Computers seem to run the world of corporate credit

28 Oktober 2009

Some small business owners believe that computers have taken over the world, and in some fashion that is actually true. Computers now play a vital role in making corporate credit decisions for banks and other creditors through fancy computer software programs that track and rate credit worthiness of businesses everywhere. If you business scores badly, you don’t get a loan or are forced into bad rates. It’s important for business owners to know how this system operates.

1. Credit scoring uses computer software to grade credit worthiness. It speeds up loan application processing, cuts cost and helps them adjust rates as needed. It also makes the whole thing less opinionated.

2. Credit scoring uses a system to predict if borrowers will pay back their loans thru checks of up to 20 factors that study their credit worthiness.

3. A lot of lenders and rental companies use credit scoring for business credit actions under $100,000, while 90 percent of lenders use it on transactions lower than $ 50,000.

4. Fair Isaac and Company, a leading credit scoring service, studied statistical credit modeling during the 1980s. These studies showed that if a business owner had good personal credit, then they would probably follow the same pattern in their corporate credit dealings.

5. The Fair Isaac scoring model makes judgments of business credit scores ranging from 50 to 350. Lenders say that above 220 is good, while below 175 is bad.

6. The superseding factor in corporate credit scoring is the credit worthiness of the business owners or the main principals. It also uses other factors related to the owner or principals.

7. Business-linked credit factors used are: time in operation, size, form of organization, bill paying history, net worth, bank balances, debt to income ratio, and if they had any judgments or bankruptcies against the company.

8. Quite a few big creditors made up their own way of predicting corporate credit behaviors. Some are based on the Fair Isaac model.

9. If your business fails to be approved firm due to credit based on a scoring model, get the creditor to explain why. They might even reconsider your application.

10. A few creditors put together special groups for businesses at high risk. The bad news is they charge them higher rates and ask for more incentives before giving them credit.

11. Here are 10 methods to improve business credit scores:
* Improve your company and the owner and principals’ credit
* Pay your taxes
* Settle existing liens and judgments
* Pay debt when due
* Get rid of supplier disputes
* Put up for sale or factor accounts receivable to get better flow of cash
* Create your company’s credit history by registering it at the Secretary of State where it is included
* Attempt to make personal and credit history better for 12 months or more
* Get your products from places that report activity to credit agencies
* Pay your debt using automatic account debiting

Credit scoring isn’t meant to be a guarantee that the borrower will or will not pay back a loan. However, they do a good job of filtering out the risks for groups of borrowers with similar conditions. This can be bad for the businesses not fitting those parameters, because even if they are able and willing to pay back a loan, the computer rules them out because they don’t fit the mold. If that happens to you, try to find a bank or lender that doesn’t use them and actually picks through interviewing the place trying to apply.

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