Company Reports As Part Of International Business Practices

As part of the new CARD (the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure) Act of 2009, credit check agencies advertising free company reports are now required to clearly disclose that what's being marketed isn't the free credit report you're entitled to receive by law.

Consumers are provided with one free credit report a year from each of the major reporting agencies: Equifax, Experian and Transunion. Yet other sites claiming to offer free credit reports often come with strings attached. They aren’t part of the government mandate and may charge you for unwanted services such as credit monitoring products once you sign up for a free credit report.

There were received more than 1,000 complaints from consumers who signed up for free company reports with many of them having no idea they were paying for an additional service until the charges showed up on their credit card bills.

As a result of the new disclosure laws, most credit check companies are moving away from offering free credit reports and are instead advertising free trials, free scores or inexpensive but not free credit reports.

Benefits of credit reports for businesses

Credit report companies provide unlimited search and download of company reports from databases of 12 million businesses, 200 million consumers and homeowners as well as hundreds of other unique databases. With this service you can reach new businesses with real time downloading and unlimited search.

Subscribers are able to get detailed information on any business, such as:

• employee size

• estimated sales volume

• year established

• key executive

• potential credit capacity, etc.

The service enables businesses of all kinds to review the information that is being used by lenders to evaluate their loan and credit line applications: cash credit, overdraft facilities, loans of all maturities, bank guarantees, letters of credit, packing credit, deferred payment obligations, forward contracts and other debt exposure that a company has incurred. Although company reports are widely used by lenders like banks and non-banking financial institutions to evaluate the ability of companies to bear additional debt, their availability to business entities results in improved increase in transparency, increases the chances of their loan approval and provides an opportunity to detect and correct any discrepancies in it.

Credit reporting is an integral part of business practices in the UK. It encompasses not just the credit reporting agencies themselves but also the legal and regulatory environment in which they operate. It also encompasses the cultural context in which credit transactions and information sharing take place.