How to get a free Business Credit report for your company

What is a Business Credit Report?

A business credit score is the evaluation of a company’s financial situation and credit worthiness. It takes several factors into consideration like previous debts, payment history, financial position and the level of risk involved in lending money to the company.

How is it calculated?

A business credit score takes into account many of the same factors as a personal credit score, such as payment history and debt amount but it uses a different model for scoring.

To assess risk, different business credit reference agencies (CRAs) will employ a variety of scoring models and criteria. As a result, it is relatively unusual for credit ratings to fluctuate considerably amongst credit reference companies.

There are two main forms of company credit scores, Dun & Bradstreet PAYDEX Score and Experian Intelliscore Plus, which vary from 1 to 100, with 100 being the best and 1 being the worst.

A score of 51-80 indicates that the level of risk is ‘below-average,' therefore your company should strive to be no lower than this. The next group up is labelled ‘low risk,' but in order to get it, your company must score between 81-90 - and ‘very low risk' is 91-100. However, if the score is less than 51, your company may be classified as ‘high risk.'

How to get a free Business Credit Report for your company?

While there are a plethora of free credit score and free credit report sites accessible for consumers, finding business-specific versions may be difficult. There are a few free business credit score tools accessible, but most of them may not provide the complete picture compared to a paid service.

Some free business credit score services are:

Nav Credit Reports

Nav is a credit monitoring service that is available to both individuals and business owners. Signing up doesn't require a credit card, and you can receive a free summary of your company credit reports from Dun & Bradstreet and Experian. This is very convenient because you can get both these scores at a single place.

You must pay for Nav's services if you want to go beyond the summaries and obtain complete credit reports. However, gaining access to the free summary report is considered to be a great start to monitoring your company credit. Nav's products also assist you in setting goals to enhance your company credit score and offer simple error disputing.

Complygate

Complygate's business credit score reports are aimed to aid organisations in verifying the legitimacy of a firm. Check the credit score of the company, confirm the identity of the company's directors, determine the real ownership structure, learn about CCJs, CVAs, late or missed payments, and more.

You have 2 free checks, and then 4 subscription options, that you can learn more about here.

CreditSignal

CreditSignal is a free company credit reporting service provided by Dun & Bradstreet.

The main advantage of CreditSignal is its simple approach for monitoring your business credit. Following registration, you may opt to monitor changes to your score and see when someone has requested your score through the web dashboard, mobile app, or even email notifications.

CreditSignal also provides a wealth of instructional materials. You may get advise on how to increase your credit score based on your credit history, or you can discover specialized credit facts about your sector.

These functions are free, but thorough credit reports will cost you. You can check your real score, rating, and who is viewing your credit information with a paid membership to CreditSignal's monitoring service.

It doesn't matter which tool you end up using. All that counts is that you utilise the one that best suits your organisation's needs. Managing your business credit score may do wonders for your company's future, especially if you start early.