Business Credit
Everything You Need to Know About Business Credit Scores … And How to Get the Business Credit You Need.
What is Business Credit Score?
Business credit is credit under a company’s EIN. It has no association with the owner’s Social Security number. It is separate from personal credit, and therefore a business credit score can differ drastically from your personal credit score.
This is credit in the business’s name and it is based on the business’s ability to pay, not the business owner’s. When done right, it is possible to get some business funding based on a business credit score without a personal guarantee. Also, you, the business owner, aren’t personally liable for the credit the business gets.
However, your personal credit score can still affect your ability to get funding. In some cases, such as with FICO SBSS, personal credit is even used in the business credit score calculation. What other information is used to calculate your business credit score? Is it really possible to get funding without a personal guarantee? It depends on the lender, and the credit reporting agency (CRA) they choose to use.
D&B Business Credit Scores
Dun & Bradstreet's database includes over 250 million firms spanning the globe
Which includes around 120 million active firms and
About 130 million firms which are out of business but kept for historical reasons.
D&B constantly gathers data and works to improve its analyses to ensure the greatest degree of accuracy possible. To ensure as accurate a report as possible, it quite literally pays to provide D & B with your company’s current financial statements.
The PAYDEX Score is Dun & Bradstreet's main score. It tells the lender how well your business has paid the bills over the past year. D & B bases this score on trade experiences documented by vendors. It ranges from 1 to 100. The higher the score, the lower the perceived risk. In business credit terms, it is the most similar to the personal FICO score. This is why it is the most popular business credit option among lenders.
In order to get a PAYDEX score, you need a D-U-N-S Number. This 9-digit number is a unique identifying number that works to establish a business credit file with D & B. A D-U-N-S (Data Universal Number System) works to keep accurate and timely data on over 250 million businesses around the globe. You want your business to be one of them.
From an identification standpoint, it makes a lot of sense. With the use of this identifier, errors can be kept to a minimum. As a result, Dun & Bradstreet will never confuse your business with someone else’s.
Dun & Bradstreet requires that you register your company for free on their site to get a number. There are a few other ways to get a D-U-N-S if your business belongs to a special class. These include if it is a US government contractor or grantee, your company is Canadian, or you are working as an Apple developer.
Registration is fast and simple. Once you have said yes to their Terms and Conditions, you are taken straight to a dashboard where you either ask for a D-U-N-S number or you look up to see if your business is already listed. If it is already on the big list, then you click on your company’s name to make any needed changes.
6 Different Types of D&B Scores
There isn’t just one Dun and Bradstreet business credit report. They offer six different types of reports. Dun and Bradstreet credit reports are used frequently by lenders to help determine the fundability of a business. That is, whether a business can make money and whether it can pay back a loan or credit.
-
D&B Delinquency Predictor Score and Classification
This score measures the chance the company will not pay, will be late paying, or will fall into bankruptcy. The raw score is measured on a scale of 101-670 where 670 is the best possible. Companies are put into classes numbered from 1 to 5. A business in class one 1 is predicted to have the least delinquency risk with a raw score of 580 to 670. A class 2, or a raw score of 530-579, is considered to be good. If a company is in class 5, they have over a 53% instance of delinquency with a raw score of 101-452. This chart from D&B lays it out nicely.
-
Dun and Bradstreet Failure Score
Per D&B, “The D&B Failure Score (formerly the Financial Stress Score) predicts the likelihood that a business will, in the next 12 months, seek legal relief from its creditors or cease business operations without paying all its creditors in full.” Similar to the Delinquency predictor score, it groups companies into classes. The chart below from D&B directly explains it well.
-
D&B Supplier Evaluation Risk Rating
This is a rating that ranks the odds of a company surviving 12 months. The lowest score is 9 and the highest is 1. A score of 5 is good.
-
Credit Limit Recommendation
The credit limit recommendation shows what D&B has calculated to be a business’s borrowing capacity. It is a dollar amount recommendation for how much debt a company can handle. Creditors often use it to determine how much credit to extend.
-
Dun & Bradstreet Credit Rating
This is an estimation of overall business risk on a scale of 4 to 1, with a score of 2 being considered good. The smaller the number, the better. It is a combination of letters and numbers. At the high end, a 5A rating indicates a company with a net worth of more than $50 million, while an HH rating at the low end represents a company with a net worth less than $5,000. Here is how the composite part of the D&B credit rating works. First, it represents a company’s overall creditworthiness. It’s based on payment history, years in business, public records, number of employees and financial information. The scale ranges from 1 to 4. It looks like this: A score of one is the most creditworthy. If your company has not submitted financial information to Dun & Bradstreet, the highest they can get is a 2. This number is combined with the letter/ number combination above that indicates net worth. This gives an overall view of a company’s size and creditworthiness. So, if a company has a rating of 4A3, the 4A part means the company’s net worth is $10,000,000 to $49,999,999, and the 3 indicates that the company is a “fair” credit risk. If there isn’t enough data on a business to assign a regular Dun & Bradstreet credit rating, an alternative score known as a credit approval score is assigned. That one is based on the number of employees. Dun & Bradstreet will use any data they have available to calculate this alternative rating. A company can control this to a point by ensuring D&B has all of the information they need
Commercial Credit Score
Along with the PAYDEX score and other reports above, Dun & Bradstreet also issues a commercial credit score in three parts. Each part predicts how likely the business is to default on bills or become delinquent. This kind of predictive scoring helps a credit determine what might happen with a company in the future based on current data

Commercial credit score
Measured on a scale of 101 to 670, the commercial credit score predicts the chance of a company becoming delinquent. A score of 101 means it is highly likely the company will be late with payments. A score of around 500 is often seen in a positive light.

Commercial Credit Percentile and Class
The scale runs from 0 to 100. It shows the chance of delinquency as well. But it measures this probability against other companies in the Dun & Bradstreet system. A score of 1 is the highest probability versus other businesses in the system. Most lenders consider a score of 80 or higher to be a good thing.
-
How Does D&B Get Their Information?
They use what they call the Dun & Bradstreet Data Cloud. According to them, it is “the world’s most comprehensive business data and analytical insights to power today’s most crucial business needs.” But, where does the information in the data cloud come from? It’s pulled from a number of sources including public records, payment histories reported by creditors, information from the company itself, and other data agencies such as LexisNexis and the Small Business Finance Exchange among others.
Equifax Business Credit Report
The small business credit risk score for financial services predicts the likelihood of severe delinquency or charge-off over the next 12 months. It is measured on a scale of 101-992. The lower the score, the higher the risk.
This score predicts severe delinquency or change-offs on supplier account, or bankruptcy, within 12 months. It ranges from 101 to 816. The higher the number, the better
Experian Business Credit Report
EXPERIAN
Intelliscore Plus
Experian’s most important score is Intelliscore Plus. It shows a statistics-based credit risk. It is a highly predictive score meant to help users make well-informed credit decisions. The Intelliscore scores range from 1 to 100, with a higher score indicating a lower risk class.
According to Experian:
"Bankruptcies remain on file for 10 years after the filing date. Judgments for 7 years after the filing date. Tax liens for 7 years after the filing date. Collections remain on file for 6 years and 9 months after the last report date. UCC filings for 5 years after the last filing date. Bank, government and leasing data for 36 months. Trade data for 36 months after the last report date. Credit inquiries for 9 months."
FICO SBSS

According to Experian:
"Bankruptcies remain on file for 10 years after the filing date. Judgments for 7 years after the filing date. Tax liens for 7 years after the filing date. Collections remain on file for 6 years and 9 months after the last report date. UCC filings for 5 years after the last filing date. Bank, government and leasing data for 36 months. Trade data for 36 months after the last report date. Credit inquiries for 9 months."
-
Equifax, FICO, and Experian report on personal credit as well. Dun & Bradstreet does not; the big personal CRA (aside from Experian, Equifax, and FICO) is TransUnion.
-
The FICO is probably the most commonly used personal credit report, but they all count. They can each vary, but usually only slightly.
Business Credit Scores v/s Personal Credit Scores
-
Late Payments
Most personal accounts do not report late payments to your personal credit report until they are 30 days or more past due. In contrast, business credit accounts report to business CRAs when an account is only one day late.
-
Inquiries
When someone checks your personal credit report, there is a negative impact on your credit score. Hence, your personal credit score can go down. When a lender checks your business credit score, there is no negative impact.
-
Access to Business Credit Reports
Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, your consumer report can only be requested by those with “permissible purpose.” A permissible purpose may include the preparation of subpoenas or court orders, written instructions from the consumer, employment purposes with written authorization from a consumer, insurance underwriting purposes, credit transactions with a consumer, tenant screening, and national security investigations. However, anyone can check your business credit score. The FCRA does not apply to business credit reports.
-
Name on the Reporting Account
Your personal credit report has the name of the company holding each account reporting. Your business credit report only lists the industry of the reporting account, not the company’s name.
-
How long information stays on your report
Though it varies, most information stays on your personal credit report for the life of the report. The average life of information on your business credit report is 3 years. Of course, averages can encompass a wide range.
-
Amounts reported
Exact amounts are shown on your personal credit report, but business credit reports show rounded amounts.
-
Who Reports Payments to the CRAs
With personal credit, everyone reports your accounts and payments, or lack thereof, to the CRAs. Only about 7% of those who check business credit actually report accounts to the business credit CRAs.
-
Debt-to-Credit Ratio
The amount of debt you have in relation to the amount of credit available to you makes a real impact on your personal credit score. If your cards are nearly maxed out, your score goes down. But with business credit, it doesn’t make any difference.
-
Regulation
There is much less regulation when it comes to business credit. And there is virtually no regulation when it comes to correcting mistakes on your business credit.
-
Monitoring
You can get a free copy of your personal credit report each year. In addition, there are a number of free credit monitoring services that let you get a peek at your credit score. These are typically updated at least once a month. There is really no way to see your business credit report for free. Instead, you’ll need to use business credit monitoring services. They are not free, but if you choose the right one the benefit is well worth the cost. At Credit Suite you can Monitor your Business credit scores and reports with D&B, Experian, and Equifax for only $24/ month. Here’s how.
Equifax Business Credit Report
Meet Our CEO

Charles Pajotte
Designer
A small river named Duden flows by their place and supplies it with the necessary

Charles Pajotte
Designer
- Phone:+1 (859) 254-6589
- Email:info@example.com
HAVE A QUESTION?
Our business experts are available to answer questions Monday – Friday from 9:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. EST
Our Address:
26 Broadway Suite 934 New York
Call Us
(212)- 655- 1178
E-mail Us
info@UpRiseCapitalfunding.com