Establishing/Maintaining Business Credit

[Anthony Ogletree]

I was wondering if anyone has in-depth knowledge of the in's and out's of business credit. I have an LLC and 2 trade lines attached to it as well as a business bank account I've had since January. One of my trade lines is delinquent (a Pittany Bowes account) and I have business credit card that I've kept current. I'll be paying my PB account in full this week. With that in mind, how does this get reported to D&B and/or Experian? Does it work like personal credit where its on your report for seven years or is it set to current/not past due? Also my credit card is not being reported. How do I fix this? I have several debits coming out of my credit card monthly. Should they be reported as separate tradelines? Many more questions but I'll start with these ones.

[Ryan Hanehan]

I've used this one company a lot for business credit, it's called We Know Data, it's just another business credit report company. They also have a lot of great resources on their blog. I think a few resources that would be useful for you include:

• Business Credit vs. Personal Credit: discusses the importance of separating the two and how you can start separating each. 
• Common Business Credit Questions: this article will answer your question on how long the data will stay on your business' credit report.

They offer 5 free business credit reports so that you can check it out and additional reports range from like $7-$12. Let me know if you have any other questions

[James Stevens]

There are some great podcasts on iTunes by Ty Crandall on establishing and maintaining business credit.