My accountant is on vacation so until she gets back I was hoping someone can answer my curiosity.

Does a business earn credit on loans *without a duns number* ? i cant seem to find a straight forward answer anywhere? I officially incorporated (s corporation) my company 5 years ago, since then every vehicle ive purchased has been in the business name tied to my tax ID number with me as a 3rd person guarantor (doesn't show up in my personal credit that im a guarantor until the company defaults)

My Business American Express/Discover card when i applied didnt require a DUNS number but i had to be a guarantor and just recently I was personally removed as a guarantor from those.

Im really confused now, Has my business been earning credit or not? I literally just signed up for the free DUNS number, did i make a fatal error in the last 5 years never signing up for a DUNS number? I was always under the assumption that a business TAX-ID number acted as a business "social security" of sorts and acted just like a Personal SSN that earned credit.

Thanks! as of now I just place every order from suppliers on the business CC's but i want to start doing Net30 and before i pursue this I want to make sure all my ducks are in order

Having the EIN is the first step. You obviously have that. The problem with building business credit is that it is completely optional for your creditors to supply your information to the credit bureaus and D&B.

Business credit is established in a similar manner your personal credit is established...paying your bills on time, obtaining credit and paying it down as scheduled, being legitimate in their eyes as far as an entity is concerned (this includes not only EIN but proper trade registrations, tax filings, financial statement, business plan, etc), registering your business with the credit bureaus and IMO the big key is obtaining credit SOLELY in the business name with its EIN and not attaching your personal SSN and information to it. If you are established and have the proper financial liquidity and history you should be able to obtain credit solely based on the business' merits, leaving you completely out of the picture.

The true way to separate yourself is, well, to completely separate yourself. The business should be 100% its own identity in the eyes of the government, court system, vendors, licensing agencies and credit bureaus.

You should be able to obtain your current standing in regards to the credit bureaus. Keep in mind that, unlike personal credit, business credit is rated 0 to 100 (higher the better) from D&B so don't be shocked if you come in at say 60 and freak out because you're used to a scale of 300-850.

thanks for the info! I would assume BMW Financial/Nissan Financial/AMEX/Discover would be reporting, I guess i need to pull my credit and find out, I wish it was as easy as pulling your personal credit but they just go by your business name.

I dont know which one to choose, i have a choice from when my business was at my house or the one at my new address in PA

Brendon, why are you interested in building your business credit score?
Are you seeing any benefits beyond just having it?

I have never had any issues getting Net30 or Net45 terms with any of my vendors, but I'm sure it was attached to my personal credit score.

I can see the benefit of separating business from personal (if business goes down, it won't affect your personal score).

Ultimately for small or single person business person I don't see great benefit.

I have a lot more riding on my personal credit score, from house mortgage, car loans, credit card rates, etc., than from a business side.

If it's about a value of a company, for say possible sale sometime down the line, we've had this discussion and the consensus was that unless you have RMR, the value of the company would be close to zero.

Help me see a bigger picture so that I may pursue it as well, if there is value in it. Again, I'm looking at it from a one man shop.

I know my ex-wife ran a dunn report on us during our first year of business. That request got us into the Dunn system at no charge. Then Dunn's contacted us to get our financials and the rest is history. Instant business credit. Granted that was 19 years ago and things may have changed

She worked for a large commercial insurance company that did re-insurance ... Think corporate hertz. Royal Caribbean. Princess cruise. Disney. Etc. that who they insured