Answers
No matter what size your business is, it is important to protect your company from the unknown. Know who you do business with and be aware of how they are doing. According to the Small Business Association (SBA), in 2003 there were approximately 584,800 business closures and 35,037 bankruptcies. Furthermore, the FDIC stated there was approximately $37.8 billion in net lease and loan charge-offs by commercial banks in 2003.
This reflected an increase of 81 percent over charge-offs in 1999.
Online instant Business Credit Advantage is the best way to manage the risk of picking an unreliable
supplier or extending credit to a potentially weak customer and to see how your competition is doing. For a nominal yearly fee, you can keep an eye on those you do business with and be proactive at the first sign of trouble.
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No. You will need to purchase a separate Business Credit Advantage subscription plan for each company that
you would like to monitor.
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Should you choose to discontinue your subscription renewals please
follow these links after you login: My companies / More (next to the plan that you want to cancel)
/ Cancel plan renewal.
Note that you will continue to have access to updated reports on SmartBusinessReports.com
and you will receive email alerts for the remainder of the current subscription period.
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Although Experian checks every day for bankruptcies and every week for trade and public
record changes, you will receive an email alert only when one of your chosen companies has
a negative credit experience. For some companies having financial or legal trouble,
the email alerts could occur every week. For others experiencing a temporary problem,
the email may come only for a few weeks and then stop. If a company is doing well, you probably will not receive any emails.
 In order to receive uninterrupted emails from us, please add HelpDesk@SmartBusinessReports.com and
Monitoring@SmartBusinessReports.com
to your "approved senders" list. Please use the 'Help / Contact us' if you'd like us to send you a test email.
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The Business Credit Advantage report is the most complete credit report we have on the
business that you are researching. Whether that is the ProfilePlus SM report, the CreditScore SM report,
or the BizVerify SM report, you will have unlimited access to it for
a year. When we obtain additional information throughout the year, it will be
automatically reflected in the online report. You will have access to this latest report for
as long as your Business Credit Advantage subscription remains active.
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Experian checks for bankruptcies every day and checks for trade and public record changes every week.
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Since Experian sends out email alerts on Tuesdays, you will receive your first email alert on the following Tuesday. The exception is if you sign up for your plan on a Monday. You will not receive your first email alert the next day. The system requires a bit longer to set up your full account. As a result, if you sign up on a Monday, your first emails will occur on the Tuesday eight days later.
However, please note that you will receive emails only for your selected companies that experienced a derogatory credit change.
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Experian relies on new public record data and trade data from a number of outside sources, including court data from various municipalities. Unfortunately, sometimes there can be a delay by the courts and other outside sources in sending Experian this data. However, as soon as Experian receives new company data, the information is dated as per the time of the event and included in the Tuesday emails.
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An email alert is sent out if a new public record is generated on your selected company. The public record could be a bankruptcy, a legal judgment, a tax lien, or a Uniform Commercial Code on a piece of equipment.
An email alert is also sent out if a trade partner submits derogatory trade information on the company such as slow payments or a credit write-off.
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Trade payment is the most frequent type of alert.
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There is no typical experience for a company. In most cases, a company is affected by the industry it operates in, the amount of debt a management team takes on, the in-house policies on paying bills, and of course economic cycles and seasonality. These factors show how different companies can be.
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Inquiry Alerts are included in the Business Credit Advantage Subscription. Each time
an entity orders a copy of a credit report for a company you have
enrolled in Business Credit Advantage, you will be notified via an automated email
alert. Inquiries are processed weekly by Experian and sent to you every
Tuesday. If you have more than one company enrolled in Business Credit Advantage, you
will receive individual inquiry alerts for each company.
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If you do not get email alerts, it indicates that we have no record of the company
experiencing any events that
generate the credit alert triggers. These events include bankruptcy, legal judgment,
tax lien, Uniform Commercial Code filing on equipment, or derogatory trade practices.
In order to receive uninterrupted emails from us, please add HelpDesk@SmartBusinessReports.com and
Monitoring@SmartBusinessReports.com
to your "approved senders" list. Please use the 'Help / Contact us' if you'd like us to send you a test email.
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No, not completely. It is suggested that you review an Experian business report on the
company to be certain. The business report will indicate how slow the DBT (days beyond terms)
is for the company. A review of the Uniform Commercial Code listings on the business report also will indicate how leveraged the company is getting.
In addition, it is helpful to review any public information from the Securities Exchange
Commission (if the company is traded on the stock market) or in news reports that may indicate items such as gains or losses of key customers or changes in the management team.
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You are welcome to contact Experian's customer service at 800 520 1221.
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Business Credit Advantage costs $14.95 per month for each company monitored, with a four-month minimum required,
or you could sign up for a full year for $99 for each company monitored.
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Approximately three days before the end of your subscription period we
will automatically renew your subscription. You will be notified by
email if this process fails.
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A legal alert is based on new public record filings on the company. A legal alert could be a bankruptcy, a tax lien, or a judgment. A review of the company's business report will indicate which event pertains to the company.
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A derogatory alert is based on new negative information regarding the company's obligations.
This negative information could be "slow payment" comments by other suppliers, a new tradeline
with a balance greater than 50 percent and more than 61 days beyond terms.
It also could indicate that a tradeline or credit line has been turned over to a collection agency. A review of the company's business report will indicate which of these situations pertains to the company.
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Payment warnings can refer to a few different things.
It can warn that the company is becoming increasingly late with its trade payments and days
beyond terms (DBT) are getting higher. It can also warn that the DBT significantly exceeds
the company's six-month historical range. Also, it is possible the company is paying later
than 70 percent of other businesses in the same industry. A review of the company's business report will indicate which of these situations pertains to the company.
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