number and address or incorporating, you may find that some things slip through the cracks.

This is a problem because of fraud concerns. When business information doesn’t match up, it sets off alarms. Maybe your business licenses have your personal address but now you have a business address. You have to change it. Perhaps some of your credit accounts have a slightly different name or a different phone number listed than what is on your loan application. Do your insurances all have the same information?

The key to this piece of the business fundability is to monitor your reports frequently.

Financial Statements

Both your personal and business tax returns need to be in order. Not only that, but you need to be paying your taxes, both business and personal.

It is best to have an accounting professional prepare regular financial statements for your business. Having an accountant’s name on financial statements lends to the legitimacy of your business. If you cannot afford this monthly or quarterly, at least have professional statements prepared annually. Then, they are ready whenever you need to apply for a loan.

Often tax returns for the previous three years will suffice for personal financials. Get a tax professional to prepare them. This is the bare minimum you will need. Lenders may also ask to see check stubs and bank statements.

Bureaus

There are several other agencies that hold information related to your personal finances that you need to know about. For example, many business owners do not realize that their ChexSystems report can affect fundability. In the simplest terms, this details any bad check activity. It makes a difference when it comes to your bank score. If you have too many bad checks, you will not be able to open a bank account.

Everything can come back to bite you. Have you ever been convicted of a crime? Do you have a bankruptcy or short sell on your record? How about liens or UCC filings? All of this can and will affect your Experian background check and the fundability of your business.

Personal Credit History

Your personal credit score from Experian, Equifax, and Transunion all matter. You have to have your personal credit in order because it will definitely affect the fundability of your business. If it isn’t great right now, get to work on it. The number one way to get a strong personal credit score or improve a weak one is to make payments on time, consistently.

Also, make sure you monitor your personal credit regularly to ensure mistakes are corrected and that there are no fraudulent accounts being reported.

The Application Process

Sometimes your ability to get funding doesn’t have as much to do with your credit. Sometimes it has more to do with your timing and application. First, consider the timing of the application. Is your business fundable right now? If not, do some work to increase fundability.

Next, make sure that your business name, business address, and ownership status are all verifiable. Lenders will check. Lastly, make sure you choose the right lending product for your business and your needs. Do you need a traditional loan or a line of credit? Would a working capital loan or expansion loan work best for your needs? Choosing the right product to apply for can make all the difference.

Watch Your Back

When it comes to your business, you have to watch your back. Everything you do can affect your ability to get funds, even if it is on your personal credit. However, the more your business builds strong fundability of its own, the easier the process will be despite your personal finances. Watch your back. Make payments. Make sure all your information is consistent across the board. What do you need to know about your Experian background check? It probably says more than you think. However, if you follow our suggestions, it is more likely to help you than hurt you.

The post Make it or Break It: Your Experian Background Check appeared first on Credit Suite.

Everything You Need to Know About Your Experian Business Credit Score

Experian is one of the big three credit reporting agencies. Equifax and Dun & Bradstreet are the other two. In fact, Experian keeps business credit profiles on 99.9% of all American companies. Furthermore, it boasts the most in-depth information on small and midsize businesses. Knowing this, it is easy to see why your Experian business credit score is important.

Your Experian Business Credit Score: How to Start It, Build It, and Keep It Strong

Obviously, the score is important. As a result, it is necessary to know how Experian gets their data on your business. How do they calculate your Experian business credit score? What does their report tell lenders? More than that, can you improve your score if it isn’t great?

Keep your business protected with our professional business credit monitoring.

How to Start Your Experian Business Credit Score

According to Experian, all their information comes from third parties. This means you cannot add any information to your company credit profile. That said, you can still review your report for mistakes.

You still have to ensure your business is set up properly. If it isn’t, third parties will not recognize your company as a business. You have to establish your business as an entity separate from yourself. Otherwise, your business transactions will get mixed up with personal transactions. They may show up on your personal credit report. This will cause a huge tangle of a mess.

To separate your business from yourself, make sure your business has the following.

EIN
Separate contact information
A dedicated business account
Also, you have to formally incorporate

Experian business Credit Score: Intelliscore

You have to set up your business to be separate from yourself so your business accounts will report to the business CRAs. With Experian, the main business credit score and report is the Intelliscore Plus. Along with your Experian business credit score, the report contains the following:

Identifying Information

First, there is the standard identifying information. This includes company name and address, in addition to any ownership information. This part also lists important personnel and the type of company you have. Time in business, number of employees, and the amount of yearly sales are also in this section.

Payment Information at a Glance

After this, there is a section that lists how delinquent payments are, along with how many days late they are. It also provides an overall trend. For example, the lowest and highest balance for the past six months. Current balance is also shown. So it shows the credit limit available to your business. And this is how the report gives an idea of the credit utilization rate for your company.

In addition, this part lists the number of tradelines your business holds. It also includes how many times a company has checked your credit and any UCC filings.

It also shows the percent of businesses doing worse than yours as well. The number of bankruptcies, liens, and judgments are in this section too.

Credit Summary

The credit summary shows your business’s Experian credit score. Also, it links to information on what goes into the score and tips on the best ways to improve it.

Payment Summary

Next, you see the payment summary. There are line graphs for monthly and quarterly payment trends. Conveniently, it also shows where the numbers come from. There is even a graph that shows the monthly payment trend in relation to the what is average for the industry.

Below this, there are three bar charts showing payment trends for the past 6 months. This is as reported from the tradelines.

Trade Payment Information

The next part is about how your business has done with its payments, broken down by type of account.

Inquiries

Next up are inquiries into your small business’s credit. The list names companies making inquiries and the month the inquiry was made.

Collection Filings

If your company has any collection filings, the listing is here by date. It includes collection agency name, status, amounts, and the close date, if appropriate.

Collections Summary

The summary is relatively self-explanatory. It is just below the collection filings portion.

Keep your business protected with our professional business credit monitoring.

Commercial Banking, Insurance, Leasing

Here, Experian lists all the data it has on your business relationships. Specifically, this includes relationships with insurance, commercial banking, and leasing companies. For example, how much credit was extended? When did the loan start? What is the remaining balance, if any?

Judgment Filings

Next is the report on legal information. It includes the court where a judgment was filed, the date, and how much it was for.

Tax Lien Filings

Tax lien filing information is similar to judgment filings. The only difference is there is a listing for a filing location instead of court.

UCC Filings

In this section you will see the following information related to UCC filings:

Date
filing number
jurisdiction
name of the secured party
activity on the filing.

UCC Filings Summary

Just beneath is the UCC filings summary, broken down by filing period and type of filing.

Business Owner Profile

Experian will also include an entrepreneur profile for smaller companies. The purpose is to show the relationships between you, the person, and your business. This automatically links the credit history of more than 5 million business owners to their business credit report.

It makes it much easier for your creditors to access your personal credit. This aids them in determining your overall creditworthiness. That’s important. It means that you can do the work to establish separate business credit. But your personal credit still matters. But this is in some cases.

Experian Business Credit Score: Intelliscore

The Intelliscore Plus credit score is a credit-risk evaluation based on statistics. The goal is to help businesses, investors, and prospective lenders make decisions about creditworthiness.

Intelliscore Plus Credit Score Range

Score Range Risk Class

76 – 100 Low

51 – 752 Low – Medium

26 – 503 Medium

11 – 254 High – Medium

1 – 105 High

How Is an Intelliscore Plus Credit Score Calculated?

In the credit world, Intelliscore Plus is one of the best tools for predicting risk. One reason is that they identify key factors that show how likely a business is to pay their debt.

There are over 800 of these factors. However, they can all fit into the following general categories.

Payment History

Frequency

In addition, frequency has to do with your payment patterns. Were you regularly slow or late with payment? Did you start off paying bills late but get better over time?

Financial

If you are about to start a business or are somewhat new to this game, the list above may seem a bit overwhelming. But what if your business is not yet in operation? Or you do not have a long history of business transactions? Then how will they rate you?

In this case, a blended model is used to establish your score. That means they consider your personal consumer credit score with your business’s credit score.

Other Experian Reports

Experian offers a number of other products as well. These include reports designed to help you as the owner monitor your business credit.

Business Credit Advantage Plan

This one is currently $149 monthly and contains mobile-friendly alerts and score improvement tips.

Profile Plus Report

This report is currently priced at $49.95. It features comprehensive financial payment data and predictive information on payment behavior.

Credit Score Report

This is the least expensive of the reports, currently priced at $39.95. Basically, it includes comprehensive business and credit information. Also, there is a summary of financial payment data.

Valuation Report

This report sells for $99 right now. It shows the value of your company and contains Key Performance Indicators. Additionally, it shows your business’s fair market value.

Keep your business protected with our professional business credit monitoring.

Premium Corporate Profiles

Experian also furnishes premium corporate profiles at an addition cost. The enhanced profiles contain even more detail including:

Sales figures
size
contact details
products and operations
credit summary
any Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) filings
fake business names
payment and collections history

This is in addition to the data supplied in their basic corporate profiles. They also have information on credit inquiries made in the past nine months.

Credit Alerts

Company address changes
Changes in your business credit score
Credit inquiries on your business profile
Newly-opened credit tradelines
Any USS filings
Collection filings and
Any public record filings, for example, liens, bankruptcies, and judgments

There are ways to monitor your Experian business credit score for a fraction of the cost. Be sure to do your research.

How Do You Improve Your Experian Business Credit Score?

If your Experian business credit score isn’t the best, there are a few things you can do to improve it. It takes time, but it is possible.

Make On-Time Payments Consistently

Use the Credit

Keep your debt low. That’s good advice. Still, opening business credit accounts can help raise your credit score. The key is to use all credit responsibly.

Keep Your Personal Credit in Check

Your Experian Business Credit Score is Vital to Funding Approval, But There is More

Your credit score from all of the business credit reporting agencies is important. Each one can affect your ability to get funding. One isn’t more important than the other. This is because you never know which agency a lender may use.

However, credit score isn’t the only thing that matters. Business credit scores are just one piece of overall business fundability. There is so much more to it. Fundability as a whole is much more complicated than just business credit. The bigger picture is just as important.

What makes up this bigger picture? There are a number of things that go into fundability. For example, you have to have all of the licenses necessary to run your business. In addition, there has to be consistency in your business information across all platforms. Of course, your business has to be set up to be fundable as well. All of this and more comes together to form the complete fundability of your business. Are you wondering if your business is fundable? Take a minute and do an analysis of fundability and see what you find out.

The post Everything You Need to Know About Your Experian Business Credit Score appeared first on Credit Suite.

Monitor Your Credit Score at D&B, Experian, and Equifax

While there are a number of other business credit reporting agencies out there, D&B, Experian, and Equifax are known as the big three. Not surprisingly, they are the largest and most commonly used. As such, their reports have an influence on lenders when it comes to making lending decisions. This means that it is vital to your business to monitor your credit score with these companies. How do you do that? What does your score even mean? What else are the reports telling lenders?

Monitor Your Credit Score and Understand What It is Telling Lenders

Your business needs funding to survive. Of course, your business credit score plays a huge role in the fundability of your business. If you do not understand your score and the rest of the report however, you can’t do anything about it. You have to know what reports the CRAs are showing lenders, what is on them, and how they are used. To do this, you have to monitor your credit score.

Check out our best webinar with its trustworthy list of seven vendors to help you build business credit.

Monitor Your Credit Score: Dun & Bradstreet

Dun & Bradstreet offers a number of business credit reports. In fact, there are six in all. Each contains varying information that is meant to alert lenders to your creditworthiness, or lack thereof.

The PAYDEX is the report lenders use most often. Likely, this is because it is most similar to the consumer FICO. It measures payment history on a scale of 1 to 100. A 70 or higher is acceptable. For context, a score of 100 shows payments are made in advance. A score of 1 indicates that they are 120 day, or more, past due.

The other Dun & Bradstreet Credit Reports include:

Dun and Bradstreet Delinquency Predictor Score

The delinquency predictor score measures how likely it is that the company will not pay,

will be late paying, or will fall into bankruptcy. On a scale of 1 to 5, a 2 is good.

Financial Stress Score

As you might imagine, the financial stress score measures pressure on the balance sheet. As a result, it shows how likely the company is to shut down within 12 months. These scores range from 5 to 1, and a score of 2 is good.

Supplier Evaluation Risk Rating

This one ranks the odds of a company surviving for a year. The minimum score is a 9 and the

maximum is 1. A good score is 5.

Credit Limit Recommendation

As its name indicates, this is a recommendation that reflects a business’s borrowing capacity. Even more, it is a guide for how much debt a company can handle. Typically, creditors use this to

determine how much credit to extend.

D&B Credit Rating

This is a rating that ranks business risk on a scale of one to four. A score of 2 is good. The rating is

given in conjunction with letters, the combination of which indicate a company’s net worth.

Monitor Your Business Credit: Experian Commercial

Experian uses what it calls Intelliscore for its ranking. This involves more than 800 unique factors combined to predict a company’s credit risk. With Intelliscore, a score of 76 or higher indicates a low risk of default. If a score falls between 51 to 75, it shows a low to medium risk. Scores from 26 to 50 are medium risk. Lastly, from 25 down to 1 is medium high to high risk.

Experian offers a number of other scores including:

Intelliscore Plus

The Intelliscore Plus is a predictive percentile score that indicates the likelihood that a business will be seriously delinquent, or have a major financial issue, in the next year.

It uses more even more factors to calculate a score than the original Intelliscore. Payment history still accounts for 5 to 10%. However, current payment status, trade balances, and percent of accounts delinquent make up 50 to 60% of the score. Credit utilization, company profile, age of the business, industry risk, and public records account for the rest. Public records include:

liens
judgements
collections
bankruptcies
other derogatory items

Data comes from suppliers, lenders, legal filings, collection agencies, credit card companies, and of course public records.

The Experian Financial Stability Risk Score (FSR)

This predicts the potential of a business defaulting on its obligations or going bankrupt. The score identifies high risk businesses using public records. These records include high use of credit lines, severely delinquent payments, tax liens, judgments, collection accounts, risk industries, length of time in business, etc.

Experian’s Blended Score

This is a one pager that provides a quick look at the business and its owner. A combined business-owner credit scoring model is more comprehensive than a business only or consumer only model. Blended scores have been found to outperform consumer or business alone by 10 – 20%.

Check out our best webinar with its trustworthy list of seven vendors to help you build business credit.

Monitor Your Credit Score: Equifax Business

Equifax business combines financial data with industry trade data, and then adds in utility and telephone payment data. They also use public records information.

Credit scores from Equifax Business include:

The Small Business Credit Risk Score for Suppliers

This ranks on a scale 1 to 100, with 90+ indicating that a business has paid its obligations as agreed. An 80 to 89 means they are 1 to 30 days past due, 60 to 79 indicates they are 31-60 days overdue, and a score of 40 to 59 is 61 to 90 days past the date the payment was due. In the same way, score simply decrease further from this point.

Business Failure Risk Score

This score indicates the chance of a company paying its bills late on the following scale:

497 – 816: 25% or less chance of payment being late
452 – 496: 26 – 50% chance of late payment
415 – 451: 51 – 74% chance of late payments

101 – 414: 75 – 100% chance of late payments

Public Records Report

The purpose of this report is to list bankruptcies, judgments, and liens along with the amount, date of the most recent filing, and how they were satisfied.

Credit Usage Report

This is a pie chart that gives a visual of your company’s credit usage. It is a way to see in picture form what percent of your available credit you are using. That is known as your credit utilization ratio, and it has a pretty big impact on your overall credit score.

Credit Report Summary

The summary report shows the number of your business’s credit accounts, as well as the date each one became active. It also lists any amounts past due, along with your most severe status of the past 24 months.

The highest amount of credit extended, the median balance, and the average open balance are also included.

Additionally, the report lists recent activity such as number of new accounts opened recently, delinquent accounts, number of updated accounts, and inquiries.

Financial Account Highlights

This report shows details for the past 36 months, including credit accounts and leases. It lists the status, open and close dates, and original and current credit limits. It also shows any past due amount for each. In addition, the payment amount and frequency for each account, as well as its security status can be seen.

Monitor Your Credit Score: How Can You See Your Reports?

Now that you know what reports each of the big three offers, you need to know how to see what yours are telling lenders about your business. That’s the whole reason you monitor your business credit. It can help you get an idea of the fundability of your business. Unfortunately, you cannot get a free copy of your business credit reports like you can with your personal credit reports. It costs money to monitor your business credit as a general rule.

For example, the big three charge close to $50 or more for each report:

Dun & Bradstreet reports range in price from $61 to $229 per report.
Experian reports are $49.95 per report.
Equifax is $99.95 per report.

However, you can monitor your credit with D&B and Experian at a fraction of these costs by going to https://www.creditsuite.com/monitoring/.

Knowing this, there are some one-time options for seeing at least some of the information on some of your credit reports for free. These typically come in the form of a free trial.

Monitor Your Credit: See Your Credit Report for Free

The only real way to get a free copy of your credit report is if you are denied a loan based on your business credit. Of course, this is not a fun way to see your business credit reports for free. After denial, you will receive a letter in the mail from the agency that provided the lender with your report. You will have the opportunity to request a free copy of the report that the lender saw, so that you can see why the result was a denial. You have 90 days to submit your request.

In addition to business loan denial, there are a few other options.

Nav

Nav is a service that will let you see a summary of your credit reports from all three of the major credit reporting agencies. However, these are only summaries, not full reports. Generally, that means you can see your score, and maybe the accounts you have listed. While this will help you see where you stand, it will not suffice for the purpose of correcting mistakes or even to show you what you need to do to improve your score. You do have the option to pay for more information though.

Credit.net

While Credit.net does not offer ongoing free business credit reports, you can access a free trial. There is no credit card required, and after you pull the report, you have 30 days to check it out. This means at least once you can get a totally free look at your report, because there is no fear of missing a cancellation deadline and having to pay anyway.

Scorely

This is a lesser known credit reporting agency that will let you see your credit report for free before you pay for an ongoing subscription. Unlike Nav or Credit.net, they actually calculate their own score similar to the big 3 (Experian, Equifax, and Dun & Bradstreet.) They strive to be totally transparent and to make their reports easy to understand.

Monitor Your Credit Score: What Can You Do About It?

First, if your business score contains mistakes, you can dispute them. Then, you can have the mistakes taken off. It needs to be in writing directly to the credit reporting agency. In addition, you will need to include backup documentation that supports your argument. Do not send originals however. Instead, send copies.

In contrast, if there are no mistakes but your credit is still lacking, start now making payments on time. Furthermore, ask telephone and utility accounts to report your on time payments to the CRAs. They are not required to, but some will if you ask. Additionally, ask your landlord to report your rent payments. Also, work with starter vendors that will offer net 30 invoices without a credit check and that will report your payments. Go here to find a few to start with.

Most importantly, pay your bills on time. This is the number one way to increase your business credit score.

Check out our best webinar with its trustworthy list of seven vendors to help you build business credit.

Monitor Your Credit Score: The More You Know the More You Grow

You can’t know how to fix a problem until you know the problem exists. This is why it is important to monitor your credit score. Once you know your score and whatever else your reports say about your business, you can figure out what to do about it. Knowing is half the battle.

Once you know what information lenders are seeing about your business, you can take action that will help you become more fundable. Maybe you need to get more diligent about making payments on time. Perhaps you need to dispute mistakes or add accounts. Regardless, you will have no clue what you need to do if you do not monitor your credit. By keeping an eye on things, you can be sure your business has access to the funding it needs to grow and thrive.

The post Monitor Your Credit Score at D&B, Experian, and Equifax appeared first on Credit Suite.

How Your Experian Financial Profile Can Affect Business Fundability

There are so many factors that affect the fundability of your business. Truthfully, your Experian profile is just one link in a very long fundability chain. However, that does not mean it isn’t important. As you know, it only takes one weak link to break a chain. As a business owner, it is important to understand your Experian financial profile.

Your Experian Financial Profile Can Affect the Fundability of Your Business

What does your Experian profile have to do with the fundability of your business? A lot actually. In fact, not only does your Experian business profile impact fundability, but your personal Experian profile does as well.

Experian Financial Profile and Fundability: What is Fundability?

Simply put, fundability is the ability to get funding for your business. If you are fundable, lenders see your business as one that can and will pay its debt. Since lenders are in it to make money, they see a fundable business as one that will offer a return on investment. That part is easy. The real question is, how does a business become fundable?

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Sadly, the answer to that question is not quite as simple. Sure, a great business credit score is important. In addition, many of the things that are important for a strong business credit score are necessary for fundability as well.

The thing is, there is a lot more to fundability than credit score. You can find out more about that here. For now, let’s talk about the role the Experian plays in the fundability of your business.

Experian Financial Profile: What Does it Have to Do with Fundability?

First, you should know that Experian keeps files on both your personal and your business finances. Consequently, if you own a business, you have a business profile with them as well as a personal profile. In most cases, a personal and business credit profile is totally separate. However, with Experian, that isn’t always the case. While they do keep the two separates if you set things up that way, they also issue a combined report that incorporates your personal credit as a piece of business credit for lenders making decisions.

For you, that means that at least as far as your Experian profile is concerned, your personal credit history can actually affect the fundability of your business.

You can see your personal Experian financial profile here.

Experian Financial Profile: What about Business Credit?

Of course, it’s pretty obvious how Experian business credit can affect fundability. The big questions still remain however. What do you Experian reports tell lenders? Where do they get their information? How do they calculate their business credit score, and what does it mean?

Experian keeps business credit profiles on 99.9% of all United States companies. In addition, it claims to have the credit industry’s most broad data on small and mid-sized businesses. That’s why, if you own a business, it likely has a business Experian file.

According to Experian, all their information stems from third party sources. That means you cannot add anything to your profile. Still, you can check your profile and let them know about any inaccuracies. As a result, you have to know what that report is telling lenders about you and your business to stay ahead of the game. Also, you need to know where the information comes from, and what you can do about it.

Business Experian Financial Profile: What’s on there?

First, there isn’t just one score. On the contrary, your complete business Experian profile consists of a number of reports and scores. Lenders can choose to use any or all of them. Each one tells them something different. It takes all the scores put together to get a complete credit picture, but not all lenders look at all scores.

Intelliscore Plus

Quite simply, the Intelliscore Plus credit score shows credit risk based on statistics. It is a highly predictive score. As such, its main purpose is to assist users in making well informed credit decisions.

The Intelliscore scores range from 1 to 100. The higher your score, the lower your risk class. The opposite is true as well. Meaning, the lower your score, the higher your risk class.

Score Range Risk Class

76 — 100 Low

51 — 75 Low — Medium

26 — 50 Medium

11 — 25 High — Medium

1 — 10 High

How Do They Calculate the Intelliscore Plus Score?

One of the things Intelliscore is most known for is the identification of key factors that can indicate how likely a business is to pay their debt. There are over 800 commercial and owner variables used to calculate an Intelliscore Plus credit score. They can be broken down like this:

Payment History

This is just your current payment status. It’s how many times accounts have become delinquent. Additionally, it shows how many accounts are currently delinquent and overall trade balance.

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Frequency

The frequency factor shows how many times your accounts have been sent to collections. It also notes the number of liens and judgments you may have. Any bankruptcies related to your business or personal accounts are in the part as well.

In addition, frequency includes data regarding your payment patterns. Were you regularly slow or late with payment? Did you decrease the number of late payments over time? As you can imagine, those things make a difference.

Monetary

This specific factor focuses on how you use your credit. For example, how much of your available credit are you using right now? Do you have a high ratio of late balances when compared with your credit limits?

Of course, if you are a new business owner, a lot of this information will not exist yet. Intelliscore Plus handles this by using a “blended model” to identify your score. That means that they take your personal consumer credit score into account when determining your business’s credit score.

The Experian Financial Stability Risk Score (FSR)

FSR predicts the potential of a business going bankrupt or not paying its debts. The score identifies the highest risk businesses by making use of payment and public records. These records include all of the following and more.

high use of credit lines
severely late payments
tax liens
judgments
collection accounts
risk industries
length of time in business

Experian’s Blended Score

This is a one-page report that provides a summary of the business and its owner. A combined business-owner credit scoring model is more comprehensive than a business only or consumer only model. Blended scores have been found to outperform consumer or business alone by 10 – 20%.

Business Experian Financial Profile: How to Know What Yours Is Telling Lenders

Experian sells a number of products which can be used to monitor your business’s credit with them.

Business Credit Advantage Plan

This option is $149 per month and incorporates mobile-friendly alerts and score improvement recommendations.

Profile Plus Report

This report costs $49.95 and includes in-depth financial payment details. Also, it offers predictive information on payment behavior.

Credit Score Report

A cheaper option at $39.95, this report contains details on the company, credit information, and a summary of financial payment information.

Valuation Report

The valuation report costs $99. It shows the market value of your small business and features key performance indicators. It also displays your company’s fair market value.

Premium Corporate Profiles

Experian also sells premium corporate profiles. These are enhanced profiles that contain extra information. For example, sales figures, size, contact details, products and operations, credit summary, and any Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) filings will show up here. This report also includes fictitious business names, payment history, and collections history.

In addition, you can subscribe to business credit alerts through Experian’s Business Credit Advantage program. This is a self-monitoring service that offers limitless access to your company’s business credit report and score. It allows business owners to proactively manage small business credit. Alerts are sent when:

– Company address changes

– Business credit score changes

– Credit inquiries show up

– Newly-opened credit tradelines are added

– Any USS filings open

– Collection filings open

– Any public record filings pop up. This includes liens, bankruptcies, and judgments.

Despite all that business Experian credit monitoring offers, it is pricey. Monitor your business credit at Experian and Dun & Bradstreet here for much less.

Keep your business protected with our professional business credit monitoring.

Experian Financial Profile: How to Make a Positive Change

Since both your personal and your business Experian profiles affect the fundability of your business, it is important to understand how to make positive changes if you need to.

While you may not be able to do anything to make a big score increase happen all at once, you can definitely do some things that will make a positive difference over time.

Make On-time, Consistent Payments

This is number one. Over time, paying your bills on time will help establish your company as one that pays their debts. This will definitely help push your score up and show other firms that you are a low credit risk.

Handle Your Credit Responsibly

The more debt you have, the more monthly bills you have. As a result, you have less of your income available to spend. If your overall debt is close to or even over your income, it will look like you are a high credit risk.

Keep your debts in check and consistently pay them down or off to keep a good balance between what you make and what you owe.

You Have to Use Credit to Increase Your Credit Score

Keeping your debts low is good advice, but you have to use the business credit accounts you have. You make payments on accounts for your score to grow. Having a ton of credit and not using it at all doesn’t really help. Again, balance is key.

There is no need to buy things you do not need however. Even if you can pay cash, use credit for the things you would be buying regularly for your business regardless. Then, use the cash to pay the credit account.

Pay Attention to Both Business and Personal Credit

By now, you’re aware that personal credit is fair game when it comes to your Intelliscore Plus score. But don’t fall into the trap of thinking your personal credit doesn’t matter. If it is bad, there are options for working around it. However, it is much better to just keep it strong. Making certain you stay on top of your monthly bills is the number one way to keep your personal score healthy. Avoid unneeded credit inquiries, and refrain from compromising your personal credit for business needs.

This means setting things up in a way to actually have separate personal and business credit. Find more about how to do that here.

Make Use of Monitoring Options

No matter what your credit score is, it is crucial that you continue to be diligent and review your personal and business credit reports. This can help you spot possible errors and stay on top of your Experian financial profile.

For personal credit this is easy and free. Not only can you get a free copy of your personal credit reports annually, but there are a number of free services that offer you a peek at your personal credit score throughout the year.

As mentioned above, keeping track of your business credit will cost you. The good thing is, there are options to fit most budgets.

Experian Financial Profile: It Definitely Matters

Experian is well known in the personal credit world, but when it comes to business credit, Dun & Bradstreet often gets all the glory. Your business Experian financial profile can definitely affect fundability however. Throw in the fact that Intelliscore has a personal credit aspect, and you can see just how much your Experian reports can matter.

Keep monitoring all your credit reports and make changes when needed. Work hard to ensure only positive information is reported to all credit reporting agencies. Also, take the time to do a fundability analysis on your business. So take action where needed. If you do these things, you should be able to get funding for your business whenever you need it. Whether you want credit cards, loans, lines of credit, or some combination, you shouldn’t have a problem.

The post How Your Experian Financial Profile Can Affect Business Fundability appeared first on Credit Suite.

Business Experian: A Comprehensive List of Everything You Need to Know

Many business owners do not understand their business credit score. What is it? How is it generated? What can I do to make it higher? Individual consumers normally find that much of their lending life rests on the FICO score, but what about businesses? Which scores do business owners need to worry about?

There are many options for business credit reports. Why worry about Experian? Business Experian is one of the main three busing credit reporting agencies. The other two are Dun & Bradstreet and Equifax.

Everything You Need to Know About Business Experian: From Profile to Improving Your Score

You need to know what your business Experian reports say. Honestly, knowing what information lenders are getting from this report is necessary to help you determine your business fundability. To understand completely, you need to know where the information on the report comes from, of course. But that’s not all. You also need to know how they calculate the business credit score.

Keep your business protected with our professional business credit monitoring.

Business Experian: How Do They Get Your Information?

Experian keeps business credit profiles on 99.9% of all United States businesses. According to them, they hold the credit industry’s most inclusive database on small businesses. As a result, if your business is already operating, it probably already has a business Experian file.

Their information comes from third party sourcing. Consequently, you cannot add anything to your business credit profile yourself. You can, however, still review your profile. Then, you can tell them about any mistakes and have those mistakes corrected.

Business Owner Profile

For smaller companies, Experian will add a business owner profile. This is to show the relationships between you and your business. Experian’s Business Owner Link automatically links the credit history of more than 5 million business owners to their business credit history. This makes things easier for creditors to find a Business Owner Profile on small business accounts. It also makes it easier for them to determine overall creditworthiness.

What’s on Your Business Experian Report?

Experian sells different products and reports that keep track of a business’s credit.

Business Credit Advantage Plan

This is presently $149 monthly and incorporates mobile-friendly alerts and score improvement pointers.

Profile Plus Report

This report is currently priced at $49.95 and it includes financial payment details and predictive information on payment behavior.

Credit Score Report

The least costly of the available reports, it is currently $39.95. This fundamental report features detailed company and credit information. It also shows summary financial payment information.

Valuation Report

At $99, this report is a middle of the road option in terms of cost. It shows the value of your business and features Key Performance Indicators. It also shows the fair market value of the business.

Premium Corporate Profiles

For an additional charge, Experian also offers premium corporate profiles. They enhance these profiles by adding extra information. Additional data includes sales figures, size, contact details, products and operations, credit summary, any Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) filings, fictitious business names, plus payment and collections history. In addition, these premium profiles have information on credit inquiries made in the last nine months. UCC specifics and financial details from Standard & Poor’s round out the information on this report.

What Does Your Business Experian Report Tell Lenders?

A business Experian report is set up in several different sections. We break it down below.

Identifying Information

This report is split within itself. First, you get the standard identifying data and details of ownership. This area also lists major personnel, company type, and length of time in business. Number of employees and annual sales are on this report as well.

Payment Information at a Glance

After that, there is a section noting delinquent payments. It also shows those payments they expect to go delinquent. Additionally, you can see the lowest and highest balances for the past six months and the current balance. By showing the highest credit limits, there is an idea of the highest credit utilization rate.

Keep your business protected with our professional business credit monitoring.

In addition, this segment contains the number of tradelines a business holds. Also, it has the number of credit inquiries in the past. Uniform Commercial Code filings are on this list too.

Next, there is a relative percentage showing the percent of businesses doing worse than the one in the report. Lastly, you can see the number of bankruptcies, liens, and judgments.

Credit Summary

After that is the credit summary. This shows the company’s Experian credit score. It also has links to information about what enters into the score and tips on exactly how to improve it.

Payment Summary

The next area is the payment summary. It shows line graphs for monthly and quarterly payment trends. It also shows where those numbers originated from. The monthly payment trend is even graphed against the industry average.

Just below this pair of graphs are three bar charts showing continuous payment trends. The first includes tradelines that have been reported for over 6 months. The next includes tradelines that have been reporting for 6 months. At the end, there is a chart that shows these payment trends in combination.

Trade Payment Information

How has the business done with making payments? This section will tell you. It breaks payments into credit card and leasing accounts. Then, it further breaks them down by supplier category. Lastly, payment trends are at the bottom.

Inquiries

This part is pretty self-explanatory. This is where the inquiries into the company’s credit are listed.

Collection Filings

If a business has any collection filings, they’ll be in this section in date order. It will also list collection agency name, status, amounts contested and collected, and the closed date.

Commercial Banking, Insurance, Leasing

This portion shows what Experian knows about your company in relation to banking, insurance, and leasing. For example, what was credit extended for? How much credit was extended? When did the loan start? Is there any remaining balance? If so, how much?

Judgment Filings

Next the report shows basic legal information. For example, the court where a judgment was filed, the day, and what amount it was for.

Tax Lien Filings

Tax lien filing data is similar to judgment filings, except that there is a listing for a filing location, rather than a court.

UCC Filings

This only displays the date, filing number, jurisdiction, name of the secured party, and activity on the filing.

Business Experian Credit Monitoring

Obviously, you can register for business credit alerts. Experian’s Business Credit Advantage program operates as a self-monitoring service. You get unrestricted access to your company’s business credit report and score. You can use this resource for proactively managing your company credit. Alerts are sent for:

Company address changes
Changes in your business credit score
Credit inquiries on your business profile
Newly-opened credit tradelines
Any kind of USS filings
Collection filings and
Any public record filings, such as liens, bankruptcies, and judgments

However, we can help you monitor your credit with business Experian for a fraction of the cost. Go here to find out more.

Business Experian: Intelliscore Plus

You need to understand this score and how it works. You may not be able to change it much, but by understanding the score, what it tells lenders, and how it is calculated, you can work to mitigate any negative issues with positivity.

What is the Intelliscore Plus Credit Score?

The Intelliscore Plus credit score is credit-risk analysis. The primary function of Intelliscore Plus is to help businesses, investors, and prospective lenders make well educated judgments about who they should or should not do business with.

Intelliscore Plus Credit Score Range

The Intelliscore scores range from 1 to 100. The higher the score, the lower the risk class. In contrast, the lower the score, the higher the risk class. It breaks down like this:

Score Range Risk Class

76 – 100 Low
51 – 75 Low – Medium
26 – 50 Medium
11 – 25 High – Medium
1 – 10 High

How Does Business Experian Calculate Intelliscore Plus?

In the credit world, Intelliscore Plus is regarded as one of the most reliable tools for determining credit risk. Here’s why. They use over 800 variables to calculate the score. That’s a lot, but they all fit into these three general categories.

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Payment History

This features the number of times accounts have become delinquent, the percent of accounts that are currently delinquent, and your overall trade balance.

Frequency

Frequency is related to payment history. It takes into account how many times your accounts have been sent to collections, liens and judgements, and any bankruptcies on both business and personal accounts.

This also relates to payment patterns. Were you regularly slow or late with payment? Did you begin by paying bills late but now you are doing better? This is all taken into account.

Monetary

This detail focuses on how you make use of credit. For example, how much of your available credit is currently being used? Do you have a high ratio of delinquent balances in relation to your credit limits?

If you’re about to start a small business or are relatively new to this game, the list above may seem a bit overwhelming. Furthermore, how will you rate if you have a short time in business?

This is where the blended model comes into play. This means that they take your personal credit score into consideration when calculating your business’s credit score.

Can You Do Anything to Improve Your Business Experian Score?

While you may not be able to do anything to make a big score increase happen all at once, you can definitely do some things that will make a positive difference over time.

Pay on Time

This is number one. Over time, paying your bills punctually will help establish your company as one that satisfies their debts. This will definitely help push your score up and show other firms that you are a low credit risk.

Make Wise Credit Choices

The more debt you have on your plate, the more monthly bills you have. Consequently, the less disposable income you have. If your overall debt is close to or even over your income, your business with appear to be a high credit risk.

Keep your debts in check and consistently pay them down or off. So this is to keep a healthy balance between what you make and what you owe.

Use the Credit You Have

Keeping your debts low remains solid advice. But you have to make use of the business credit accounts you have. You have to be making payments on accounts for your score to grow. Having a ton of credit and not using it at all doesn’t really help. This, again, is where balance comes into play.

There is no need to buy things you do not need however. Even if you can pay cash, use credit for the things you would be buying regularly for your business anyway. Then, use the cash to pay the credit account.

Watch Your Personal Credit

By now, you’re aware that personal credit is fair game when it comes to your Intelliscore Plus score. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking your personal credit doesn’t matter. If it is bad, there are options for working around it. However, it is much better to just keep it healthy. Making certain you stay on top of your monthly bills is the number one way to keep your personal score strong. Avoid unneeded credit inquiries, and refrain from compromising your personal credit for business demands.

Make Use of Monitoring Options

No matter what your credit score is, it is crucial that you continue to be diligent. Sod review your personal and business credit reports. This can help you spot possible errors and stay educated on your own credit profile.

Business Experian Credit Scores Make a Difference When it Comes to Funding

It’s important to understand your business Experian score. It can affect your ability to get funding. So you need to know what it is, what it tells lenders, and what affects it. Once you know these things, you can work from your end to keep it as high as possible. In turn, this will greatly improve your ability to fund your business.

The post Business Experian: A Comprehensive List of Everything You Need to Know appeared first on Credit Suite.

Experian Business Credit Uncovered

The Top Secrets You Need to Know About Experian Business Credit

When talking about business credit, Dun & Bradstreet gets the most attention. Experian and Equifax still carry plenty of weight however. It would be dangerous to ignore them. In fact, Experian has a few secrets you may not know about. It’s time to bring those secrets to light. Let’s uncover the mystery that is Experian business credit.

Experian keeps business credit profiles on 99.9% of all United States companies. In addition, it boasts the credit industry’s most broad data on small and mid-sized businesses. In fact, your business is probably already listed on Experian. The mystery is, what exactly does that mean? What do they have on you, and where do they get their information?

According to Experian, all their information stems from third party sourcing. You cannot add anything to your profile. Of course, you can check your profile and let them know about any inaccuracies. However, you cannot add anything to it. As a result, you have to know what that report is telling lenders about you and your business. You need to know where the information comes from, and what you can do about it.

Keep your business protected with our professional business credit monitoring.

What Makes Experian Business Credit Different?

The great thing about business credit is that it is separate from your personal credit. Even if you have bad personal credit, you can still get financing for your business. That is, if your business credit is in order.

Experian business credit plays a little differently however. While your business credit score is still all its own, they add a business owner profile. Experian’s Business Owner Link automatically connects the credit history of over 5 million business owners to their business credit history.

This makes it easier for your creditors to get access to your personal credit information. In the eyes of the creditor, this is important for determining your overall creditworthiness. If you are being turned down by lenders for business financing and your business credit is ok, that could by why. Your personal credit history could be to blame.

What Do You Need to Know about Experian Business Credit Scores?

The first thing you need to know is this. There isn’t just one score. In contrast, there are a number of reports and scores. Lenders can choose to use any or all of them. Each one tells them something different. It takes all the scores put together to get a complete credit picture, but not all lenders look at all scores.

Intelliscore Plus

The Intelliscore scores range from 1 to 100. The higher your score, the lower your risk class. The opposite is true as well. The lower your score, the higher your risk class.

Score Range Risk Class

76 — 100 Low

51 — 752 Low — Medium

26 — 503 Medium

11 — 254 High — Medium

1 — 105 High

How Does Experian Credit Calculate the Intelliscore Plus Score?

Payment History

This is just your current payment status. It’s how many times accounts have become delinquent. It also shows how many accounts are currently delinquent, as well as your overall trade balance.

Frequency

This one shows how many times your accounts have been sent to collections. It also notes the number of liens and judgments you may have, as well as any bankruptcies related to your business or personal accounts.

Frequency can also incorporate information regarding your payment patterns. Were you regularly slow or late with payment? Did you decrease the number of late payments over time? That affects your score.

Monetary

This specific factor focuses on how you make use of credit. For example, how much of your available credit are you using right now? Do you have a high ratio of late balances when compared with your credit limits?

The Experian Financial Stability Risk Score (FSR)

High use of credit lines
severely late payments
tax liens
judgments
collection accounts
risk industries
length of time in business

Experian’s Blended Score

This is a one-page report that provides a summary of the business and its owner. A combined business-owner credit scoring model is more comprehensive than a business or consumer only model. Blended scores have been found to outperform consumer or business alone by 10 – 20%.

Credit Monitoring with Experian Business Credit

Experian sells a number of products which can be used to monitor your business’s credit.

Business Credit Advantage Plan

This option is $149 per month and incorporates mobile-friendly alerts and score improvement recommendations.

Profile Plus Report

This report is $49.95 and includes in-depth financial payment details. It also offers predictive information on payment behavior.

Credit Score Report

A cheaper option at $39.95, it contains details on the company, credit information, and a summary of financial payment information.

Keep your business protected with our professional business credit monitoring.

Valuation Report

This report costs $99. It presents the market value of your small business and features key performance indicators. It also displays your company’s fair market value.

Premium Corporate Profiles

Experian also sells premium corporate profiles. These are enhanced profiles that contain added information. For instance, sales figures, size, contact details, products and operations, credit summary, any Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) filings will show up here. This report also includes fictitious business names and payment and collections history.

You can also subscribe to business credit alerts through Experian’s Business Credit Advantage program. This is a self-monitoring service that offers limitless access to your company’s business credit report and score. It allows business owners to proactively manage small business credit. Alerts are sent when:

– Company address changes

– Business credit score changes

– Credit inquiries show up

– Newly-opened credit tradelines are added

– Any USS filings open

– Collection filings open

– Any public record filings pop up. This includes liens, bankruptcies, and judgments.

It’s important to note however, you can monitor your business credit reports at http://creditsuite.com/monitoring for much less than what you can with Experian directly. This way, you can keep tabs on your information with Dun & Bradstreet at the same time.

How Can I Improve my Score with Experian Business Credit?

There it is, the big question. Once you uncover the mystery of the Experian credit score, then what? You understand what it is. You know how they arrive at it. Still, how can you change it if it is affecting your ability to get financing for your business? Are you just stuck?

The answer is no. It isn’t really that simple though. Changing a credit score doesn’t happen overnight. There are ways to give your score a little boost however. Eventually that bad score will be a thing of the past.

Make Current Payments Consistently and On Time

As we just discussed, your payment patterns and history are vital to your overall credit score. Overtime, paying your bills promptly will only help you. If your score is low due to payment history, this will absolutely take time. You have to start somewhere though, right?.

Correct Mistakes

Get a copy of your credit report from Experian and look over it for mistakes. Send a request for correction in writing. Be sure to send copies of supporting documents for each mistake that you find.

Watch the Debt-to-Credit Ratio

This is the amount of debt you have in relation to how much credit you have available. Say you have $100,000 in available credit. If your balance across all accounts is $99,000, that is a high debt-to-credit ratio. This will negatively impact your score. You have to use your credit, and you need to carry a balance. Otherwise, how would you have payments being reported? Just try to keep this ratio as low as possible.

Opening new accounts may help, as it will raise your available credit amount. However, the average age of accounts also carries some weight, and new accounts lower that number. You will have to find the balance.

Work with Starter Vendors

Working with starter vendors is a way to get more positive payment history recorded. As a result, your score will start going up. Starter vendors are those vendors in the vendor credit tier. They offer net 30 invoice terms and report payments to the business credit reporting agencies. Often, they will even do this without a credit check. Due to that fact, you can get an account with them despite having a bad credit score. Note that not all starter vendors report to Experian, so you will need to ask. Go here to find out more about starter vendors and the vendor credit tier.

Ask Non-Reporting Accounts to Report

Some accounts that you make regular payments on do not report to credit agencies. They typically are not required to. However, there is no harm is asking them to report your payments to Experian and the other agencies. Those reporting payments can definitely improve your credit score. Therefore, consider asking your landlord, utilities, and telephone companies to report the payments you make to them.

Don’t Forget About Your Personal Credit

While it’s true that personal credit and business credit are totally separate, we have shown that with Experian business credit, personal credit does carry some weight. As a result, be sure you stay on top of your personal expenses. Avoid unneeded credit inquiries, and refrain from compromising your personal credit for business demands.

Keep your business protected with our professional business credit monitoring.

Now You Know the Secrets

What’s the greatest secret we’ve uncovered here? There are really two. First, Dun & Bradstreet is not the only player in the business credit game. While they may be the largest and most commonly used business credit reporting agency, there is nothing to prevent lenders from using a different one. Many lenders use Experian.

The second secret uncovered is that your personal credit information definitely counts for something. At least, this is true with Experian business credit. When lenders pull a business credit report from Experian, they have access to the owner’s information as well. Due to this, if your personal credit is good, it can only help you. In contrast, bad personal could haunt you despite good business credit.

Experian Business Credit Uncovered: What Now?

The moral of the story? Everything counts. Don’t sacrifice your personal credit to build business credit. Rather, keep them both as positive as possible. Most “tricks” don’t work. There is no substitute for using credit wisely. Purchase only things you need. Take on only what payments you can handle, and make payments on-time. Remember also, they have access to other information. That could either help you, or harm you. Start now being aware of what is out there on your business, and work hard to balance out any negative information with positive actions.

There is no time like now to start. First, figure out what is on your report. Take a look at your personal credit report as well. You can get a free copy of it each year. Take a look and be sure to report any inaccuracies on it. Once you have a solid understanding of what your Experian report says, and where that information came from, you can form a plan. If things do not look good, make the necessary changes. Pay on time, do business with starter vendors, and ask non-reporting accounts to report. However, if everything looks fine, continue as you are and keep it that way. After all, you must be doing something right.

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