Just as individuals have personal credit scores, businesses have their own credit scores. These are an essential aspect of your business’ financial health as they can significantly impact your ability to secure funding, obtain favourable terms with suppliers, and even win new work.
Here is a quick guide through the process of checking your business credit score.
What can you see when you check your business credit score?
When you check your business credit score, you can see information about your company's creditworthiness, including your actual score out of 100, your business’ payment history, any legal notices registered and the factors that are impacting your business credit score.
These are all details that other businesses will see if they run a credit check on your company, so it's important that your credit profile looks strong. You can take steps to improve your business credit score, or address any negative factors.
How to check your credit score?
FSB members have access to FSB Funding Platform, a credit score and funding platform provided by Capitalise. Once you have signed up and have access to your business credit profile, follow these three steps:
1. Review your business credit profile
It's important to review the information on your credit profile by checking for any errors, discrepancies, or negative marks that could be affecting your business credit score. Using your Capitalise for Business account, you can also review your credit score with Experian. This enables you to provide up to date information on your business to ensure an accurate credit score.
2. Understand your business credit score
Your business credit profile will include your credit score on a scale of 0 to 100, with 100 being the highest score and lowest level of risk associated. You will also have a credit limit, this is the maximum suggested amount of credit another business should extend to you. By understanding your credit score and credit limit, it should give you a good indication of whether you could access finance from lenders, or credit from suppliers. You should also take the time to understand what factors are contributing to your score, so that you can identify any areas for improvement.
3. Monitor your business credit score regularly
By regularly monitoring your credit profile, you’ll be aware of changes and risks early on, such as any fraudulent activity, or a legal notice being registered. This enables you to take action quickly to reduce an impact on your credit score.