Business credit scores in the UK: how they work, how to check yours and how to improve it

A limited company's business credit score is a number, usually 0 to 100 at Experian, calculated by a credit reference agency from your filed accounts, payment record, public records such as CCJs and how often you apply for credit. A higher number means lower risk. Each agency runs its own model, so you have several scores rather than one. Lenders treat them as one input alongside their own criteria and, for most small companies, the directors' personal credit.

Most business owners never look. Almost two-thirds have never checked their score, and nearly 90% say they do not know what goes into it. They tend to find out when a business loan is declined, which is the worst moment to learn it.

Key Takeaways

Who produces business credit scores in the UK

A credit reference agency (CRA) collects and maintains data on how individuals and businesses use credit, then runs models to estimate the risk of missed payments, default and insolvency. The business-focused agencies are independent of lenders. The credit reference agencies that matter most are:

• Experian and Equifax, which also deal with personal credit.
• Creditsafe and Dun & Bradstreet (D&B), which are focused on business credit and are heavily used for trade credit.

Banks and commercial lenders frequently use Experian and Equifax. Suppliers and trade credit providers often use Creditsafe and D&B. Larger firms trading globally tend to favour D&B because of its global database.

The agencies are fed from several places: public records, Companies House filings, payment data reported by lenders and suppliers, and bank data. Under Commercial Credit Data Sharing, designated banks are required to share the credit information they hold on their SME customers with the agencies. The aim was more competition and fairer access to business finance, and it means the agencies now see more of your day-to-day banking than they used to.

The scales are not interchangeable:

Agency	How it scores	Free access	Paid access (as at September 2026)
Experian	0 to 100; 0 is high risk, 100 is low risk. Its Commercial Delphi Score predicts the chance of failing to meet debt obligations within 12 months	Free trial of My Business Profile (currently two months)	£24.99 + VAT per month after the trial
Equifax	Its own scales, not 0 to 100	Basic information, and a business statutory credit report for your own company	Full reports are quote-priced
Creditsafe	0 to 100, rating the chance of insolvency within 12 months. A company with too little data is shown as 0 (not rated)	Your own score and report via its My Company portal	Subscription for wider tools, bespoke quote after a free trial
Dun & Bradstreet	Several models, each scored 1 to 100: PAYDEX (payment performance), Failure Score (12-month failure risk), Delinquency Predictor (likelihood of being late or unreliable)	Free tier: basic risk overview, change notifications, trade payment summaries	Premium tiers from £245 a year

Because each agency holds slightly different data and weighs it differently, your risk score can rise at one agency and not at another. That is normal and not a sign of an error.

How a business credit score is calculated

Each agency's model is a statistically derived algorithm built to measure credit risk from several factors. The exact weights are not published, but the inputs are consistent. When people ask how a credit score is calculated for a company, these are the answers.

Filed accounts. Company accounts are the biggest single contributor to a score. Filing full accounts rather than abridged, filleted or micro-entity accounts gives the agencies more to work with, and less information tends to mean a lower score or a lower suggested credit limit. Filing on time and in a consistent format matters too, as do confirmation statements. Late filing is visible on the public record and reads as financial stress.

Accounts also lag. A smaller company's score typically updates when an event such as filed accounts occurs, and by then the numbers may be months old. A business that has improved since its year-end can be sitting on a score that does not show it. There is a fix for that, covered below.

Payment history. Whether you pay suppliers, lenders, utilities and other creditors on time is the factor most often named as the heaviest. A single missed payment can lower a score, and a long run of on-time payments builds it slowly. It covers invoices and other creditors, not only loan repayments. Bounced or rejected payments count against you.

Public records. CCJs, High Court judgments and insolvency proceedings are the serious negatives. They are covered in their own section below.

Credit applications. Each formal application leaves a hard search on your file, and several in a short period can suggest you are struggling to get funded. A hard search stays visible for about a year. This is the most common thing that can affect your credit score without any change in how the business is actually performing.

Debt and utilisation. The amount of credit you are using against your limits matters, and a high utilisation ratio can signal strain even when every payment is on time.

Age, size and sector. The age and size of the company, how long it has held credit, and the risk of its industry all feed in. This is why the correct SIC code on your record matters: the wrong one can produce a wrong assessment of your sector's risk. A new business has the opposite problem. It starts with no score at all, because the agencies need trading activity, filed accounts or credit applications to generate one.

Directors and registered details. An out-of-date registered office address or director details on the public register can create inconsistencies in your business credit profile. Directors also matter through the personal side of the file, covered below.

Experian credit score bands and what counts as good

Your Experian credit score uses Commercial Delphi bands, the most widely quoted:

Score	Risk level
91 to 100	Very low
81 to 90	Low
51 to 80	Below average
26 to 50	Above average
25 and below	High to maximum

A score above 80 is generally treated as strong. In the middle of the range you should expect lenders and suppliers to ask for more information. Lower down, expect higher interest rates, lower limits, requests for personal guarantees, or suppliers asking for payment upfront.

Is 550 a bad credit score in the UK? A figure like that means nothing until you know whose scale it is on. Experian's business scale stops at 100, so 550 cannot be an Experian business score, and other agencies use entirely different ranges. Always read the number against the band table of the agency that produced it.

Do not treat a band as a pass mark either. An agency score is a benchmark, not a lending threshold. Each lender has its own risk appetite and its own model, and also looks at trading history, turnover, cash flow and sector. A company can score reasonably and still be declined on affordability, and a modest score can be funded by a lender that prices for it.

What makes a business credit score important to lenders

When you apply for a business loan, an overdraft or asset finance, the lender will usually run a check on the company and build a picture from the agencies' data and your financial history. The score affects how much you can borrow, the interest rate and whether you are approved at all.

It matters beyond lenders. Trade credit providers use the same data to decide whether to supply on terms. Customers, suppliers and other companies can generally view a company's score, so it can come into play when you negotiate contracts or tenders, or look for insurance. A low credit rating can mean suppliers ask for payment upfront rather than offering terms, and a strong one can mean longer payment terms and more room to negotiate. Because trade credit lets you hold cash for longer, the score has a direct effect on cash flow, not only on borrowing costs.

How do I check my business credit score in the UK?

The process is similar at every agency:

1. Choose an agency, or a platform that is built on one. Experian, Equifax, Creditsafe and D&B all offer access.
2. Enter your registered company name, Companies House number, registered office address and, at some providers, your Unique Tax Reference and trading history. Errors here can produce a wrong or incomplete report.
3. Verify your identity and your authority over the company. At Experian this means registering as a current director through Experian Business Express.
4. Read the score, then the report behind it. The score is the headline; the report shows the payment behaviour, filings and public records that produced it.

That is also the answer to how you get your small business credit score: it is the same route, whatever your size. A company with too little data may show as not rated, particularly at Creditsafe, where an unrated company shows 0.

Checking your business credit: free and paid routes

Can I check a company credit score for free? For your own company, yes, at several agencies. You can see your business credit score for free at Creditsafe through its My Company portal, which shows your own score and report after verification. Equifax offers basic information free and a business statutory credit report for your own company. D&B has a free tier with a basic overview and change notifications, and Experian offers a free trial. Some platforms built on an agency's data also offer a free basic score. Free access is limited: it gives you a feel for your position, not the detail behind it.

If you want to check your business credit score for free before committing to a subscription, start with one of those. Paid products add detail, monitoring and alerts:

• Experian My Business Profile: £24.99 + VAT per month, which is £299.88 + VAT over twelve months.
• D&B Credit Insights: from £245 + VAT a year, adding failure score, D&B rating, PAYDEX and maximum credit recommendation.
• Equifax full reports: priced by quote.

For most owners, a free look at one or two agencies is enough to start. Pay for monitoring only when you are preparing an application or actively repairing a score, and diarise the trial end so it does not roll into a subscription.

Does checking affect your credit score? No. Checking your own score is a soft search. It is not visible to future lenders and suppliers. The searches that can hurt are the hard ones a lender runs on a formal application.

How often? Every few months, and before any application. That is frequent enough to catch an error or an unexpected drop. If you find a mistake, contact the agency and have supporting documents ready.

If the score looks out of date. Experian's Score Review Service lets you provide current financial information so your report is reviewed, and 96% of reviews result in a positive uplift. Use it when the company has traded better since its last filed accounts.

What your business credit report shows

The score is a single number. The business credit report is the document behind it, and it is the part worth reading closely. A report generally includes:

• The registered name and contact details.
• The score itself, with the record behind it.
• Payment habits and history.
• Public records, including legal claims.
• Business financials such as revenue, expenses and overall financial status.
• Trade references and suppliers.
• Industry information and a risk assessment.

Use it to confirm the data is right and to see what is affecting your score. Wrong addresses, payments marked late by mistake and entries that should have dropped off are all worth chasing. Companies do not have the same statutory protections against false credit reporting that individuals have, so the checking is down to you.

Company credit checks on customers and suppliers

A company credit check works in both directions. Business scores can be viewed by other companies, and you can look up theirs. Before you give a new customer thirty days' terms, a company credit check can show whether they pay on time or are drifting towards trouble. Monitoring key suppliers and customers also warns you early, since their difficulties can become yours.

Experian Business Express lets you run credit checks on and monitor any company you work with. Equifax charges for third-party company reports on customers and suppliers, and one-off reports are likely to be between £25 and £50 each, though prices are quoted rather than published. D&B's free tier gives trade payment summaries. If the customer is large enough to matter, the fee is cheap next to a bad debt.

How lenders assess credit risk alongside the directors' personal credit

The lender's job is to price credit risk, and the company's score is only part of it. The personal side depends on what you are and how established the company is.

• Newer companies. If the company has little or no credit history, lenders may look at the owners' personal credit histories instead. Where a small business has fewer than three directors, some lenders may consider both personal and business scores, particularly when there is little business history.
• Personal guarantees. A limited company has its own score, but lenders may still ask for a personal guarantee, especially when the company is new. Where a guarantee or collateral in the director's name, such as a home, is involved, expect the director's personal report to be reviewed.
• Established companies. For an established limited company, your personal credit score does not directly change the company's score. The company builds its own history.

In practice that means the directors' personal files are part of the application until the company can stand on its own record. Keep them tidy. If you take money out of the company informally, see our note on an overdrawn director's loan account, because it is the kind of mixing of personal and company money that lenders read poorly.

One more point for the owner of a new business: using a personal credit card or personal loan for company spending records the repayments on your personal report only. It builds nothing on the business file. Use business finance and a business bank account to build the company's own record.

CCJs and how they are dealt with

A County Court Judgment or High Court judgment is among the most damaging entries on a business file. It makes finance or supplier credit very difficult to get. It is likely to harm business and personal credit ratings, and the personal damage depends on the terms of the credit taken out. A CCJ stays on the record for six years.

Most CCJs start with a chased payment that went unanswered, so the best protection is commercial rather than technical:

• Pay invoices and loans within terms. Late or missed payments can lead to CCJs or insolvency proceedings.
• Do not ignore a formal letter before action. Resolving the debt through a settled payment plan is far better for your score than a CCJ.
• Talk to suppliers early if cash is tight. Creditors are more flexible before a payment is overdue than after.

The rules and process for dealing with a judgment already registered are set out on GOV.UK, and the details depend on your circumstances. Check them there, and ask the agency to update the report once a judgment has been dealt with. Debts that have gone to collections also appear on the business report and weigh heavily on the rating.

Sole traders compared with limited companies

	Sole trader or partnership	Limited company
Own business credit score	No separate company credit score; personal and business finances are not separate	Yes, a score separate from the directors' personal files
What the lender checks	The individual's personal credit; in a partnership, each partner's	The company's score, plus often the directors' personal credit and a possible personal guarantee
Accounts on the public record	Not filed at Companies House	Filed at Companies House and a major input to the score
Building a record	Keep business and personal finances apart, so the file is clean	Build the company's own history with business finance

A sole trader checking their position should look at their personal file at Equifax, Experian or TransUnion. A limited company should check the company file first and the directors' files second.

Ways to improve your business credit score

There are no guaranteed ways to improve your business credit score quickly, and nothing here works overnight. Consistent habits show up over months. Some changes show within a few months; a damaged record takes longer, because negative events matter less as they age. These are the practical ways to improve your business credit profile:

1. File full accounts on time. Companies House filing, and your Company Tax Return and tax deadlines, feed the score. Choose full accounts over abridged or micro-entity accounts where you can.
2. Pay everything on time. Use direct debits and diarise supplier terms. Average late payment among small businesses is 8.2 days past due, so paying within terms puts you ahead of the typical pattern.
3. Keep utilisation low. Aim to use no more than 30% of your limits. On a £10,000 limit that means keeping the balance below £3,000.
4. Apply for credit sparingly. Ask for a quote or use an eligibility checker, which runs a soft search, before a formal application. Space applications at least three to six months apart where you can.
5. Use the business bank account regularly. It demonstrates turnover over a long period. Keep enough money or an approved overdraft limit to cover payments due, and close dormant accounts.
6. Update your details everywhere. When your registered office address or other details change, tell Companies House, HMRC, suppliers and customers promptly. Make sure the SIC code is correct.
7. Ask suppliers to report your payments. If you pay well, ask suppliers to share payment data with the agencies so the record shows it.
8. Check the report and correct errors. Dispute wrong entries with the agency and the organisation that posted them.
9. Use the review service if your accounts are stale. The Score Review Service lets you supply current figures.
10. Keep personal and business money separate. Lenders read a blurred line badly, and it makes tax simpler.

The same list answers the question of what is affecting your score: late payment, searches, stale or abridged filings and public records are the usual causes of a drop. A good test is to run through those four before assuming anything more exotic is wrong.

Can you get a business loan with a bad credit score?

Yes, but on worse terms. A business loan with poor credit is possible, but lenders may see you as higher risk and decline the application. Specialist lenders will lend to weaker files, usually at higher interest rates and on stricter terms: shorter repayment periods, security, and smaller amounts. Secured lending, where you offer property or equipment, lowers the lender's risk, but you can lose the asset if you do not keep up repayments.

Other routes to know about:

• Community Development Finance Institutions are non-profit lenders that take a relationship-based approach.
• Start Up Loans offers personal loans of £500 to £25,000 at 7.5% for new businesses, plus a year of free mentoring.
• Leasing and hire purchase, used for equipment, machinery and vehicles, still involves a credit check, but 94% of applications are successful.
• Government-backed lending such as the Growth Guarantee Scheme is worth understanding if security is what is missing.

Whatever the route, expect to pay more for weaker credit, and get the all-in cost in writing before you compare offers.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does checking my business credit score affect it? No. Looking at your own score is a soft search and is not seen by future lenders. Hard searches from formal applications are the ones to space out.

Do I have one business credit score? No. Each agency uses its own data and model, so you will have several scores that differ. Look at more than one if you are preparing for a significant application.

Does my personal credit score affect my company's score? Not directly, for an established limited company. But a lender can look at the directors' personal files, particularly for a new company or where a personal guarantee is requested.

Can I check another company's score? Yes. Business scores can be viewed by customers, suppliers and other companies through the agencies, which is useful before agreeing credit terms.

How long does it take to improve a score? There is no fixed timeline. Consistent on-time payment and careful credit use can show results within a few months, but a damaged record fades slowly.

If a decline or a personal guarantee request is what sent you here, Deplexifi can look at the file with you before a second application goes in.

Treating one agency's number as the lender's verdict. Each agency scores differently and each lender applies its own criteria, often with a look at the directors' personal credit as well.

Nothing here is regulated financial advice. Deplexifi arranges commercial finance for businesses — this article describes general lending practice and the published position of the sources listed below, not a recommendation for any individual business.