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Your business credit score is a key part of your financial profile. It helps lenders, suppliers, and partners understand how financially reliable your business is, and can directly affect your access to finance, trade terms, and growth opportunities.
Understanding where your business credit data comes from and how it’s used can help you stay on top of your score and take control of your financial future.
How business credit scores work
A business credit score is a number used by lenders, suppliers, insurers, and partners to assess how likely your business is to meet its financial obligations. The higher your score, the lower the perceived risk. A good credit score can increase your access to finance, reduce your cost of borrowing, and improve trust with suppliers and investors.
This score is calculated and maintained by Credit Reference Agencies (CRAs), which collect and analyse financial data about your company.
What is a credit reference agency?
A credit reference agency (CRA) collects financial and public information about businesses and uses it to assess creditworthiness. They turn this data into a credit score or rating.
The main business CRAs in the UK are:
If you’re using Capitalise, your credit data comes from Experian, the UK’s leading business credit reference agency.
What factors influence your business credit score?
Your score is calculated using lots of different data points. Some carry more weight than others, but all of them work together to build a picture of how financially stable and reliable your business is.
Here are the main factors:
1. Financial performance
Your annual accounts filed at Companies House are one of the biggest factors. They provide information on your revenue, profits, assets, and liabilities, all key indicators of your financial health.
2. Adverse events and serious financial issues
Negative events, like County Court Judgments (CCJs), Gazette Notices, or winding-up petitions, have a big effect on your score. They signal a high risk of lending your business money and will almost always lower your credit rating.
3. Publicly recorded changes
Information from Companies House, such as changes in directors, shareholders, or company structure, is taken into account. Frequent or sudden changes can raise concerns about stability.
4. Credit history length
The longer your business has been trading and using credit, the more data there is to judge how reliable you are. A long, steady credit history usually helps your score.
5. Payment performance
When your business makes payments to banks, suppliers or lenders, those companies may report your payment behaviour to credit bureaus. This includes whether you pay on time, pay late, or miss payments altogether. Paying invoices and credit agreements on time shows that your business is financially reliable and it can help your credit score. Late payments can have a negative impact.
How often is your business credit score updated?
Your business credit score isn’t updated in real time, but it does refresh regularly based on new data.
There are two main ways it gets updated:
Monthly updates
Credit agencies like Experian usually update your score every 30 to 45 days. These updates reflect:
Event-based updates
Some updates happen as soon as a key event occurs. This includes:
These types of updates usually show up shortly after they’re recorded in public records.
What if something in your credit report is wrong?
It’s important to know that only the credit reference agency can update or correct your credit information. If you notice something that’s not right, only a company director can raise a dispute directly with the agency.
If the incorrect data came from Companies House, you’ll need to correct it there first.
How to update your details at Companies House
You can update most company information online. Common updates include:
Use the Companies House WebFiling service or speak with your accountant to make sure your details are up to date.
Keeping track of your business credit score
Understanding what affects your business credit score is the first step, now keeping an eye on it is just as important. With Capitalise, you can check your Experian business credit score whenever you need to.
By signing up you’ll be able to:
Monitoring your score regularly means you can take action before it affects your access to finance or supplier terms.
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