Unless you have good business credit scores from all three agencies, you will be forced to use your personal credit to apply for financing for your business needs. The reverse is also true, if you have good business credit scores, you can use your business credit to finance cars, boats, inventory, furniture or anything you need in your home or business.



Further, when you set up a new business, you sometimes need to apply for business licenses, complete tax filings, or purchase insurance coverage. A commercial building landlord may require a credit report on your company before renting or leasing space. The cost of your insurance policy is usually dependent upon the status of your business's credit report.

Select your business structure

In order to take advantage of a clean business credit record, you will need to separate your business and personal credit. By using a corporate structure, your personal credit history is not tied to your corporation credit history. Your personal possessions cannot be seized or attached to pay for corporate debts. Conversely, corporation assets cannot be seized for your personal debts.

No turndowns

It's important that there be no turndowns on credit requests for your business. Lenders want to know what their risk is before lending you money. If they review your credit report and see that there were numerous inquiries by lending agencies or merchants, but no accounts created in the name of the business, it can raise a red flag. The lending agency would believe you must be a credit risk since no other company was willing to lend money to your business.

Existing Accounts

An indication that your business has received credit and has used it wisely always makes it easier to receive more credit. It's important that accounts be kept current, but not necessarily that everything be paid off in full prior to the expiration date. In other words, a 30 day account is less credit worthy than a corporate credit card with a small balance.

Bank loan

A loan from a bank is generally considered to be the best kind of business credit. Banks are reputed to be the strictest on their creditworthiness standards, so if your credit report shows a bank loan which is being paid each month, your business is considered to be a good credit risk.

Dispute negative terms

Just as with your personal credit, business credit reports sometimes contain incorrect information. You should review your credit report regularly and correct and incorrect or misleading information. The credit reporting agency is required by law to review disputed items and to correct or remove them as appropriate.