Glossary · underwriting

Experian Business

Also called Experian Business Information Services, Experian commercial report, Intelliscore.

One of the three commercial credit bureaus, holding a file on your business keyed to its name, address and identifiers, compiled and scored whether or not you ever asked for it.

Drafted with AI assistance. Not yet independently checked. Nobody has verified the claims on this page against a source, so treat the figures and legal points as a starting point rather than as settled, and confirm anything you are about to act on. How we check things.

What it means

The file is built from data the bureau buys, collects and receives: trade payment experiences reported by suppliers and lenders, collections placements, public records such as liens, judgments and bankruptcies, UCC filings, and firmographic detail about the entity. You do not open it and you cannot close it.

Scoring sits on top of the file. The bureau publishes a commercial risk score — marketed as Intelliscore Plus — and a separate financial stability measure, alongside a payment-behaviour indicator. Scales and model versions change over time, so read the legend on the report you are actually holding rather than a scale quoted in an article.

Practical points that differ from consumer credit

Access.Anyone with a permissible business purpose can generally buy a commercial report on your company. There is no consumer-style restriction, and no requirement that you be told.
Rights.Federal consumer credit rights under the Fair Credit Reporting Act attach to consumer reports. A pure commercial report on the entity is generally outside that framework, so dispute and notice mechanics are the bureau's own process rather than statutory ones. Where a blended report also pulls the owner's personal file, the consumer part carries consumer protections.
Adverse action.Business credit applicants are covered by the Equal Credit Opportunity Act and Regulation B, but the notification requirements differ from the consumer rules and vary with the applicant's size. See 12 CFR 1002.9 for the current text.

Matching problems

Files are matched on name and address. A business that has moved, changed entity type, uses a DBA, or shares a name with an unrelated company can end up with a split file, a merged file, or somebody else's public record attached.

Where this one catches people

Errors on a commercial file are common and the correction path is not a statutory one, so it moves at the bureau's pace and depends on the quality of the documentation you send. Pull your own report before you start an application, not after a decline — finding a stranger's judgment or a released lien still showing open takes weeks to fix, and no funder will wait.

The other thing worth knowing is where this file does not matter. A short-term advance underwritten from bank statements is decided on deposits, negative days, existing positions and the owner's personal score. A pristine commercial file will not improve that offer, and money spent on services promising to improve it is money spent on the wrong problem.

Where you will meet this term

Term Loan Business Line of Credit SBA Loan Business Credit Cards

Read next

Business CreditCredit established in the business's own name and reported under its own identifiers, built from supplier and… Business credit scoreA score describing a business entity's payment and credit behavior, kept separately from the owner's personal… Credit pullA request for your credit file, either a soft inquiry that does not affect scores or a hard inquiry that does… CreditworthinessA funder's overall judgment of whether it will be repaid, assembled from cash flow, credit history, collatera… Dun & Bradstreet (D&B)A commercial credit bureau that identifies businesses by DUNS number and scores their trade payment behavior,… FICO SBSS (SBSS)FICO's Small Business Scoring Service score, combining the owner's personal credit, business credit data and … Trade LineA single credit relationship as it appears on a credit file — who extended credit, how much, on what terms an… UCC searchA search of state filing records against a debtor's exact legal name to find existing financing statements, r…

Experian Business — common questions

What does experian business mean?

One of the three commercial credit bureaus, holding a file on your business keyed to its name, address and identifiers, compiled and scored whether or not you ever asked for it.

Where does experian business catch people out?

Errors on a commercial file are common and the correction path is not a statutory one, so it moves at the bureau's pace and depends on the quality of the documentation you send. Pull your own report before you start an application, not after a decline — finding a stranger's judgment or a released lien still showing open takes weeks to fix, and no funder will wait.

Is experian business the same as an interest rate?

Experian Business is defined above; if you are comparing it against a rate, check whether the two measures share a time dimension before you put them side by side.

Which products does experian business apply to?

Term Loan, Business Line of Credit, SBA Loan, Business Credit Cards.

Is there a worked example of experian business?

Not on this entry. Where a term is arithmetic, the arithmetic is shown; this one is not primarily a calculation.

What else should I read alongside experian business?

Business Credit, Business credit score, Credit pull, Creditworthiness, Dun & Bradstreet.

Has this definition been checked?

Not yet. This entry is drafted and live, and the notice at the top says so. Confirm anything you are about to act on.

Is this legal advice?

No. It is a definition. What a clause does in your contract, in your state, is a question for a lawyer licensed where you are.

Can I suggest a term?

Yes — [email protected]. The glossary grows from what people are actually shown in contracts.