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Your limited company has a credit file of its own, separate from your personal one, and most directors have never seen it. It shapes what the company can borrow, what payment terms suppliers will offer, whether a landlord accepts the company as a tenant, and sometimes whether a big customer will trade with you at all. This guide explains who compiles UK business credit files, what feeds them, and the specific habits that build a strong one.
Who holds your company's credit file
Four agencies dominate UK commercial credit reporting: Experian, Equifax, Creditsafe and Dun & Bradstreet. Each compiles its own file on your company and scores it with its own model, so the same business can look different at each agency. Anyone can buy a report on any limited company — that transparency is part of the deal of limited liability. It is worth pulling your own company's report from at least one agency once a year, exactly as you would check your personal file, because errors and stale data are common and correctable.
What actually feeds the file
Five data sources do most of the work. First, Companies House: incorporation date, filed accounts, confirmation statements, director changes and charges are all public and flow straight into every agency's file — and late filings are visible to everyone who looks. Second, payment performance data: many large suppliers share ledger information with the agencies, so paying invoices on the agreed date (not just eventually) directly builds your record. Third, county court judgments: a CCJ against the company sits on the Register of Judgments, Orders and Fines for six years, and an unsatisfied one is close to disqualifying for most lenders. Fourth, existing credit: facilities the company holds and how they are conducted. Fifth, your own filed accounts — a company that files full accounts gives scorers more to work with than one filing the bare minimum, and some models treat sparse filing itself as a risk signal.
How lenders actually read it
A lender assessing a small limited company rarely stops at the headline score. It starts with any CCJs or legal notices, which are an immediate red line while they remain unsatisfied. Then age and filing history, to see whether the company is real, established and compliant. Then payment behaviour trends, because a company slowing down its suppliers is showing the classic early distress signal. Existing borrowing and charges registered against the company come next. The score itself is read last. Short-term lenders like Credicorp weight recent trading evidence heavily — recent months of bank activity say more about next month than a score compiled from last year's accounts. Directors' personal files stay separate unless a personal guarantee is involved, though some lenders look at both when the company is young.
Building credit from a standing start
A new company can build a usable credit record inside twelve to eighteen months by doing boring things consistently. Open trade accounts with suppliers who report to the agencies — even a modest 30-day account with a builders' merchant or wholesaler creates payment data. Pay every invoice on the agreed date; early is better than late, and consistently on-time beats occasionally early. File everything at Companies House before the deadline, every time. Keep your registered details current — agencies flag mismatched or frequently changing addresses. Use small credit facilities and conduct them cleanly: a company that has borrowed £300 and repaid exactly on schedule has proven something that a company with no borrowing history has not.
A worked example of the compounding effect
Illustrative example. A cleaning company incorporated in January opens a business bank account immediately, takes a 30-day trade account with its supplies wholesaler in March, and pays it on the 30th day every month. In August, seven months in, it borrows £250 from a short-term lender to cover materials for a new contract and repays over 42 days as agreed — total cost £31.25 (£26.25 interest at 0.25% per day plus a £5 establishment fee). Representative example: borrow £200 for 30 days, repay £220. By the following January it files its first accounts on time. Eighteen months after incorporation, its file shows: on-time statutory filing, twelve months of clean supplier payment data, and a completed credit facility conducted perfectly. That company now qualifies for materially more credit, on better terms, than an identical company that ran everything through the director's personal account and left no trail.
What damages a file, in order of severity
Unsatisfied CCJs come first — settle any judgment within one calendar month and it is removed from the register entirely, which is worth reorganising almost anything to achieve. Winding-up petitions and formal insolvency events are terminal for credit purposes. After those: late statutory filings, a pattern of slowing supplier payments, defaults on credit agreements, and — softer but real — dormant-looking behaviour such as minimal filing and no visible trading. One more trap: some agencies link directors across companies, so a director's association with a previously failed company can shade a new company's assessment.
Where to start this week
Pull your company's report from one agency and read it as a lender would. Fix any errors through the agency's dispute process. Diarise every Companies House deadline. Ask your two biggest suppliers whether they report payment data — if they do, their invoices become credit-building opportunities. And if the company needs to prove it can handle borrowing, prove it small: check your eligibility with a soft search that leaves no footprint, and if a genuine short-term need exists, a modest facility repaid on schedule builds the record while doing its job. You can apply online in a few minutes.
Frequently asked questions
- Is my company's credit file linked to my personal credit file?
- They are separate files, and borrowing in the company's name does not appear on your personal record unless you give a personal guarantee. The link runs the other way for young companies: lenders assessing a company with a thin file will sometimes review the directors' personal conduct as supporting evidence, and some agencies note a director's association with previously failed companies.
- How long does a CCJ stay on a company's credit record?
- Six years from the date of judgment, on the Register of Judgments, Orders and Fines. The important exception: pay the judgment in full within one calendar month and it is removed from the register completely. Pay later than that and it remains for the full six years, marked as satisfied — better than unsatisfied, but still visible.
- Does checking my company's credit report lower its score?
- No. Buying your own company's report, or another business checking it before offering trade terms, is recorded differently from a credit application and does not damage the score. Multiple hard credit applications in a short window can, which is one reason to use soft-search eligibility checks — like Credicorp's — before making a full application.
- Does repaying a small loan really improve business credit?
- A completed facility conducted exactly to schedule is direct evidence of creditworthiness, and for a young company it is often the only borrowing evidence on file. The effect is real but not magic: it works alongside on-time filing and clean supplier payments, not instead of them, and borrowing you do not need purely to build a score is rarely worth the cost.