Looked at your personal or business credit lately? Can you say that everything on them is being reported accurately? A successful businessperson knows that it is vital to have the habit of checking their credit history.
Its not difficult. Financial institutions look at your credit record when you try to obtain funds for your business, such as applying for a line of credit. If youve not made an ongoing effort to be sure your credit is being reported accurately, and negative items show up on the reports, then these lenders will view you as being unable to manage your debts well and may just decide not to trust you with their money or their leased equipment. The best method to be sure this doesnt happen is to check your credit reports regularly and be sure that everything is accurate.
Here is what you should be watching for:
1. Items that should not be there. Obviously you want to be sure two things aren't on your report. Number 1 is any item youve cleared up previously, and number 2 is any item that never should have been there to begin with. Suppose you had a negative mark previously on your credit report. Youve been working to clear it up and are keeping the paperwork showing the effort you made to correct this problem. Without this documentation you would not be able to fight this bad mark when it reappears. All credit reporting agencies are known to have a high rate of errors. There easily can be items on your report that are not yours, but were somehow put on it in error. The sooner you are aware of them, the sooner you can have them deleted. 2. Anything that should be there. If you have built up positive credit because of paid off loans or other large debts being in good standing, then you definitely want these to appear on your record. Its very important that your credit history includes these on-time, paid debts because when lending institutions or vendors are considering extending you a business line of credit, theyre going to evaluate your creditworthiness by the amount of current, unpaid outstanding debt as well as previous paid debt. 3. Your history is showing. With ID theft running so rampant these days, its not just individual people who have to keep an eye on their credit history in their reports. An ID thief can just as easily steal the financial data from your business and begin a shopping spree under your businesss name. Regularly verify that all the items on your credit reports belong to your business " whether or not it is positive or negative. Review your credit to be sure the entire activity showing as well as the accounts showing belong to your company. Don't hesitate to call on anything suspicious. You may not recognize something, but it is way better to ask than to risk a bad situation occurring.