How to Check Your Business Credit Score Across All Major Bureaus

To check your business credit score, visit Experian Business, Dun & Bradstreet, or Equifax directly — or use a third-party platform to view all three at once. Checking your own score is a soft inquiry. It will not affect your rating.

What Is a Business Credit Score?

A business credit score measures how reliably your business pays its bills. Lenders, vendors, suppliers, insurance underwriters, and government agencies use it to decide whether — and on what terms — they'll work with your company.

What's often overlooked: business credit scores can be accessed by anyone without your permission. A supplier, a bank, or a prospective partner can pull your business credit report without notifying you. That alone makes monitoring it worth doing.

Business Credit vs. Personal Credit

Good personal credit does not automatically carry over to your business. They are tracked separately, by different bureaus, using entirely different models.

In practice, many business owners are surprised to find their business has no score at all — even after years of operation — simply because they never opened accounts that report to business credit bureaus.

Which Bureaus Produce Business Credit Scores?

Three major bureaus issue business credit scores: Dun & Bradstreet, Experian Business, and Equifax Business. FICO also produces a blended score — the FICO Small Business Scoring Service (SBSS) — that combines personal and business credit data.

Scores are not standardized across bureaus. A 75 from Experian and a 75 from D&B do not mean the same thing. You cannot compare them directly.

Experian Intelliscore Plus

Range: 1–100. Higher is better. Over 800 variables are factored in — tradelines, collections, public filings, new account activity, and key financial ratios. Scores above 75 are generally considered low risk.

D&B PAYDEX Score

Range: 1–100. This score is specifically about payment timing. As noted on the PAYDEX Wikipedia reference page, the score is calculated based on a single factor: whether a business pays its suppliers either "as agreed" or "better than agreed."

Paying on time earns a score of 80. Reaching 100 requires paying early — not just by the due date, but ahead of it. You also need at least three open tradelines with vendors that report to D&B before a PAYDEX score is generated at all.

Equifax Business Credit Score

Equifax produces multiple business scores focused on payment delinquency risk and financial failure probability. Lenders often use Equifax business data alongside scores from other bureaus when reviewing applications.

FICO SBSS Score

Range: 0–300. This blended score was previously used by SBA lenders to pre-screen small business loan applications up to $350,000. As of March 1, 2026, the SBA eliminated the SBSS scoring requirement for its 7(a) Small Loan program.

Some lenders may still use their own internal versions of this score independently. When in use, the SBA's minimum passing threshold was 165.

What Is a Good Business Credit Score?

These are general industry benchmarks. Individual lenders set their own minimums, and some use multiple bureau scores together rather than relying on just one.

What Affects Your Business Credit Score?

• Payment history — the most heavily weighted factor across all bureaus; even one consistently late account can drag a score down
• Age of credit history — longer, established relationships score better than newer ones
• Debt and credit utilization — maxing out lines hurts even when payments are current
• Public records — liens, judgments, and bankruptcies factor directly into scores at every major bureau
• Industry risk — some industries (construction, hospitality, retail) carry higher default risk profiles in bureau models; this is factored in automatically and cannot be changed
• Company size and firmographics — revenue, number of employees, and years in business all play a role

How to Check Your Business Credit Score

Option 1 — Go directly to each bureau:

• Experian Business — experian.com/business
• Dun & Bradstreet — dnb.com (CreditSignal offers free monitoring; full reports are paid)
• Equifax Business — equifax.com/business

Option 2 — Use an aggregator platform: Third-party platforms let you view summaries from multiple bureaus side by side. Some banks also provide free score access to their clients — Bank of America's Business Advantage 360, for instance, offers free D&B scores to enrolled business banking clients.

Free vs. Paid: What You Actually Get

According to CNBC Select's guide to free business credit scores, a basic Dun & Bradstreet Credit Insights subscription starts at $49 per month, while Experian's one-time CreditScore Report costs $39.95 — useful context when deciding whether free summaries are enough or a full paid report makes sense.

In practice, free summaries are enough for general awareness. Before applying for any financing, a full paid report is worth the cost — you want to see exactly what lenders are looking at.

How to Check Another Business's Credit Score

This is a common use case that rarely gets explained. Businesses regularly check the credit of vendors, clients, and potential partners before entering contracts or extending trade credit.

The process mirrors checking your own — search by business name or DUNS number at any major bureau portal. No consent is needed. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) recognizes that commercial credit data is treated as publicly accessible business information, which is why the consent rules that govern personal credit do not apply here.

Building a Business Credit Score from Scratch

If your business is new, you may have no score at all. Start here:

1. Get an EIN from the IRS — this separates your business identity from your personal SSN and is the foundation for business credit
2. Register for a DUNS number — free through Dun & Bradstreet, required for many government contracts, and the starting point for D&B scoring
3. Open accounts with vendors that report to bureaus — not all vendors do; prioritize those that do
4. Build at least three open tradelines — the minimum required to generate a PAYDEX score
5. Pay on time, or early — on-time earns an 80; early payment is the only path to a perfect PAYDEX score of 100

Most businesses find it takes 6–12 months of consistent reporting activity before scores stabilize enough to matter to lenders. Rushing this process rarely works — the bureaus need a real track record to score, not just account openings.

Disputing Errors on Your Business Credit Report

Errors are more common than most people expect. Outdated data, misreported payment dates, and business identity theft can all appear on a business credit report without any warning. If something looks wrong, contact the relevant bureau directly with documentation.

The SBA recommends reviewing your business credit report at least three months before applying for financing. That window gives you enough time to identify problems, file disputes, and confirm corrections before a lender pulls your report.

Conclusion

Check your business credit score through Experian, D&B, or Equifax — directly or via an aggregator. Understand what each score means, monitor regularly, and pull a full report before any major financing decision. Business credit is visible to anyone. Know what they see.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does checking my own business credit score hurt it?

No. Checking your own score is a soft inquiry at all major bureaus and has no effect on your score — you can check as often as needed.

How long does it take to build a business credit score?

Most businesses need 6–12 months of consistent payment activity and at least three bureau-reporting tradelines before a score is meaningful to lenders.

Can someone check my business credit score without telling me?

Yes. Business credit reports are publicly accessible commercial data. No owner consent is required — unlike personal credit reports.

Which business credit score do lenders use most?

Banks may rely on Experian, Equifax, or a combination of scores. It varies by lender and loan type. The FICO SBSS, previously used for SBA pre-screening, was discontinued for that purpose in March 2026.

What if my business has no credit score yet?

Get an EIN and a DUNS number, open accounts with vendors that report to bureaus, and pay consistently. Expect 6–12 months before scores are useful to lenders.