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Home Blog Understanding Your Business Credit Score Range
A personal credit score determines the level of risk that comes with lending to you. You use it to apply for credit cards and other financing options to cover major purchases. A business credit score works similarly, except instead of evaluating your risk as an individual, financial institutions evaluate your business’s viability.
Like personal credit, business credit takes time to build. While your equity may be able to boost your business credit, the overall goal is to keep your personal and professional finances separate. This guide will review the factors that go into your business credit score range and what a healthy number looks like.
Multiple factors contribute to your business credit score—some are in your control while others aren’t. A few of these factors include:
Many of these factors are also used for personal credit scores. However, they take on a new meaning when applied to a business.
For example, the severity of the debt you take on also depends on the size of your business and your expected profits. Your credit can also be impacted by vendors that send unpaid invoices to collections or report overdue bills that you miss.
Essentially, almost any financial transaction you make as a business owner can contribute to your credit score, which is why it is so important to maintain good, organized bookkeeping.
The main difference between a personal and business credit score is the number range. While a personal credit score ranges from 300–850, business credit scores are developed on a scale of 0–100. Additionally, there are 3 main business credit score bureaus, all of which use this range. These are Dun & Bradstreet (D&B), Equifax, and Experian.
As a rule of thumb, the higher the score, the better. If you have a credit score range of 80–100, then you have exceptional business credit and shouldn’t have trouble securing funding.
A score of 50–100 is considered fair and you should be able to get funding, though maybe at a higher interest rate or more limited terms. Finally, anything below 50 is considered poor credit and a high-risk account.
For each of the 3 major credit bureaus, there are scores that determine your credit score range:
In the case of Equifax, if you have a zero rating for their credit risk score or the business failure score, it means the company is in bankruptcy.
You can find sample business credit score reports for each of these credit bureaus so you can determine which ones you want to use. The scores should stay relatively equal across each report.
To access your credit scores, visit the websites of these credit bureaus. You can pay from $40 at Experion up to $100 at Equifax for your report.
Understanding your business credit score range can help you secure funding for startup expenses and company expansion. You can be more aggressive in negotiations with lenders when you have a good score and can take steps to improve it before taking out a loan if you have a poor one. Don’t be afraid of your credit score—use it to make sound financial decisions for your business!
Derek Miller is the CMO of Smack Apparel, the content guru at Great.com, the co-founder of Lofty Llama, and a marketing consultant for small businesses. He specializes in entrepreneurship, small business, and digital marketing, and his work has been featured in sites like Entrepreneur, GoDaddy, Score.org, and StartupCamp.
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