Duns and Bradstreet Business Credit Report

[kalvix]

Duns and Bradstreet has been calling our company for the past 4 week like clockwork trying to sell us a package to improve our Business Credit Report.

Dnbi Creditbuilder program provides you with a detailed breakdown of the activity, alerts of changes and inquiries, and lastly, provide you with a form to submit some of your top trade references so that we can get your scores to be reflective. Again, we want to make sure your report and scores are updated currently your credit profile is incomplete. Enclosed are attachments that will give you a description of what the program entails for $2,498 + activation fee $149=$2,647.

Has anyone done this and is it worth doing? will it help in securing a loan and getting lower interest rates? They are saying "it will pay for it self when customers check us out and use our services because we have a credit builder.

Any thoughts?

Thanks
K1

 

[Dennis422]

It is a legit business but they tend to be a bit too pushy for my taste.
They tried the same thing few years back and I did not do anything.
First it was, sign in and fix it yourself for free, but of course that was a nightmare to do and as soon as you contact someone, they try to slam you with something that you need to pay for.

I politely declined and never looked back.
If I get bigger, maybe, but for a small shop it might be an overkill.

 

[fresh]

SAME HERE!
I talked to my accountant, and they said its a scam and D & B credit report is worthless. So maybe not a scam, but nobody cares about your D & B report, its kinda like the Better Business Buereau, you only get a good rating if you PAY them. And they only report what you tell them, so of course you aren't going to say "yeah, I typically pay my utilities 3 months late, and i have significant A/P." Tell them to take you off their call list, and remind them you are on the do not call list.

 

[SightLine]

DNB in an of itself is far from a scam and is actually very important for certain businesses.

If your company is of any size and you ever plan on doing business with the Federal Government or many many large organizations then first having a DNB number is not optional, it is mandatory (for federal contracts). It is indeed a good idea to have a DNB number and to use their free tools to update your record and keep it updated. Some distributors report your account history to DNB as well, and many big corporations and government check your company credit through DNB.

Their paid stuff though, I've looked at it and they call a couple times a year trying to get us to pay for their premium stuff but I never have.

 

[Signsforwhile]

Once we started looking for larger work and applying to corporate vendor programs we found that having a DUNs number is invaluable.

 

[synergy_jim]

legalized extortion. we have never had one and refuse to pay them. If I have a six figure contract riding on it someday, maybe I'll give in....

 

[Mosh]

As Akabar would say "Its a TRAP"....My uncle who is a contractor got sucked into them.

 

[letterman7]

For the small shop and sole proprietors, I have to agree with Jim. While I've had some companies check my DUNS for credit, I've never had to pay D&S for anything - and refuse to. Why should I pay to see my own damn rating?

 

[Techman]

I have never ever been asked for a D & B number.
I have never needed one.
I never paid for one. NADA ever.
Did many orders for work from gov agencies.
Never was asked to get one for a lease.
Been in business for decades and never once was refused a loan for a credit card for not having a number..

 

[SightLine]

You have never done a larger contract with the Department of Defense or any other larger Federal contract. (smaller stuff under a few k local agencies can just deal with) If it is a larger contract that requires bidding then you must be registered in (SAM) CCR at sam.gov - a DNB number is not optional. It is a mandatory requirement. You will also need it to get setup in WAWF which is the federal invoicing system.

No one has ever been charged or paid for a DNB number. Ever. Unless they were being scammed by a third party. It has always been free to get a DNB number. It has always been free to update your basic company information in the DNB system. They have paid crap which is similar to a credit monitoring service. Their paid crap is not required and never has been.

Nothing that was very big or required going through the standard competitive bidding processes obviously. Being in CCR (Center Contractor Registration, now SAM) has been a requirement for many many years and a DNB number has also been a requirement for many years. Almost all 5, 6, and 7+ figure projects require competitive bidding processes.

I doubt many have. It is often asked for on credit applications (never seen it on a credit card application) but it generally not a mandatory requirement.

I have never ever been asked for a D & B number.
I have never needed one.
I never paid for one. NADA ever.
Did many orders for work from gov agencies.
Never was asked to get one for a lease.
Been in business for decades and never once was refused a loan for a credit card for not having a number..

 

[kalvix]

DNB Number vs the paid credit report

Yeah, we do a respectable amount of busienss for the federal and state governments and have had to use and provide the DNB number for that purpose, but the paid stuff was what i was asking about. We are going for a 500k loan on a building and i asked the banks about it they said it is nearly worthless and even if we had perfect score we would still have to personally guarantee the loan. The banks will protect themselves the way the need to, and unless one is a fortune 500 company with issued bonds i'm not sure how i wouldn't have to personally guarantee it.

How about vendors, i can't imaging that fellers, sign warehouse, Grimco, and others spend dedicated employee time to record and account monthly to DNB to help my score and every other company out there as well.