Credit History

Credit History

Lenders will want (and expect) to review both the credit history of your business and your personal credit history. Because of this, it's a wise decision to get a credit report on yourself and your business before you apply for a loan. This way, if you find any inaccurate statements or problems, you can fix them before any damage to your loan application has occurred. The best situation would be to find out which credit reporting company your bank/lender uses and request a report from that company. This will save you time and money by not having to look at every credit report.

Before you apply for commercial credit, you should review a credit report on your own business. This is only possible if your business has been around for a while. You can get a free Business Information Report from Dun & Bradstreet (D&B), by calling 1-800-234-3867. If D&B doesn’t have any information on your business you can voluntarily be listed by providing them with some basic information. Almost every lender will expect at least four trade experiences listed before they will consider any business's creditworthiness. If you have been operating your business without the use of credit, or with personal assets, you should consider making some trade credit purchases. This will help establish a credit history for your enterprise for future unanticipated needs.

Consumer credit agencies are required to remove any information from the report that cannot be verified or is shown to be inaccurate. However, before you submit a letter challenging any information provided by the credit reporting company, it's usually better to contact the creditor directly. You can usually resolve the dispute quicker if you take the initiative.

If the dispute is not resolved and your credit report is not adjusted to your satisfaction, you have the right to submit a statement or explanation concerning the information you feel is inaccurate. If they are not on there, you should contemplate requesting that creditors with whom you have had a good credit history be added to the report. This is especially helpful if you have a less than perfect credit history. Most credit bureaus will add additional creditor information for a minimal fee.

The three major consumer credit-reporting companies are:

· TransUnion (800-916-8800)

· Experian (formerly TRW) (800-682-7654)

· Equifax (800-685-1111)

The largest business credit-reporting agency is:

· Dun & Bradstreet (800-234-3867).

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