Let’s face it. When it comes to our small businesses, we want to get results, fast. It’s no different if you’re building credit for your business: you want to find the easiest and most efficient way possible.

Good business credit can help unlock more business opportunities and financing options, better interest rates, higher credit limits, and more. 

Fortunately there is a way to shortcut the business credit building process, and that’s to get tradelines that help you build business credit in a relatively short period of time. 

Here, we’ll explain how tradelines work, and how they can help build business credit scores fast.

What Are Business Tradelines?

The term “tradelines” is an industry term for “account.” Business tradelines refer to business accounts that appear on business credit reports, and can help build business credit when paid on time. 

Any account that reports to commercial credit credit reporting agencies can be considered a tradeline, including these popular types of accounts:

• Net-30 vendors
• Business credit cards
• Business charge cards
• Small business loans
  • Business lines of credit
  • Equipment financing
  • Commercial auto loans
• Credit builder loans
• Alternative tradelines

Tradelines are often described as a great way to build your business credit file, and they absolutely can be. 

Do Tradelines Really Work?

Here’s how tradelines work: you get an account that will be reported to at least one credit bureau, pay it on time, and establish credit through that positive payment history.

These accounts, if paid on time, provide a valuable credit reference that can help your business build good credit scores. 

Most credit scoring models take payment history into account when calculating credit scores. If no accounts appear on your business credit, the scoring model won’t be able to calculate a credit score, or the score that is produced will likely be low. 

Proactively building credit through tradelines can help you build your credit scores fast, though exactly how fast depends on a lot of different factors. 

Another advantage of business tradelines is that they don’t always require the small  business owner to take out a loan or go into debt. In addition, some companies offering tradelines don’t check personal credit or require good FICO scores. 

That means you can start to establish business credit while you work on improving your personal credit profile, if that’s one of your challenges. 

Let’s look at how to get started. 

What Is the Fastest Way To Add Tradelines to My Credit Report?

The fastest way to add tradelines to your credit report is to establish accounts with companies that report payments to business credit bureaus. Here are several types of tradelines you can use:

Net-30 vendors

Some suppliers and vendors allow businesses to buy items and pay for them later. Net-30 accounts refers to accounts where the payment is due 30 days after the invoice date. 

When the supplier or vendor reports payment history to business credit bureaus, you can use these accounts to build business credit by paying on time. Suppliers typically do not check personal credit, so these accounts may be available even if you don’t have strong personal credit ratings. 

Find a list of easy net-30 vendors here. 

Alternative tradelines

One easy way to build credit is through tradelines like Nav Prime. With this type of account, payments are reported to business credit. Nav Prime, for example, offers Detailed Credit Reports, and Nav Prime membership payments are reported as  tradelines to all major business credit bureaus.

Business credit cards

Most business credit card issuers report payments to business credit bureaus. That makes a business credit card account a great option for building business credit. As with any type of account, you’ll need to pay on time to get a good credit rating. 

Most business credit card issuers require a good or excellent credit. If you have bad credit, or no credit history, you may need to start with a secured credit card. 

Business charge cards

Business charge cards are similar to credit cards, except that the cardholder must pay the balance in full each month. (Some cards require daily or weekly payments.) Some offer more flexible credit requirements, which can be a plus if you don’t have excellent personal credit. Again, if payments are reported to business credit, this type of account can help establish credit for the business. 

Small business loans

Banks, credit unions, and other companies that make small business loans may report to business credit. Whether it’s business lines of credit, equipment loans, or commercial vehicle loans, those accounts may help build business credit. 

While these accounts can benefit your credit, it’s worth noting that some lenders only report to the Small Business Financial Exchange (SBFE). 

Credit builder loans

With credit builder loans, you “borrow” a savings account. You’ll make monthly payments for a period of time, and then unlock the account. The money you save, minus any costs, is yours to keep. 

How Much Will My Credit Score Go Up With a Tradeline?

It’s always impossible to predict exactly how much your business credit score will change if you get a new tradeline. However, there is some research to help you understand the potential impact of tradelines on business credit. 

Nav customers who used Nav’s Detailed Credit Reports with tradeline reporting saw an increased business credit scores up to 50% in the first 3 months.*

Is Buying Tradelines Legit?

A popular credit repair tactic, purchasing tradelines is one way to build credit quickly. It’s most popular in the world of personal finance. Someone with bad credit will pay an intermediary (a tradeline company) to get added as an authorized user to someone’s account. That account will typically show up on the authorized user’s credit reports and help boost credit scores. 

(The free version of this method is to get added to a friend or family member’s credit card as an authorized user.) 

With business credit, you don’t have to pay for authorized user tradelines to build credit quickly. Most business accounts don’t offer authorized users. Plus, you can use the tools suggested in this article to build business credit yourself. 

What Are Seasoned Tradelines?

Seasoned tradelines refer to accounts with an established payment history. An account that has been established for several years is considered “seasoned.” 

This is one reason some business owners look at buying “shelf corporations” with established credit histories. However, it’s not that difficult to build business credit from scratch, so don’t feel pressured to spend extra money this way. 

How Much Will a Tradeline Boost My Credit Score?

Again, your credit reports will include different details than someone else’s so predicting how quickly you can build credit is difficult. But here’s an additional data point to consider: 

The majority of customers that use Nav tradeline reporting at least 6 months continue to see positive business credit score changes**

While there’s no guarantee in terms of how fast tradelines will help you build business credit, you definitely won’t build strong credit unless you have accounts reported on your credit reports. All credit scoring models analyze payment history. It’s not uncommon for businesses to have low credit scores simply because they don’t have accounts that appear on their commercial credit reports. 

Whether it’s personal credit or business credit, the key to good credit is to have accounts that report, pay them on time and keep balances low. 

How Many Tradelines Do I Need? 

There’s no set number of tradelines you need to build credit, but for most small business owners, having at least 2-3 accounts listed will be helpful. 

It’s a good idea to monitor your business credit so you can track your progress. 

*Based on aggregate data tracking Experian® Intelliscore Plus business credit scores after three months of having Nav tradeline reporting. Results will vary. Scores are calculated from many variables; some users may not see improved scores.

**Based upon the aggregate percentage of Nav customers with positive score changes, nearly 70% of customers continue to see positive business credit score changes across business credit bureaus by keeping their Nav tradeline at least a year.