Business Credit Information - A Description of the Major Agencies of Business Credit Information

There are a number of sources of business credit information in the United States and like personal credit agencies they keep track of businesses and companies and provide this business credit information to banks, financial institutions and other businesses upon request for a fee. Some of them include: Dun and Bradstreet, Kroll, Experian Business, BusinessCredit USA, Equifax Business and ClientChecker.

Dun and Bradstreet is perhaps the best known source of business credit information in the world. There are over 70 million companies registered with Dun and Bradstreet in the United States and they issue a number of reports on business include the DUNS Rating which is based on the financial records of the company and the Paydex Score which keeps track of the payment record of the business. Dun and Bradstreet collects business credit information from businesses, suppliers, customers and financial institutions and shares this information with registered businesses.

Equifax and Experian are two well known personal credit reporting agencies who have developed their business credit information gathering systems in the past number of years. This experience at the personal finance level has given them volumes of data which they use to build business credit information. Experian Business has over 14 million registered businesses in its data base and issues a business credit information rating called Intelliscore which is based on payments records only. Equifax Business gathers information from a number of public and private sources and produces a series of business credit information reports and scores from this data.

Kroll is a relatively new player in the business credit information market but offers added value service by verifying every piece of information that they receive from suppliers, businesses and financial institutions. Some experts believe that Kroll offers the most accurate business credit information of all the reporting agencies in this business.

BusinessCreditUSA is a lower profile business credit information operation that provides a cheaper service than any of the other business credit information reporting agencies but it also checks all of its information before posting its data on its system. It collects information just from the individual businesses and their owners. ClientChecker is a business credit information reporting agency that is dedicated solely to small business. It rates businesses using a PayQuo Score which is based on the payment experience of the business but it is very useful for suppliers who want to know the creditworthiness and ability to pay of their prospective customers.

With all of these options and more in the marketplace it is relatively easy to get business credit information on almost every business operating in the United States. Just remember that this information may not always be fully accurate or up to date.

David Gass is President of Business Credit Services, Inc. His company publishes a weekly e-newsletter on Starting and Growing a Small Business at http://www.smallbusinessconsulting.com. You can sign up for their free newsletter by visiting http://www.smallbusinessconsulting.com.

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