How to Report Customer Credit

In the course of doing business, you may have to report a customer's delinquent account or nonpayment of a lease to the credit bureaus. There are three credit reporting agencies in the United States that list consumer credit history and compute credit scores: Equifax, TransUnion and Experian. There are a few different methods for reporting customer credit to the credit reporting agencies.

Instructions

1

Hire a credit reporting service. Credit reporting services such as Equidata take business debt accounts and report the amount of the debt, the name of the debtor, the address of the debtor and the length of delinquency.

2

Join the credit bureaus. Each credit bureau has its own application and fees, but in general, the debts must be at least 90 days past due and be in excess of $50 to $100. Member applicants also are required to have a minimum of 500 past-due accounts.

3

Sue the debtor. File a lawsuit in small claims court or civil court. Send a copy of the complaint to the defendant through a process server. Allow the answer time to expire, generally 20 days. File a hearing request for summary judgment and obtain a summary or default judgment. The judgment becomes public record and the credit bureaus will report it.

4

Hire a collection agency. Collection agencies not only attempt to collect debts, they also report those debts to all three credit bureaus.