Last week we established that in order to build a good Paydex score (business credit score), you need to have at least 3-4 active loans that report to the business credit bureaus.
This week, let’s discuss how you can get those 4 tradelines.
Make sure you register with Duns and Bradstreet
The first step in building business credit is ensuring your business exists. It’s not enough that you and your customers know about your business. You need to make sure Dun and Bradstreet knows about it as well.
Make sure to register at Dun and Bradstreet to get a D-U-N-S Number.
You can register for free here.
Business credit cards
One of the most common tradelines are business credit cards.
The following banks report their business credit card to D&B.
- Capital One
- Citi
- Chase
- US Bank
Getting a business credit card at one of these banks will help you establish a Paydex score.
Business credit builder loans
Another type of tradeline you can get is a business credit builder loan. These are memberships you pay that report the on-time membership payment to the business credit bureaus. Here is an option I checked out.
Price: $49.99 monthly
Number of Tradelines: Two
Reports on: D&B Experian Business, Equifax Business
I saw another option called Creditstrong as well but couldn’t find another one that reports to the D&B, so they are somewhat worthless.
Tier 1 merchants
Our final step would be to get approved for some tier-one merchant accounts.
These are merchants that will approve you for net 30 payment terms and will report your payments to the business credit bureaus.
I would advise you to sign up to all three of them and buy something cheap every few months on payment terms. This will greatly help you achieve a great Paydex score which will result in better business loan terms – which can save you much more than the $50 you spend at one of these merchants.
Here are a few merchants that are easy to get approved for a net 30 loan.
Maverick sells office supplies. They have a lot of stuff that they will allow you to buy on a net 30 plan and report your on-time payment to the business credit bureaus.
You need to make purchases of $80 or more in order for it to report to the business credit bureaus.
Shirtsy sells custom print products and you can easily get approved for a net 30 loan. Make sure to order some promo stuff every so often. Buy it on your net 30 loan and pay it off right away.
Shirtsy has a $99 annual fee.
Uline sells shipping & office supplies. They offer 30-day payment terms and report on-time payments to D&B.
Here is how to do it
- Sign up online for an account.
- Make one order
- and then wait 30 days and call customer service to make another order and request 30 day payment terms
Next week we will continue to discuss further steps on your journey to building business credit. Stay tuned!
0 Comments