Duns and Bradstreet-Your Credit File

[909]

So i'm somewhat thinking that building biz credit is going to be easier than personal. Thanks to this board, I actually followed through on a couple applications. Keep in mind, my C-Corp has been established since 2003 but I have NEVER requested nor received any credit from any vendor. I always have COD'd everything because anyone i've been interested in getting an account from requires a PG.

 

So i've had a DUNS# since 2003 along with my TID so i'm good to go there. The corp. has been around for a while but no credit.

 

Staples, immediately approved on-line. No clue on the limit.

Uline is a paper application that i'll fax tomorrow.

Dell said no.

Home Depot required a call in. I did that and after some verification questions, they said no not without a PG. So i'm telling the guy on the phone, WTF? he said that they couldn't tell me why, then after I insist, he puts me on hold. He comes back (probably after a supervisor said he could tell me) and says that there is just not enough info on D&B and Experian.

 

I decide to pull mt D&B file. There are 2 TL's on there. 1 for $100 paid in full as "nonclassified" and another for $50 that shows 61-90 days slow pay. This shows as Ret boats. WTF is a Ret boat? Should I call them and see what this is? Do they actually do anything besides sell you on a credit builder plan? My paydex is showing a 63.

 

For fun and since HD said they pulled my EX info, I checked that by paying the $13 a month. They show me with 2 TL's, no lates and scored at 79! It shows the file established in '04 so someone reported something to do that but in both cases, I have no clue who is reporting what. Any advice on how to correct the D&B issue and also, where else should I open a TL to get some positive info in here?

[Corporate Credit Student]

Question, I finally was able to view my dnb credit report today. They do not show the names of the creditors? Is that normal? Also, they do not show our credit limits, only our current balances which they also show as our limits? Is that normal?

 

Can we edit this ourselves and add the missing accounts/information? Or, do you have to purchase a service from dnb to get them to correct the errors? Do they just give you a watered down version of the report or is this really what potential creditors see?

 

We're trying to find a corp. loc and or cc's but from what I've read out here it seems we may only be approved for our current maximum credit line which is showing on the report as only 10K although we just got a lowes comm acct last month for 20K that I don't think shows yet?

 

Can anyone help? Thanks in advance.

[seattle]

Question, I finally was able to view my dnb credit report today. They do not show the names of the creditors? Is that normal? Also, they do not show our credit limits, only our current balances which they also show as our limits? Is that normal?

 

Can we edit this ourselves and add the missing accounts/information? Or, do you have to purchase a service from dnb to get them to correct the errors? Do they just give you a watered down version of the report or is this really what potential creditors see?

 

We're trying to find a corp. loc and or cc's but from what I've read out here it seems we may only be approved for our current maximum credit line which is showing on the report as only 10K although we just got a lowes comm acct last month for 20K that I don't think shows yet?

 

Can anyone help? Thanks in advance.

 

Its strange I have a paydex of 80 thin file though and a typo going on I was denied for HD revolving without a pg attached and I wont due another credit pull for a year so Im just going to do 2 more net 30's to get things rolling.

[nokio]

Hi,

 

I would really appreciate it if someone can answer this for me quickly.

You can PM me if you want but its not that big of a deal.

 

I'm about to use the CCR website for my DNB and they are asking

for how much sales my company has. It was incorporated in May

and we don't have any sales so far. I don't want to get blacklisted

or anything. Will it hurt us if I put zero or should I put something like

$100,000?

 

Please answer this assoon as possible....

 

Thanks

[MarvBear]

Hi,

 

I would really appreciate it if someone can answer this for me quickly.

You can PM me if you want but its not that big of a deal.

 

I'm about to use the CCR website for my DNB and they are asking

for how much sales my company has. It was incorporated in May

and we don't have any sales so far. I don't want to get blacklisted

or anything. Will it hurt us if I put zero or should I put something like

$100,000?

 

Please answer this assoon as possible....

 

Thanks

 

 

bump for an answer to this member please.

[slow_but_eventual]

from: smallbusiness.dnb dot com/credit-reports/products/ebir/helpfiles/business_summary.asp

 

Sales

Sales information provides a snapshot of a company's financial size in terms of sales/revenue volume. "Projected" indicates an estimated sales volume provided by management; "F" means figures were taken from an income statement. See the Finance Section for more details.

 

I presume that signifies it is possible to specify to D&B that the "sales" figure is "projected", especially with a new company. However, that's a guess!

 

FWIW, When I updated my D&B file (last week) I left the sales field blank.

[workinghad40]

I am new to joining CB but have gotten a lot of valuble information from reading your board postings. I have had great credit with my business up until about two to three weeks ago. I logged on to DNB to check my credit because I suscribe to the self monitor and my credit had changed from an 80 paydex to a 73 with three new negative accounts showing up that I have no idea where they come from. I have called DNB twice to dispute and they told me they would and send me an email of whom it was that was reporting this negative crap. I have not received my email yet. I am upset because I have been doing a great job of keeping my business credit straight. Can someone give me any more insight on this. Thanks.

[downwardsunshine]

Credit Boards has helped me so much with my business credit and I just thought I would share my story:

 

I own a B&M bookstore (Yea I'm not getting rich but I love my job!) We opened in Januray of this year. The day we opened I applied for a DUNS number right through thier site. I received an e-mail from a sales rep that said I needed to call to verify info. With the business just starting, I thought I would get to it later and promptly forgot. A week after that the store received a sales call from D&B, my fiancee answered the phone and verified all information but stopped them at the saes pitch. He told them all financial decisions had to be made by both of us and to call back when I was there. They never called back.

 

Fast forward 7 months, the store is doing well enough that I'm looking towards expansion. I've already got a 70K HELOC on my property and although I still have $200K in free equity I don't want to use it *just in case* as the house has been in the family for 30 years so I decide to try and establish some business credit.

 

Instead of reading CB I decided to call Duns and try to get the info on my own and I was bombarded by sales pitches. Finally a rep gave me my DUNS number as well as the speal about it only being a marketing number and I need to buy credit builder for $199. I told her that I couldn't make any financial decisions without my fiancee. (This WORKS. They immedietly leave you alone)

 

At this point I start e-mailing and calling to get my e-update password ... I tried for three solid weeks and got NOWHERE. Nobody would return my calls and my e-mails went unanswered. So I checked creditboards, found the entity number and had my e-update pass in 3 minutes.

 

Logged on and had three phantom trade lines reporting (I have NO idea what they are as we have operated a strictly cash only business for 8 months) but I'll take it as well as a Paydex showing a late which again NOT possible as we pay everything at the time we buy it.

 

Came back to credit boards and everybody was so helpful and gave me the number to dispute. That was last week and I'm sure when I check next Sunday it will be gone.

 

I now have a few net 30's established as well as Stapes and OD revolving and I just wanted to thank everyone here for all of their assistance. The board is a great resource =)

 

Patience is Key. You WILL get a Paydex if you are just patient.

[WAK]

I did what you said and contacted DUNs I got my number right away by telling them I wanted to get grants . They said after they got my info that if I dont register with CCR Central Contracters Registration in 30 days my number and duns info would be deleted????What do I do I want nothing to do with the US Goverment anymore than I already am?

[popcornCEO]

Just thought I'd mention this....

 

I called DnB yesterday to dispute 2 negative "Radiotelephone" TLs. I have 3 TLs reporting which established a Paydex of 59

I asked to rep who the TL sources were and he said that they cannot tell me until I have 5 TLs reporting. Then, they divulge who the Vendors are but only then.

 

CashPoor

[breeze]

I did what you said and contacted DUNs I got my number right away by telling them I wanted to get grants . They said after they got my info that if I dont register with CCR Central Contracters Registration in 30 days my number and duns info would be deleted????What do I do I want nothing to do with the US Goverment anymore than I already am?

 

 

That's BS.

[breeze]

Just thought I'd mention this....

 

I called DnB yesterday to dispute 2 negative "Radiotelephone" TLs. I have 3 TLs reporting which established a Paydex of 59

I asked to rep who the TL sources were and he said that they cannot tell me until I have 5 TLs reporting. Then, they divulge who the Vendors are but only then.

 

CashPoor

 

 

Someone should put up a dedicated site for people to relate these stories - I'm betting if more people had the chance to tell what kinds of soft extortion D&B engages in, there could be a class action suit to make them stop.

[lovely221]

question??when applying for the dun#for grants..do you need to be be registerd with the state???also do you use your buisness are yous self???

[kevin7026]

I saw on this site that you need like $7,000 in a business bank account to get a DNB #. Is this true. What are the steps or items that need to be in place. I have an LLC with an EIN. What else do I need.

[Guest FASTPAYMENTS]

You don't need to have 7k in your business acct...I'm a new C-corp as of 07/31/07 and had $100 in my acct when I got my Duns # and password.

[chefdom]

I just received my DUNS through the ccr.gov site (thanks to everyone here), now it says I must register in CCR within 30 days or my DUNS will be de-activated. Now what do I do? I'm new here and if this question has already been answered, I apologize. Just looking for direction and any suggestions on what to do from here to start my road to success is greatly appreciated. Thanks for everything.

 

-Chefdom

 

i reposted this because i think i put it in the wrong section... i'm not only new to this forum but to all forums in general, if my ettiquette is bad please teach me manners, i'm a quick learner

[spazntwitch]

I was so excited to read the first post in this thread about how to apply for business credit through NEBS, ULine, and Viking. To make a long story short, I started an account with NEBS, only to read in other threads on this board that NEBS no longer reports. DOH!

 

When I tried to apply through ULine I get the following message:

We are currently performing a system upgrade. During this time all parts of the web site have been disabled. We apologize for any inconvenience.

And I am not sure what Viking is, but I'd certainly like to find out.

 

Tonight just hasn't been my night for getting credit to report to DUNS. (The sad thing is, I've had my DUNS number for a couple of years now but just found this particular forum tonight.)

[829]

2 reporting and DNB still has status as DS?

[natengen]

Hi all, I'm a newbie here. I've been reading...and reading...and reading. I've learned alot, thanks to all of your posts.

 

My Story: I was talking to a D&B rep (aka salesperson) the other day. He told me that D&B only receives payment info "automatically" from approx. 10,000 companies nationwide. He told me that if my business isn't doing business with these companines...nothing will show up on my PAYDEX. Then he offered to "help me" (sell me something). Apparently, if my company pays D&B, they will used the companies we are already doing business with on terms to build our credit. He mentioned, for example, our lawyer, our publicity, etc. He said that anyone we receive services from now and pay at the end of the month...will help us build credit...if we only pay D&B for this service. We already bought the CreditBuilder a few months back...it built nothing. Don't want to shell out more cash for more...uh...nothing.

 

My questions: Is he telling the truth? Can my lawyers fees actually help me improve my PAYDEX? Also, is there a comprehensive list, somewhere, of all the businesses D&B uses to verify payment info? I'd like to know who we have to do business with to get better credit. (I've seen in this thread and others the "standards": Staples, Viking, Etc.) but a list of all the companies would be awesome.

 

Thanks for all the previous posts ...and thanks in advance for any answers to my questions.

[vrb747]

His DUNS is reporting a Paydex of "DS" for me which they say means that my company is not rated. How do I go about adding tradelines ? I have commercial credit from HomeDepot, lowes Kinkos, Staples and Office Depot for more than 3 years now. Thanks

[callgreg]

Hello there,

 

I am helping my parents establish their business credit. As far as I know, they do not have a D&B number They have been incorporated for over 15 years and have a business bank account and business phone that is listed with 411 and in the white pages. They did get an Office Depot account a few years ago but have not used it. They also have several vendors that they have done business with for 15 to 20 years.

 

If they set up a D&B number, is there a way for them to add these vendors without using Creditbuilder? When these tradelines are reported, does it show on the report what year they started doing business with the vendor and does that greatly influence the Paydex number?

 

They seem to have all of the basic elements in place for establishing business credit. It just seems that all we would need to do is to set up the D&B number so that all of them can be brought together. I would have them apply for accounts like UPS, Staples and perhaps Lowe's and Exxon to add to their other vendors. The key question for me is that are there other ways to add these vendors that my folks have been doing business with for years on their own without the services of Creditbuilder. If not then so be it and they would have D&B do it for them. Thanks in advance for your response.

[BubbaG]

Since there seem to be a lot of posts here about getting a Duns Number, I thought some might be interested in my experience today:

 

Two days ago I applied online to form a C Corp. The company which formed the corporation online sent me an e mail today. The Sec of State approved my C Corp. today.

 

Knowing the C Corp was on the State web site, I then called DnB, the toll free number posted in this forum for government contractors, (866-705-5711) and spent 5 minutes on the phone with a woman before obtaining my new Duns number. The entire 5 minutes was spent answering basic questions about company name, address, number of employees. No solicitations at all. She did check the state web site to verify the company was legally formed, and she asked me a few questions to confirm spelling, etc.

 

So, at least in my situation, the total time from when I applied to form the corporation to the time I had a Duns number for the new corporation was 48 hours.

Edited January 24, 2008 by BubbaGump

[Stacie68]

I got myself all worked up thinking that it was going to be tough to get my DUNS number. I went online and applied through the govt. grant route and got my number by email less than 24 hours later. It was easy.....TOO easy....now I am thinking I am missing some sort of catch here. Is just having the number enough to start a credit file?

[ughhhh2688]

i think it will take some time for you to view your file or your company to show up. I also am having the same problem. I paid the 299 before i read all the info on this site and it was very dissapointing. I did this over a month ago and still my buisness does not show up and I am still having trouble with the credit with out a PG. I always get cant verify your company. I have been round and round with my rep who says im in there but i cant find me....oh well. I would not recomend paying the money.

 

do I have to buy a report from them on my buisness or is there a way to find it for free.

[BrucePalmerDCA]

As a former employee of D&B, I can tell you that all of the information in this section is completely true. Very good information. It was almost like I was back in training. Very good information.

 

Just remember - It is not necessary to purchase anything from D&B to "start" your file. Usually, you already have a DUNS#. D&B system is linked with the Sec. of State; state-by-state. As soon as you complete the fillings of becomming a business, D&B has caught it, and began your file without you even knowing it. But having a DUNS number is like having a SS# when you were 15. It does nothing unless it has a score. Unless you're applying for gov't type things. If you're using CCR, they use that number as an ID for your business. But, they will also compare your reports to others who are applying to see who is more credit worthy. Remember that.

 

With regarding to building the file... You can wait for that to happen, and add your DUNS# on applications when rcving terms, however this can be very frustrating for companies that are trying to build their file fast. -I was in New Accounts I rcvd calls from business owners (small market) that needed credit builders fast becuase they were either applying for a large LOC, or bonding, and were denied becuase of their D&B file. They had been trying to establishing it for years. I would sell them a "creditbuilder" - This would allow them to add up to six qualifying references to your file. D&B calls, and confirms these references, and gets the LOC, and terms from the vendor. It would be updated in 30 day's.

 

Building your D&B file is like the old saying "It takes money to make money".