Business credit tools, laid one course at a time
Write-ups on the tools a business uses to build credit in its own name — cards that report to the business bureaus, net-30 vendor accounts, and the services that hold and monitor the file. Reasoning on the page, nothing scored.
The wall is going up now. The courses below say what is set, what is not, and what the next stones are.
What is indexed so farAn open joint, stated plainly
Nothing is published here yet. There are no articles behind this page, so there is nothing on it standing in for them.
What is set
The domain, the shell you are reading, and the subject below it. That is the whole of the wall today.
What is not
No reviews, no comparisons, no guides. Nothing has been tested here, so nothing here says it was — and no number stands in for the work.
Where the next stones go
The ground this site is being built on, set out so you can tell whether it is worth coming back to.
Business credit cards that report
Which cards report to the business bureaus rather than only to your personal file, what they ask for at application, and where the line between the two files actually sits.
Net-30 vendor accounts
Trade accounts that report payment history, what a net-30 term commits a business to, and which of them report anywhere a lender will look.
Monitoring the business file
Dun & Bradstreet, Experian Business and Equifax Business keep separate records. What each one holds, how to see yours, and what it costs to watch it.
Building credit in the business name
EIN, entity registration, a business bank account, a first vendor line — the order these have to happen in before a business file exists at all.
More is marked out than is laid. The rest of this course goes up as the write-ups are finished.
What keeps a course level
Worth setting down before there is anything to read, because it is what the writing gets held to.
Ranked in words, never in numbers
Where one tool suits a job better, the write-up says so and says why. No scores, no stars, no tier boards — a course of brick is a sequence, not a league table.
Claims stop at what was done
If a tool has not been opened, the write-up says what it is based on instead. Nothing here will describe testing that did not happen.
A credit file is a record, not a grade
Business credit is a file held by a bureau. Any number you read here will be a fee, a term or a reporting window — never a verdict on a business.
Affiliate links are disclosed
Some links may earn a commission. That does not decide what gets written or the order it appears in, and it is stated on every page it applies to.
What every write-up will carry
Six things, in this order, on every page — so two tools can be read against each other without a number in sight.
Who it is for
The kind of business the tool suits, named in the opening lines.
What it reports
Which bureaus see the account, and on what schedule.
What it costs
The fee, the term, and what changes at renewal.
What it asks of you
Personal guarantee, credit pull, time in business, revenue floor.
Where it is weak
The part a pricing page leaves out.
What it is not
The jobs to use something else for.