Obtaining Business Credit Reports

Ordering a business credit report online is easy.

1. Visit www.experian.com/business-credit-reports and enter the name and state of the company you would like a business credit report for. There is no charge for the search. We will match your request with more than 27 million companies in our database and provide you with a list of the best results.

2. Select the type of business credit report you would like from the search results.

3. Become an Experian registered user by filling out the registration form and selecting a password. Once you register, you will need only your name and password when buying future reports.

4. Read and agree to our conditions of sale.

5. Submit your order and instantly access the business credit report that you requested! Your credit card will be validated and charged for the report(s) purchased. You will receive confirmation of your purchase and the business credit report(s) in seconds.

The Experian Small Business website is available 24-7 during which time you may visit your My Account center and view your existing orders. However, purchase of new reports may not be available at times due to system maintenance.

Searching is free! You only pay when you decide to purchase a report.

Absolutely! This is always a good idea and it is a good first step toward securing a good credit standing. Many lending institutions pay very close attention to payment behavior trends of a business when determining the interest rate and borrowing power for business loans.

Checking your business credit report does not affect your business credit score. Pulling your own business credit report is considered a soft inquiry. Soft inquiries do not affect your business credit score, and they are not revealed to potential lenders or creditors.

When you purchase and review a report, you will see the "printable version" option on the report page. Click this button to print your report.

If your business has been denied credit in the past 60 days based upon Experian Commercial Credit data, you should obtain a copy of your Experian Business Report for review. Please click the link below for further information on how to obtain a copy of your Experian Business Report.

Understanding Business Credit Report

Experian's Credit Ranking Score is determined through a statistically-derived algorithm that determines risk based on multiple factors:

  • Credit: number of trade experiences, balances outstanding, payment habits, credit utilization, trends over time
  • Public records: recency, frequency and dollar amounts associated with liens, judgments, bankruptcies.
  • Demographic information: years on file, Standard Industrial Classification code, business size.

Business credit reports contain information on a particular business' payment history, existing credit obligations, previous or existing legal filings, and background history. Often used as an indicator of a company's "financial health," a business credit report is most commonly used to help a lender decide if a company can take on additional financial obligations and if it will most likely pay those obligations on time. Experian offers up to 4 different business reports per company ranging in depth of information.

Experian requires minimum information to generate a score; so if a business doesn't meet these requirements, a score is not generated. Minimum information is at least one tradeline and/or one demographic element.

1. Company Information
Includes the company's name, address, phone number and Experian file number. The year the file was established on Experian's database will be displayed when the company's incorporation date is not available.
2. Credit Categories
Classifies the company's current credit status into one of five categories – acceptable, caution, warning, serious risk and bankruptcy – based on the company's current payment behavior and the presence or absence of collection data or derogatory legal filings.
3. Legal Filings
Summarizes any bankruptcy, tax lien and judgment filings gathered from federal, state and county courthouses nationwide. (Experian also offers complete information on these legal filings – as well as Uniform Commercial Code, corporate records and Fictitious Business Name (Doing Business As) filings – online. See our business public records area for more information.)
4. Detailed Collection Filings
Includes information gathered from a nationwide network of collection agencies. The report provides the collection agency's name, the amount placed for collection and the date the account was submitted to the collection agency.
5. Payment behavior
Summarizes the company's credit relationships and payment performance. Experian collects this information from suppliers nationwide.
6. Payment trends and industry comparison
Compares the company's payment performance with other businesses in the same industry to help you make a more accurate risk evaluation. (Requires payment information about the company to be available for at least the past six months.)

Company Background
This information can include the type of business, number of employees or sales figures, where incorporated and key officers.

Experian provides a credit category by analyzing the business's current trade experiences and the presence or absence of collection data and derogatory public record filings. We then classify the business into one of the following categories:

  • Acceptable
    This company actively uses credit and pays its bills no later than nine days late, on average. There are no derogatory legal records on file for this company.
  • Caution
    A company may fall into this category in one of two ways:
    If the company actively uses credit, the risk category is based on the current payment performance and/or legal records on file. If the company does not actively use credit, it may pose increased risk.
    In either case, the caution risk category suggests you investigate further before making credit or business decisions related to the company.
  • Warning
    Derogatory payment performance information and/or derogatory legal records exist on file for this company. Experian recommends further investigation prior to making any credit or business decisions.
  • Serious risk warning
    Serious derogatory payment performance information and/or serious derogatory legal records exist on file for this company. Experian strongly recommends further investigation prior to making any credit or business decisions. Fifteen percent of businesses fall into this higher-risk category.
  • Bankruptcy
    This company has previously filed for bankruptcy.

Actual tradeline company names are not displayed, but rather supplier category names will appear. For example, if your company is 60 DBT (Days Beyond Terms) with "ACME CELL COMMUNICATIONS", the entry may appear as "TELECOM ... 60DBT".

It is not uncommon for a business credit score to fluctuate slightly. Experian's proprietary model for business credit scores looks at over 140 modeling variables to derive the score, so there are other factors beyond what is displayed on the credit report that can cause a score to slightly change or shift.

Factors include, but are not limited to:

  • The presence of derogatory public records on the business profile, such as collections, liens, judgments and bankruptcies
  • The status, recent status, frequency and dollar amounts of any applicable liens, judgments or bankruptcies
  • An increased trend in slow payment of obligations
  • An increase in the number of credit inquiries or applications that are generated by the business or owner
  • The number of trade experiences, balances outstanding, payment habits, credit utilization and trends over time
  • Years in business, line of business or Standard Industrial Classification (SIC), size of business and other demographic data

Yes, Experian provides tax liens, judgments and bankruptcies on businesses nationwide.

Customer Support is available from 9 a.m.–5 p.m., Monday-Thursday and 9 a.m.–4 p.m. Central Time on Friday and can be reached at 1 888 808 8242

Experian collects credit obligation information from thousands of businesses nationwide. These businesses are typically the suppliers or lenders with which a company has existing financial relationships.

Experian also collects legal filings from the various local, county and state courts across the United States. Company background information is collected from a variety of independent firms. Experian does not display information directly from a company about its business, unless that information has been verified.

Information Accuracy

Experian provides access to our business database in real time. Experian receives public record information from government and vendor sources on a daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly schedule.

Once we receive public record updates from the government or vendor sources, turnaround time for formatting, cleansing and loading data is generally 48 to 72 hours. Turnaround time for bankruptcy reports being available online is typically within 24 hours of the original filing.

Experian uses leading technologies to format, cleanse and load data that is acquired directly from government sources and industry leading vendors.

Changes, once loaded by Experian into the Experian business credit file, will have an immediate impact on the business credit report and score. Approved requests for updated business credit information are loaded weekly over the weekends. However, depending on the nature of the request, investigation and approval of the requested update can take up to 30 days. For example, a simple demographic update to a business street address will not take as long to investigate, approve and process as it would to dispute trade credit detail.

If you believe that your company's Experian report contains inaccurate information, you can initiate an update to your company details by using Experian's www.BusinessCreditFacts.com web site.

Account Security

Please contact us immediately at 1 888 808 8242

Accounts are locked for 30 minutes after 5 failed login attempts. To unlock your account immediately, please contact customer support at 1 888 808 8242.

Why Experian?

Experian provides value by delivering timely and accurate data with nationwide coverage. We offer competitive low prices and easy-to-read reports.

To learn more about our many business credit and business marketing services, please contact us directly at 1 800 520 1221 or send an email to credit@experian.com. We have a wide variety of additional credit, marketing, monitoring and scoring products, (not available via credit card), that you can access via our subscriber site http://www.experian.com.

Why do I need a business credit report?

By reviewing public records and other business information, companies save every year on the costs of acquiring new business and managing liability and potential fraud. Reviewing public records and other business information also establishes sound business relationships that can extend for years.


Experian's business credit reports summarize critical information about a company so you can:

  • Decide whether to do business with a company
  • Quickly and intelligently assess the business risk of lower-balance transactions
  • Avoid surprises from current customers when you review them for credit increases
  • Quickly determine whether you can confidently make a credit decision concerning your new customer or if further investigation is needed

The report also helps you:

  • Review your own company's credit file for completeness and accuracy
  • Learn how your company compares with others in your industry
  • Develop a strategy to improve your company's credit standing by examining the strengths and weaknesses of your file
Saving, printing and retrieving you credit report

Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) typically is not set to print background color or images, including table cell colors. On IE's Print Preview, our color charts will show as white table cells with black text. To get the table cells colored backgrounds to print, click on the browser's Tools menu. Select Internet Options, then click on the Advanced tab. Scroll down to find the Printing heading and check the box called Print Background Colors and Images. This setting affects both page backgrounds and table cell backgrounds.

Yes, the copy you originally saw is available for seven days following the purchase using the My Account section on the site.

Experian stores your reports for 7 days. Just log in to Experian with your username and password and your reports will be accessible from the homepage.

Personal Credit Reports

Experian Small Business does not provide access to Experian's personal credit information. Experian Small Business provides access to Experian's business database.

If you have a copy of your personal credit report, you can call Experian's National Consumer Assistance Center at 1 888 397 3742 for assistance. Click here to get your personal credit report.

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