Carrying out a Credit Search on a potential Customer is imperative, Companies who have been placed on stop with one supplier will seek supply elsewhere. There are other unscrupulous Companies and Individuals who have no intention of paying you for your goods or services from day one. Therefore, unless you are certain that your potential client is a household name or a large Government Organisation you should always check.

Once you have received back your Account Application Form (See Blog 2) and depending on the levels of credit being requested you have the following options open to you.
Companies House. Offers an online search facility which will allow you to access information on any Limited Company, this service is FREE. Full Director information is available. How long the Company has been trading etc.

The Internet. Search Google etc. Does the Company have a Website, have a look around the rating sites, just search in general and see what information you can find?

Credit Checking Companies. Creditsafe. Experian etc for a fee will supply you a Report containing the same information that you can get from Companies House on Limited Companies. The benefit of these reports is that they will have several years comparisons, will give a Credit Opinion and the report will contain any adverse information like County Court Judgements that are not available from any other source. You can also carry out reports on Individuals/Proprietors. Partnerships etc but you will need a Data Protection waiver from the Subject enquiry to carry out this kind of search.(See Blog 2)

Trade References. can be checked with Current Suppliers, these references are limited in value because it’s unlikely a potential customer is going to give you a supplier’s details that will give him a negative reference. But the more information you ask for the more you are making a statement to your potential client that you are checking.

An Account Application Form is itself a Debt prevention tool. A Person with a poor credit history or the unscrupulous will know from receiving the Form requesting lots of information in most cases will not return the Application.

NPD&CO are a Credit Reference Agency and can supply Reports on any Company or individual, we can also advise you on what information is available from all sources please contact 020 8665 6666 or fill in our webform HERE.