Age has it's advantages

[losartworks]

In terms of credit limits given, age does indeed have it's advantages. Some may know that aside from owning a liquidations and appraisals company I am also a photographer. I bought a photography company corp from a guy who retired. This was simply a corp that had been inactive for a couple years but had a 40 year history. After purchasing all rights to the business from the former owner I paid to reactivate the entity with the secretary of state. $320 later I had a corp with my information on it and 40+ years age as reflected on the SOS records listing site.

Now this business has not been one in the past that was much into using credit. Subsequently there is no Duns report at all. There is an Experian file with a 75 score, 4 Very tiny old tradelines showing (like $50 newspaper from 8 years ago) and 29 years of age to the file. Experian split the file when the new address info hit. The file with the new address is blank. So point being is they really only have age to go off of.

 

I started out with the usual building net 30s, though I must have bad timing as none of those 6 net accounts have even reported anything yet. wanting to see what the age would do in terms of credit, I applied for Staples, Office Depot, Home Depot rev, Expo rev and Amazon. with No Duns, and the Experian noted above, this is what I was given:

 

Staples- $5,000

Office Depot-$5,000

Home Depot-$14,000

Expo-$16,000

Amazon-$5,000

 

Tradeline-wise I have nothing of any weight reporting at all. Yet the age created a door that gave significant credit merely based on the age.

Reactivating dead corps and buying shelf corps, provided you do your homework to ensure the biz was liability free can give a real leg up on credit granted. Reactivating dead corps is more cost efficient than buying shelf corps, but of course you Need to purchase the entity from the original owner. This can get you in cheaper as those who no longer are bothering to keep their corp active obviously aren't placing much value upon it. But again, be sure to check for any liabilities and run the credit to ensure it is clean.

 

Now in this new business I seriously doubt I'll ever need the $30,000 that Home Depot just tossed at me, but was amazed to see what age alone buys. Now, I can lightly use these accounts and when they and the net 30s report over the next couple months the file should stand well solid. Maybe come May or June it will be Citibiz time. I'd have to need it though... I have the vast majority of my main business Citibiz cards credit available. I'm in a position where I don't need to carry much of a balance on any bank cards thankfully.

 

Just an option to consider if you have a little extra to buy a shelf or reactivate a corp. Those options obviously cost more than just registering a new corp, but the benefits are rather persuasive.

[Utahjoe727]

Darn, thats Cool. You sure you want to give all that info out. Now there will be a run on old corps!

[craigg]

Age does have it's advantages but the corp doesn't need to be 40 years old to achieve the above results. 2 years of age is the minimum. 5 years + is preferred with anything over 10 years probably scoring the same lines. I doubt that there will be a mad rush on aged corps as most are not prepared to pay for them. Figure on a minimum of $1000.00 per year of age in addition to the state fees for each year.

[slobutsure]

Just wondering if it is possible to reactivate dead files in all states? ETA: Those numbers are very impressive! What kind of photography are you into? I majored in photography many moons ago

Edited February 14, 2007 by slobutsure

[Co-Sign-R]

Age does have it's advantages but the corp doesn't need to be 40 years old to achieve the above results. 2 years of age is the minimum. 5 years + is preferred with anything over 10 years probably scoring the same lines. I doubt that there will be a mad rush on aged corps as most are not prepared to pay for them. Figure on a minimum of $1000.00 per year of age in addition to the state fees for each year.

 

 

My 9 year old shelf corp was 5k

[losartworks]

I do agree that 40 years is not required and probably doesn't garner any higher lines than a 10 year old business with no files.

 

Shelf corps can indeed be expensive. The alternative of reactivating dead corps is much cheaper, but with this there is more leg work like securing the entity from the original owner. this can often be done for little money. But be sure the entity is liability free and clean history. But you can usually beat the shelf corp rates this way. just involves more work.

[losartworks]

Just wondering if it is possible to reactivate dead files in all states? ETA: Those numbers are very impressive! What kind of photography are you into? I majored in photography many moons ago

 

I imagine every state is different. There is a point when the secretary of state wont let you reactivate. Here it's 5 years, but it varies no doubt.

 

I do a lot of black and white photography. I have a number of clients who like my work. I do a lot of landscape. but also like urban ruins and one of my personal favorites is figure study work...

[tuamqwa]

Ohio does not let one reactivate an inactive corp. FYI

 

TQ

[losartworks]

I understand there are a handful of states that simply won't let you. But that shouldn't limit one from finding one in another state provided they can sufficiently check it out before buying it.

[slobutsure]

I understand there are a handful of states that simply won't let you. But that shouldn't limit one from finding one in another state provided they can sufficiently check it out before buying it.

 

 

Thanks for the info!

[busbus]

Los

 

Do you think that your established relationship with these creditors on other businesses would have anything to do with the larger lines? Or do you believe it is the age only and perhaps the old little lines of previous owner? That this entity stood alone in their decision of credit.

 

You are the expert and I learn much from you...I'd like to hear your thoughts.

 

Thanks, bus

[losartworks]

I would say age alone as my business partner put his name on one of them as well and he has no previous business credit associated to him. I think they see a file that has 30 years of age, despite not having but a few tiny trades, and they see the secretary of state has the biz age at over 40 years and I think that buys the larger lines right there.

 

Citibiz gave my other half's biz automatic approvals of $22,500 for a blank Duns file that had age. Without hesitation I would bet the farm that age buys you the higher lines.

[busbus]

Thanks los

[Deaf CEO]

good information los!

[GETMONEY]

I reside in Washington State and simply searched on the Sec Of State website and used DnB and Expirian as tools to see if there were any files on biz and then purshased a inactive Corp that was started in 1962 and went inactive in 2004 and simply paid 300 dollars and it was mine and opened the basics that still gave me minor lines of credit but after one month of payment to Home Depot Rev in the amount of $100 applied for HDMC and asked for $10,000 and got it no problem ! and when I got card in the mail upon activation asked for a higher limit and was told as of right now I can only bump you up to $15,000 and would that be okay for starters?! of course I accepted

 

And on my 2 year old corp only got 2300 ! So there are really big advantages just do your research. In my mind I'm thinking why buy a shelf Corp?

[gallardospyder]

I reside in Washington State and simply searched on the Sec Of State website and used DnB and Expirian as tools to see if there were any files on biz and then purshased a inactive Corp that was started in 1962 and went inactive in 2004 and simply paid 300 dollars and it was mine and opened the basics that still gave me minor lines of credit but after one month of payment to Home Depot Rev in the amount of $100 applied for HDMC and asked for $10,000 and got it no problem ! and when I got card in the mail upon activation asked for a higher limit and was told as of right now I can only bump you up to $15,000 and would that be okay for starters?! of course I accepted

 

And on my 2 year old corp only got 2300 ! So there are really big advantages just do your research. In my mind I'm thinking why buy a shelf Corp?

 

How do you find out whether a corporation is inactive or not?

[va757]

AGE buys you alot. ive helped friends with their businesses, who've just had blank files but been on file the years and they got big limits.

[orangecrush]

I honestly don't think the age situation is that big of a deal with some creditors. I have seen people with newer corporations and nothing for tradelines get high limits with Citi products.

 

I have other businessfriends that have 20+ year old corporations that could get little or nothing from Citi without a PG.

 

One of them took over the family corporation (I think they have been in business around 35 years). Her dad didn't (still doesn't) belive in revolving credit for businesses (or people for that matter). The corporation had lots of net accounts with lines in the millions. None of them reported to DUNS or Experian. I told her to apply for some of the HD products. They wanted a PG. She got one of their long time creditors to report to DUNS. She got the cards with no problem after that.

 

If anyone should have been able to get some lines based on age it should have been her.

 

I have other businessfriends that have 10 year old corporations that had balnk files, who got credit like mad with no trouble.

 

Sometimes I think they use a magic 8 ball to decide who to give credit to.

[drew3918]

I reside in Washington State and simply searched on the Sec Of State website and used DnB and Expirian as tools to see if there were any files on biz and then purshased a inactive Corp that was started in 1962 and went inactive in 2004 and simply paid 300 dollars and it was mine and opened the basics that still gave me minor lines of credit but after one month of payment to Home Depot Rev in the amount of $100 applied for HDMC and asked for $10,000 and got it no problem ! and when I got card in the mail upon activation asked for a higher limit and was told as of right now I can only bump you up to $15,000 and would that be okay for starters?! of course I accepted

 

And on my 2 year old corp only got 2300 ! So there are really big advantages just do your research. In my mind I'm thinking why buy a shelf Corp?

 

How do you find out whether a corporation is inactive or not?

CHECK THE STATES "SOS" WEB SITE

[losartworks]

A good point is brought up. I should clarify that where having the SOS stating a long corporate life is certainly a plus, the big CLs are more easily given if the CREDIT FILE is also AGED. Lowes declined my 43 year old corp because they pulled a Duns and not Experian. Quite often underwriters depend solely on the info supplied on the credit file. Surely if some would take an extra step and check the SOS site they would be much more inclined to award large CLs to start. HSBC does take the exptra step usually to establish corporate age. Not being a huge fan of HSBC I have not yet tried to see what they would do with a 43 year old corp but next to zip on the tradelines.

 

When securing an inactive corp, Do make sure that at least one biz CRA has a file on them. Preferrably a file of reasonably good age to match the corp. And a little hint should be when reactivating or buying a shelf corp, Duns will often restart the file date if they become aware the business is under new management. And Experian loves to split file or open new location files. So there are a lot of mild pitfalls when doing either reactivation or shelf. the need for an aged file is almost as important as the showing age of the corp when it comes to credit cards. LOCs are a bit different in respect the banker will usually take the time to comfirm your entities age direct with the SOS and the age of the file won't matter as much.