Every consumer legally has the right to one free credit report every year from the major credit reporting agencies such as Equifax, Transunion, and Experian. So, the question here is, can business owners get a free business credit report online every year, too? there are no current laws requiring business credit agencies to provide free annual business credit reports. Here we have mentioned a detailed description of business credit score and where to find its score report free.
We know credit reports affect many aspects of our lives. It affects mortgage rates, credit card approvals, insurance premiums, auto loans and sometimes, our ability to gain employment. In addition to businesses and lenders reviewing your credit profile, it is equally as important for consumers to conduct periodic reviews to detect identity theft and address discrepancies.
While there is a great number of sites offering free consumer credit reports, there is only one official site explicitly directed by Federal law to provide them, which is the AnnualCreditReport.com website.
This site enables consumers to obtain their free annual reports online from each of the major credit reporting agencies.
A business credit score is a way for lenders to predict how likely you are to repay debt. The business credit score ranges from zero to 100 and, as with personal credit scores, the higher your number, the more likely you will be able to qualify for affordable financing in the future.
if you are happy in getting a business loan from a bank or another lender for your company or securing business financing down the line, then you should care about your credit history and your current business credit score.
In short, we can say that just as your personal credit score measures your reliability with your personal finances. Your business credit score measures your business’ trust-worthiness with business finances. For instance, if your business credit score shows that your business has a good payment history and is credit-worthy (a high Paydex score or FICO score), business lenders will feel more comfortable approving small business loans to you.
Your business credit score is not the only factor that determines your loan eligibility but it’s a major part of your business loan application if you apply to banks or more traditional lenders.
On top of securing a business loan, a strong business credit score can help you get favorable payment terms from any of your business’ suppliers.
When you think about this, it makes a lot of sense. A business credit score shows how reliably a business pays its bills. So, having a greater positive business credit score might convince suppliers to give you more comfortable terms.
For businesses, there are basically three major reporting agencies, such as Dun & Bradstreet, Corporate Experian, and Equifax Small Business. Lenders, creditors, suppliers, and businesses obtain business credit reports from one or more of these agencies to assess the credit-worthiness of a company.
While consumer credit reports and scores play a major role in our lives, business credit reports, on the other hand, play a major role in the operations of companies.
A business credit report can dictate the terms of debt financing: approval or denial, interest rates and the terms of repayment.
It also impacts the company’s insurance premiums and may impact its ability to secure potential business partners or investors, too. Thus, for the latter, a poor credit profile acts as a deterrent to most investors.
Let us take a look at some of these agencies that offer business credit score report to companies for free.
Your business credit score is important to the financial health of your business. It’s vital that it even impacts your business in various ways, such as the number of credit suppliers will extend you and the interest rates that you will pay.
Given below are the major agencies that provide companies access to free business credit score report.
Experian is a free business credit report service, where you can check the credit score of your business. This service offers critical information about your business (as well as those you do business with). Apart from tonnes of relative information, some of the important attributes of this free business credit score service include:
Business Background Information: The business background information feature lets you identify ownership, parent companies, and subsidiaries.
Credit Score and Risk Factors: you can monitor existing customers’ ability to pay and adjust credit terms before problems arise.
Banking, Trade, and Collection History: Credit report is banking, trade and collection history through which you can gain insight into an account’s payment history.
Liens, Judgements, and Bankruptcies: From this credit report, you can quickly evaluate potential customers and avoid making risky transactions.
Uniform Commercial Code Filings: you can determine your credit position relative to other creditors.
Although Experian offers a free business credit score report and premium services that are a one-time charged, charged monthly or annually. These paid services include in-depth information and other significant details.
Under FACT Act amendments to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, you have the right to one free annual credit report from each of the three major credit reporting companies in a 12-month period.
TransUnion encourages the consumer to exercise this right and contributes to a dedicated website that helps with the fulfillment and management of the free annual credit report initiative. You can learn more about other circumstances that give you right to a copy of your personal credit report at no charge. You may be eligible for a free credit report in addition to your free annual report under the following conditions:
Within the last 60 days, you receive an adverse action notice based on information in your TransUnion Credit Report.
You have unemployment and plan to seek employment within 60 days.
Receive public welfare assistance.
Reason to believe your TransUnion Credit Report is inaccurate due to fraud.
State offers a free or reduced-price credit report.
Free Annual Credit Reports and TransUnion Credit Reports are accessible to the vision-impaired as well. Online reports are compatible with screen readers. Telephone and email can request Accessible formats.
CreditSignal is a free business credit reporting service that is offered by Dun & Bradstreet (D&B). Here, you can get get a free business credit report. Also, if you had bad credit in the past, this is a great tool to try out. CreditSignal is the best tool that lets business owners stay on top of their business credit.
After signing up you get an online dashboard or can use a mobile app to monitor your business credit report. Or, you can choose to receive email alerts whenever anything changes with your score.
CreditSignal is not only one of the best places to find a free business credit report but for more business credit resources. Offer a business credit education online center to learn about credit information specific to your industry or receive advice on how to improve your business credit score based on your profile.
However, please note that CreditSignal gives you an indication only when your D&B business credit score and rating has changed, or when someone else has requested to see your business credit score. To view your actual score and rating and learn who is looking into your credit score profile, you will need to purchase a subscription with Dun & Bradstreet in order to get a full business credit reporting service.
CreditSafe.com is a similar business credit reporting service that costs money. If you are opt-in for the subscription but offers a free business credit report to get you started. If you choose to subscribe to CreditSafe.com’s service after testing their credit report you will have a lot of credit monitoring tools. The account will show your risk rating, days beyond terms, synced financial data, payment trends, and so on.
CreditSafe.com offers three different packages, namely: Standard, Plus and Premier. The prices after your free business credit report will fully depend on your business’ needs. So you will need to consult one of their risk consultants to get a quote beyond the free report.
Another place for a free business credit report demo and then a paid subscription service is required. It is actually considered a business credit reporting bureau as they pride themselves on being a transparent credit bureau that aggregates data and boils it down to understandable reports.
The score is all about empowering business owners and helping them take control of their business credit rating. You will have access to easy-to-understand data (like your FICO score) and actionable tips to boost your business credit score.
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Reviewing a detailed business credit report from any one of the major business credit agencies mentioned above requires a purchase. Therefore, It’s advice to business owners to obtain a business credit report at least every six months.
Check for errors, inaccuracies, or outdated information and update your file by contacting the business credit agency. It is entirely up to you to police your business credit reports to ensure they are accurate.
Even though credit reporting agencies have their data mining and data collection procedures checked and rigorously verified, mistakes do occur. Monitoring the credit profile is an important step in protecting the company’s reputation and good standing.
Let us hope that a completely free business credit report online may be available sometime in the near future. But for now, you will have to settle for paying a fee for one.
Be sure to take advantage of free access to business credit score changes and updates with products such as CreditSignal. It is better to know firsthand when changes occur rather than finding out later when applying for credit.