Posted by matx on August 03, 2008 at 11:39:30:
No, it’ doesn’t. I’ve had a sole proprietorship for 14 yrs and my business credit has never shown up on my personal credit report.
I have a separate business line of credit and a D&B number as well.
Applying for Business Credit Cards - Posted by Mark
Posted by Mark on August 02, 2008 at 09:14:59:
Hi,
I have heard that business credit cards do not have any kind of impact on personal credit. My question is does anybody know if the proccess of applying for multiple business cards in a short period of time effect personal credit? I ask because I assume when you apply for business cards they check your personal credit. I would appreciate any tips. Thank you.
Re: Applying for Business Credit Cards - Posted by Ryan (IL)
Posted by Ryan (IL) on August 03, 2008 at 20:21:23:
I have been told on many occasions that pulls that happen within X number of days are lumped together as one. Also there is a practice called BUMPING. Where you pull your own credit like each week. I have heard this knocks off some of the other pulls.
I am not an expert on that, just what I have heard.
I would maybe Google - Credit Bumping?
Finally for business credit cards, have you seen the site over at www.creditcards.com/business.php
This rates many biz credit card offers in order of what they think is the best value/deal. You can apply for thme right via there, do like 3-4 at once and you should be good!
Find Thomas Kish - Posted by Bank Negotiator
Posted by Bank Negotiator on August 02, 2008 at 11:53:21:
You can get business credit lines (credit cards and true lines of credit) that are unsecured and do not report on your personal credit profile.
I got a course by Thomas Kish entitled “The Ultimate Real Estate Investors Guide” that was dedicated to exploring this concept.
Your personal credit will be checked and “hit” when you make the initial application but the reporting is tied to your LLC’s EIN number and not your personal credit profile.
This means that if you build up $200,000 in credit in your business name that the constant up and down of drawing down credit for deals and paying them off at closing does not damage your personal credit profile.
Here are things to considered:
1)Unsecured and Nonrecourse are two different things. While the unsecured biz lines of credit do not report on your personal credit report if done right, that doesn’t mean that you can screw everything up and your personal credit is protected a force shield. If you default on the debt the lender can come back on you personally like any other non-secured debt.
Remember, the only difference & advantage to these biz credit lines is that they do not REPORT on your personal credit (unless you default on them and get a judgment against you personally)
Only “Non-Recourse” biz lines of credit are seperate and independent from you. They require a lot of establishment and hoops to jump through to get approved. But at some point in time a business needs to be able to grow and borrow large amounts of money without worry that if the biz BKs that the companies can’t go after the shareholders. So non-recourse biz credit lines do exist…but probably not for you if you are at this stage of gathering information.
2)Just because they are not reporting on your personal credit doesn’t mean that you can do dumb things on the personal side either. The lender reserves the right to do a “soft inquiry” on your personal credit at any time. These soft inquires are happening all the time whether you know it or not…and don’t have any impact on your credit score. (companies are always pulling you credit behind your back and filtering it to determine if they want to mail you credit card offers…only credit inquiries originated by you impact your score and profile)
You could build up $300,000 in biz credit at a certain interest rate and then if you have a breakdown on a car and decide not to pay the note on that piece of junk…then the multiple lates will show when your biz credit lender does a check-up on you. When they see bad things they reserve the right to jack your rate up or lower your limit to the current balance or cancel the trade line if there is zero balance. Lots of bad things.
Biz credit lines is not an insulator for bad behavior on either the personal side or the biz side.
Re: Applying for Business Credit Cards - Posted by Dave T
Posted by Dave T on August 02, 2008 at 10:32:17:
If you are a sole proprietor, the business credit will be reported as an additional trade line on your personal credit report.
Re: Applying for Business Credit Cards - Posted by michaela-CA
Posted by michaela-CA on August 02, 2008 at 09:51:39:
Mark,
everytime someone checks your credit it generates a ‘hit’ and eventual decline in points. It is not exact as in ‘1 hit equals x points’, but can vary.
If you go to www.creditboards.com they have several discussion groups. One just for business credit. On their credit discussion forum they also have a ‘sticky’ post at the beginning somewhere, where people have been reporting which credit reports are being pulled by which vendor. Some pull all 3, which is worse than just pulling one.
Michaela