Buying credit reports on small businesses often leads to buyer frustration, as the level of available data on small private firms is "limited" so to speak. Some companies, though, have found a way of making credit decisioning easier on this type of business- they do an additional consumer credit check on the business owner at his home address.

I was informed by a Graydon customer the other day that he had bought a business report from Graydon showing a clear credit picture, then bought a consumer report via Graydon's consumer gateway on the man that owned the business and discovered 10 CCJs against the person registered at his home address. Result- an easier decision!

To do this , however, credit departments must ensure that their credit application forms include a request for permission to check out the individual behind the business in keeping with Data Protection law.