Understanding your credit profile before you apply

Your credit profile is really four or five scores, not one: your personal FICO score, and the scores the business bureaus keep on your company. Most small business lenders lean hardest on the personal score, while banks and SBA lenders also read the business side. Pull everything a month before you call a broker, fix what moves quickly, and tell your broker plainly about what does not.

This guide is about reading and improving the profile itself. For how credit checks are run during a deal, see soft pull vs hard pull.

The scores a lender can see

Dun & Bradstreet treats a PAYDEX of 80 to 100 as low risk, 50 to 79 as moderate and anything under 50 as high risk. Experian describes Intelliscore Plus as a prediction of whether the business will pay on time, weighing credit activity, public records such as liens and judgments, and demographics like years on file and industry code.

FICO SBSS is the one many owners have never heard of. Nav explains it can pull in personal credit, business credit, application data and financial statements, and that with several owners it uses the lowest owner's score. The SBA had required a minimum SBSS of 165 to prescreen 7(a) small loans, raised from 155 in June 2025, and told lenders it planned to drop that requirement from March 1, 2026. Nav expects many lenders to keep using the score anyway, so it is still worth knowing yours.

What lenders weigh, by product

Different products read the same profile in different ways.

Online lenders publish their floors. Bluevine, for example, asks for a personal FICO of 625 or higher, 12 months in business and $10,000 in monthly revenue for its line of credit, and excludes businesses with a bankruptcy on file. A working capital broker knows dozens of floors like that and where yours fits.

How to read your personal report like an underwriter

myFICO breaks a FICO score into five parts: payment history 35%, amounts owed 30%, length of credit history 15%, new credit 10% and credit mix 10%. An underwriter reads the report the same way, top down.

1. Late payments. When did the last one happen, and on what? A 30 day late on a credit card three years ago reads very differently from a 90 day late on a business loan last spring.
2. Balances against limits. High card balances push the score down and suggest the owner is financing the business on personal cards.
3. Recent inquiries and new accounts. A cluster of new accounts in the last six months reads as a search for cash.
4. Collections, judgments and charge offs. Each one needs a story and, ideally, proof it is settled.
5. Thin files. Few accounts or a short history limit how far a good score can be trusted.

You can pull all three bureau reports for free. The FTC notes you can check your report from each bureau once a week at AnnualCreditReport.com.

Quick wins: what moves in 30 to 60 days

Pay revolving balances down before the statement date. Because amounts owed make up 30% of a FICO score, lowering card balances is the fastest lever most owners have. Card issuers usually report the statement balance, so pay before the statement closes, not just before the due date.

Dispute real errors. Wrong late payments, accounts that are not yours and paid debts still showing balances are common. The CFPB notes that furnishers generally must investigate and respond to a dispute within 30 days of receiving it, so start at least five or six weeks before you apply.

Get your business registered with the bureaus. A business with no D&B file has no PAYDEX at all. Ask two or three suppliers who extend you terms whether they report to D&B or Experian, and pay those invoices early.

Clear small public records. A forgotten $800 judgment or a tax lien can cost more in approvals than its face value. Pay it, get the release in writing and keep the document for your broker.

Hold off on new credit. No new cards, vehicle loans or supplier accounts for the 60 days before you apply.

What cannot be fixed fast

Some items only improve with time. The CFPB states credit reporting companies can generally report most negative information for seven years, and bankruptcies for up to ten.

The point is not to hide these. It is to choose products and lenders whose box allows them, which is exactly what a broker does well.

A worked example

Maria owns a two-year-old landscaping company with $70,000 in average monthly deposits. She wants a $60,000 working capital line before spring.

Her pull, five weeks before applying:

• Personal FICO: 641, held down by $18,000 on cards with $24,000 in limits, about 75% used
• One collection for $1,200 from a medical bill, two years old
• PAYDEX: none, because no suppliers report on her business
• Intelliscore Plus: thin file

Her plan:

• Pays $10,000 off the cards before the next statement date, bringing usage to about 33%
• Settles the $1,200 collection and gets a paid letter
• Asks her nursery supplier and fuel card provider to report payments
• Opens no new accounts

Five weeks later her FICO reads 672. She now clears the 625 floor many online lines set with room to spare, and her broker can also show the collection as settled. The business scores are still thin, so the broker steers her toward lenders that rely on personal credit and deposits rather than a bank that wants an established business file.

What to tell your broker on day one

• Your latest personal score and the date you pulled it
• Every late payment, collection, judgment or lien in the last seven years, with the story behind it
• Any bankruptcy, personal or business, and its discharge date
• Every co-owner who will guarantee the loan, since each one's credit may be checked
• Whether your business has a D&B or Experian file

A broker who knows the full picture can place you the first time. One who finds a surprise in underwriting has to start over. Search the register by loan type to find brokers who place files like yours, and check every entry's register number and last checked date before you share your reports.