What’s this Business Credit Reporting Agency All About? We Dive Right in With CreditSafe Secrets
So did you even know CreditSafe exists? We reveal CreditSafe secrets and tear back the veil on this little-known business credit reporting agency. Welcome to our CreditSafe review.
CreditSafe Secrets: So What is CreditSafe? And Why Haven’t I Heard of it Until Now?
CreditSafe Norge AS distributes credit management solutions through the internet. So the company has business and consumer reports. And they also have monitoring, collection services, and financial statements. They were started in 1997, in Oslo, Norway.
The business is based in Norway. And it has an office in Sweden. Other offices are in the UK, Germany, France, and Sweden. So they also have offices in Ireland, Italy, Belgium, and the Netherlands.
American
And they have been in the US since 2002. So their first American office is in Allentown, PA. There is now also a sales office in Tempe, AZ. But in America, they are CreditSafe USA, Inc.
International
They have 16 offices in 14 countries on three continents. An expansion into Asia was in 2016.
Data comes from:
- The Asia/Pacific region
- Also the US, Canada, and Mexico
- Six countries in South America: Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, and Argentina
- Nearly all of Europe
- Middle East and Africa
In 2017, customers could get metrics and analytics on companies in many countries. These were businesses in: Bahrain, Benin, Burkina Faso, and Republic of Congo. And they could get data on Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, and Oman. So they also could get info from Palestine (West Bank and Gaza), Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan. And they could get info on Syria, UAE and Western Sahara.
Data currently seems to be missing from some western and central Asian countries. So it is also missing from all of Latin America, and most of Africa.
Company Growth
Over 1,000 staff now work for CreditSafe across the globe. They are one of the fastest growing of all credit reporting companies. So they won’t be little-known for much longer.
Data and Customer Statistics
Credit Safe has 90,000 customers worldwide.
Because it’s more of a data company, CreditSafe competitors aren’t necessarily D&B, Experian, etc.
CreditSafe Secrets: Accuracy
Accuracy is their main objective. So they predict 70% of insolvencies up to 12 months in advance. The company and its reports are endorsed by all major credit insurers.
All CreditSafe data is globally sourced on local levels. It is then combined in their products. They use info from local registries and publications. And they also get data from debt collection sources plus more in all of their online countries. CreditSafe data is wholly owned or delivered by their trusted local partners across the globe.
Data Validation
And when they get this data, they validate it many ways. This means data issue tracking, certification and statistic collection. So it’s also workflow management and aggregate-based verification. They have a Data Governance framework. And this ensures they maintain quality of info for their clients.
CreditSafe Secrets: Data Transformation and Combinations
Once CreditSafe data is verified, the company will transform and process it in what they call a data factory. Data is merged, cleansed and linked through a surveillance system. This is to ensure every piece of data is formatted and distributed the right way for accuracy.
Once the data has been verified and transformed, they will then feed it into their credit algorithm and products. This is to create what are the most up-to-date and accurate data on scores and limits. It is also complete and current on payment performance data and financial results. So it is thorough and up to the minute data on officer information. But it is also a lot more.
CreditSafe Secrets: Thoroughness and Speed
They boast over 200,000 subscription customers. They have data on over 365 million separate businesses. And they have live data streams for over 70 countries. This means their partners are recognized market leaders in each country for online database reports.
By using local providers where possible, the company makes sure niche knowledge is streamed into their data. So this also assures the data is updated on a regular basis.
They collect and analyze how millions of invoices are paid each day. So this is from more than 85 million tradelines worldwide.
Updates
Plus, the CreditSafe database gets updates over one million times per day. So this is with data from thousands of sources. About 99.9% of the time, international reports are delivered instantly online. And more than 40% of CreditSafe’s customers use the international reporting capabilities.
Each day, CreditSafe’s data helps its customers make over 450,000 business decisions.
The company has grown from delivering just 33 million reports in 2012 to 110 million in 2016.
CreditSafe Secrets: Trade Payment Data Program
The Trade Payment Data Program is built on real life payment experiences from real companies. This gives CreditSafe customers accurate insight into how companies pay invoices around the world. Their scoring model then builds in this data. And it allows for all types of available info they can account for when scoring a company.
The data lets CreditSafe map an accurate picture of a business’s payment performance. And in this way, they can see how a company ranks against their own particular industry. So this is about how the company does and will pay their bills.
CreditSafe Secrets: Predictive Analysis
Now, the CreditSafe scoring model is a highly predictive analytical tool. It uses the latest advanced statistical techniques. So their tool combines commercial and other key data. So it means public info and key financial ratios. And it means trade payment data. And it also means industry sector analysis, and other performance indicators.
Hence these all provide CreditSafe’s customers with a view of their own existing and future customers.
CreditSafe Secrets: What is Analyzed to Create a Company Credit Report?
The CreditSafe Risk Rating comes from info such as:
- Demographics
- Accounting statements
- Detrimental data
- Directors and managers
- Industry monitoring
- International group structure
- CreditSafe’s Trade Payment Data
CreditSafe Secrets: What Does A Company Credit Report Include?
A normal CreditSafe reporting consists of the following data:
- Adverse legal information
- Director details
- Up to five years of accounts
- Company identity
- Payment history
- Credit limits and ratings
- Holding and subsidiary companies
- Image documents
Sample Reports
You can also get a sample CreditSafe report. It has info such as:
- Credit scores and limits
- Company financials
- Trading locations
- Officers and shareholders
- Corporate linkages
- Adverse credit insights
Options
There is an option to also add compliance checks and international credit reports. And you can add ledger management.
On a typical report (i.e. not a sample), CreditSafe will show financial trade payment data. This means info on lease payments. And it also has:
- Payments to business credit cards
- Term loan payments
- Other debt payments made by a business
Credit Safe Secrets: Their Well-Known Customers
- Adidas
- BMW
- BT
- Motor Harley Davidson Company
- Nestlé
- Next
- Panasonic
- Ryder
- Staples
- Vodafone
- Volvo
- Zurich
CreditSafe Secrets: What Makes CreditSafe Different from its Competitors?
- Innovation – they use advanced technologies in infrastructure, back office and data management. So their clients are at the forefront of development.
- Flexibility – they tailor the data they deliver.
- Relationship Management – CreditSafe has made a large investment in service delivery. They have dedicated account management. So this means a support team and a training team.
CreditSafe Secrets: Not So Tiny After All
In 2018, Business Insider named CreditSafe to its top 5,000 fastest growing private companies in the US. So this was for the second year in a row.
CreditSafe Today
You can add utility bills to your CreditSafe report. So these are bills such as power, gas, water, and phone. And you can also add cable, satellite TV, and internet. Also, add other third-party payments like CRM and software. And you can add cell phone bills and lease and rent payments.
Details
CreditSafe reports also have:
- CreditSafe Risk Rating Business Credit Score (the CreditSafe Score)
- Summary details such as number of trade lines, overall balances, UCC filings
- Legal filings such as lawsuits, judgments, and bankruptcies
- Payment details like number of active accounts, balances, delinquencies, trends
CreditSafe Secrets: Takeaways
CreditSafe is a rapidly growing business data supplier. And their reach is only expanding. So you can take advantage of the power of data. So this helps you add more complete info to your credit reports. Get credit for bills you pay all the time! Build business credit faster. Because that’s how you get money faster.
