Home: Message List - Event: How to increase your business credit score

Event: How to increase your business credit score

CommunityTeam — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 16:06:49 GMT

You've got a great idea and the capital and know-how to implement it. But entrepreneurial success also depends on something many small-business owners don't pay enough attention to: your business credit score.

The current economic climate makes it more important than ever for small-business owners to understand their business credit score. A strong business credit score and up-to-date information on the business credit report can help small-business owners access additional capital and even gain customers during difficult times.

Experian will be on SBOC to answer questions like:

What will a business credit report tell you?
What can impact a business credit score?
How can monitoring your business credit score help your business today?
What are the advantages for maintaining business credit separate from personal credit?
What steps can be taken to protect and improve your business credit score?

Experian's Business Information Services enables organizations to make better decisions through each phase of the Customer Life Cycle. Its business database provides verified information on U.S. companies, including the industry's most extensive data on small businesses. Experian^®^ leverages more than 30 years' data management experience to provide market-leading blended risk products and services.

This interactive session will be led by executives from Experian's Business Information Services group:

Allen Anderson
President, Business Information Services

Adam Fingersh

Vice President, Strategy and Innovation

Post a question now, and then join us on April 28 at 2:00 p.m. EST for a response. Or join us during the event and post a question. Experian will try to answer as many questions as possible, but they may not get to all of them. Note, you do not need to register for the event. You simply need to be a member of SBOC to post a question. If you don't have a user ID, join now, it's free.

Experian will not be able to comment on other credit scoring companies and their policies, nor will feedback be provided to specific credit scores. So, please do not post your personal or business credit score on this public forum. For your information protection, these type of posts will be removed.

To learn more about your business credit report, visit http://www.businesscreditfacts.com/.

Re: Event Apr. 28: Your business credit score

ChestnutLake — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 18:39:20 GMT

Experian --
Do you have any suggestions for establishing lines of credit for young businesses (that report to Experian)?

In other words, can you give a list of 10-20 business suppliers that report, For example:

Staples
UPS
Home Depot
other ???

We do business with both Staples and UPS, but pay directly via credit card. Is there some way to move that payment history to Experian? Is it just persuading these firms to offer an open account?

Re: Event Apr. 28: Your business credit score

CommunityTeam — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 19:06:56 GMT

Experian - thanks so much for sharing your expertise with the Small Business Online Community today. Community - please visit the following websites to learn more about your business credit score.

http://www.smartbusinessreports.com
http://www.businesscreditfacts.com

Re: Event Apr. 28: Your business credit score

Experian — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 19:02:02 GMT

When the economy falters, small businesses face trying times

and there's no doubt that this is one of them.

After years of cheap and readily available funding, businesses
are finding credit harder to secure. For example, U.S.
structured financing - the financing behind the financing -
went from more than $300 billion per month in June 2007 to
less than $50 billion per month in November 2007. Rising
prices have put increased pressure on the cost of doing
business. Consumers are tightening their belts in the face of a
rising cost of living, a decline in home values and fears of a
sharp economic slide being stoked by the press.

For the moment, one downturn seams to lead to another, and
businesses - large and small, across virtually all sectors of
the economy - are feeling the squeeze. While the overall
business bankruptcy rate is climbing, small businesses -
particularly those whose owners used home equity or personal
money to fund their enterprises - are battling for survival and
are at risk for delinquency or default.

Business owners need every tool at their disposal in times like
these to avoid trouble and spot opportunities to grow. When
success depends on the ability to build capital, business credit
monitoring can help.

That's why it's no surprise that we see the use of monitoring
growing rapidly year after year - especially in the current
economic environment.

Re: Event Apr. 28: Your business credit score

fishnfrogs — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 18:59:32 GMT

In light of the current economy, how can a business credit report help my business today?

Re: Checking score multiple times?

Experian — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 18:58:52 GMT

Checking your business credit report does not affect your business
credit score. Pulling your own business credit report is considered a
soft inquiry. Soft inquiries do not affect your business credit score, and
they are not revealed to potential lenders or creditors.

Checking score multiple times?

AVBuildConst — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 18:57:13 GMT

Does checking my business credit report multiple times affect my business credit score?

Re: Event Apr. 28: Your business credit score

Experian — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 18:54:34 GMT

Please see previous response to post number 21. You can also visit
http://www.SmartBusinessReports.com or http://www.BusinessCreditFacts.com to learn
more about Experian’s leading business credit monitoring service.

Re: Event Apr. 28: Your business credit score

franklinplace — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 18:41:12 GMT

What available credit monitoring tools are at my disposal? How do they work and which ones do you recommend?

Re: Event Apr. 28: Your business credit score

Experian — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 18:47:46 GMT

Jimsuem,

There are a number of factors that could have an adverse impact on
your company's business credit score. Those factors include, but are
not limited to:

The presence of derogatory public records on the business profile,
such as collections, liens, judgments and bankruptcies

The status, recency, frequency and dollar amounts of any
applicable liens, judgments or bankruptcies

An increased trend in slow payment of obligations

An increase in the number of business credit inquiries or
applications that are generated by the business or owner

The number of trade experiences, balances outstanding, payment
habits, credit utilization and trends over time

Years in business, line of business or SIC code, size of business
and other demographic data