Building Credit w/ D&B

[Justin Silverio]

I applied for a free D&B number the other night and got a call from someone at D&B trying to sell me the D&B Credit Builder and DunsFile. The Credit Builder is a service where you report to D&B what vendors you've paid recently (this could be any vendor - contractors, lumber yard, property manager, etc.). If these vendors do not report in to D&B, someone from D&B will call the vendor so the payment is recorded on my credit file. Without the Credit Builder service, I would have to rely on the vendor to report in, which is not the case for a lot of vendors. I think the DunsFile is just to expedite the completion of my credit profile in a 5 days rather than 30-45 days.

Do most people buy the Credit Builder? He told me it's $69/month and he would waive the upfront fees of $200. After talking to him, he went down to $375 for the year.

If I don't get the Credit Builder, how will I know if my lender and credit cards report to D&B?