How Can I Report a Loan to the Credit Bureau?

Small businesses often want to report customer payment history to the national credit reporting bureaus, but this service can cost thousands of dollars a month. Individuals and small businesses can report to the credit bureaus on the cheap and sometimes for free. However, joining a national credit bureau usually is the best way to report loan payment history.

Reporting as a Consumer

As a consumer, you usually want the credit bureaus to report all of your accounts in good standing, because having as many positive accounts as possible is the only way to attain an excellent credit rating. If you notice an account omitted from one of your credit reports, you can ask the credit agency to list it. However, the agencies only do this if the creditor has a subscription to their service and proof of payment, such as canceled checks. Thus, you can only report a loan to the major credit bureaus when your lender forgets to or for some reason won't report your particular account.

Reporting for Small Business

The major credit reporting agencies have stringent reporting requirements. For example, a business must have at least 500 accounts to subscribe to the credit reporting bureaus. Thus, it may be impossible for your business to directly report to the agencies. However, firms called "credit reporting service companies" can report your accounts for a fee. At the very least, if your company has enough accounts to report to the credit bureaus, you can either sign up for the subscription service or contract some of the work, such as formatting your data, to a credit report service company.

Joining a National Credit Bureau

If you want to join a national credit bureau, you must call the agencies individually and ask for an application. Consider the benefits and disadvantages of subscribing to the bureaus. You will need computers and extra manpower to report accounts, which may not outweigh the benefits of motivating customers to pay on time to avoid damaging their credit.

Tip

You can sell a debt to a collection agency or file a lawsuit -- both likely result in the account appearing on a debtor's credit report because the agencies actively search for public records and collection account lists from debt collectors. Civil judgments and collection accounts usually only damage a score, so this method is useless if you want to report positive data. You could self-report a loan to an alternative credit agency. Alternative credit bureaus report anything you can prove, even a loan between family members, but alternative reports might not carry as much weight as a traditional credit history.