Your business has its very own credit score, and, just like a personal credit score, you can check it yourself.
Checking your business credit isn’t as easy as checking your personal credit, as the resources available are much more limited. Not all of the options for checking and monitoring your business credit are free.
Let’s take a look at how you can check your business credit directly with the credit bureaus and at some 3rd party services you can use to get free business credit scores.
How Do I Look Up My Business Credit Score?
Unlike personal credit, there is no law protecting your rights to view your business credit reports. Because of this, options to check your business credit are fewer in number. There are still resources for acquiring business credit scores.
Let’s start by exploring how you can obtain business credit reports and scores directly from the credit bureaus.
How to Check Your Dun & Bradstreet Paydex Score
You can check your business’s PAYDEX score directly with Dun & Bradstreet using their CreditSignal subscription.
Your initial score check will include access to your PAYDEX score, Delinquency Predictor Score, Financial Stress Score, and Supplier Evaluation Risk Rating. You’ll get access to these scores for 14 days for free.
If you want access to your D&B scores beyond 14 days, you’ll need to pay for one of their premium subscriptions.
Premium plans start at $15/month and go up to $199/month and provide unlimited access to scores, with the more expensive options also offering credit monitoring features and credit building features.
How to Check Your Experian Business Credit Score
You can get your Experian business credit scores and a copy of your business credit report directly from Experian using one of their report purchase options.
A single report starts at $39.95. It includes your Intelliscore Plus, Financial Risk Rating, and full credit report.
Experian also offers a business credit monitoring service that costs $189/year.
If you have an international business or want to check the credit scores or reports of other businesses, Experian also has purchase options for these.
How to Check Your Equifax Business Credit Score
Equifax lets you create a business user account to manage certain aspects of your business credit, such as inquiries, business addresses, and more.
There is no set service for requesting a copy of your business credit report, but once you have this user account set up, you can contact customer support and inquire about receiving a credit report. You’ll have to show that the report is associated with a lending decision.
The good news is that Equifax will not charge you for this credit report.
☝️ It is worth noting that Equifax previously offered a pay-for-report option as recently as 2020. It has since discontinued this service.
How to Check Your FICO SBSS Score
While FICO offers a variety of subscription plans on their MyFICO website for pulling and monitoring your personal credit scores, they lack these options for their business credit scores.
There is currently no way for businesses to access their SBSS scores directly through FICO.
How to Check Your Business Credit Score for Free
In addition to checking your business credit scores directly with the business credit bureau, there are 3rd party companies that can give you access to your business credit scores. Many of them offer this service for free!
Below are three ways to check your business credit for free:
1. Nav
Nav gives you access to business credit scores from all the major business credit bureaus and guides you on what types of credit products you can qualify for.
When you select a loan, line of credit, or credit card through Nav, Nav gets a fee from the lender for the recommendation.
Nav currently offers free access to your D&B Paydex score, Equifax Delinquency Score, and Experian Intelliscore, as well as your Experian and TransUnion Vantage scores (consumer credit).
They also offer a Business Boost subscription product for $49.99/month that gives you additional access to your SBSS score and credit monitoring and building services.
2. Tillful
Only available on iOS devices, the Tillful app is similar to Nav. They aim to match you with business credit cards and loans, and they receive a fee from partner lenders.
Tillful offers two business credit scores. One is their proprietary Tillful credit score. This is not used by lenders or vendors but is designed to give you an idea of the overall health of your business credit.
Tillful also offers you free access to your Experian Intelliscore business credit score. This scoring model uses version 3, which is not yet widely used. In addition, Tilful’s partnership with Experian extends to a branded secured business credit card that only reports to Experian.
3. Credit Bureaus
As mentioned earlier, you do have limited access to obtain your business credit reports directly from the credit bureaus for free.
D&B offers 14-day access to your D&B business credit scores for free, and Equifax lets you pull a free business credit report under limited circumstances.
While these direct-from-the-credit-bureau options aren’t great for long-term business credit monitoring, they can help you get a quick snapshot of what your business credit looks like right now.
Conclusion
When you operate your own business, having a good business credit score is even more important than having an excellent personal credit score. This is because business credit has a significant impact on your vendor relationships as well as lending opportunities.
And just like with personal credit, checking your business credit reports regularly can help you improve your credit score and catch fraud early.
Whether you are using a free 3rd party service or checking your business credit scores directly with the credit bureaus, keeping track of your business credit can help you protect the future of your business.
