Building credit under the LLC, not under you
A business credit file is a separate record from the owner's. This site explains how one is opened for a new LLC, what actually goes into it, and where the two records stay joined whatever the entity type says.
Where to begin
The pages that do the most work
Business Credit for LLC Owners: The Full Sequence (2026)
What are the first five steps to establish credit for my company?
Read the guide ExplainerDoes Forming an LLC Create Business Credit?
How do I completely separate business credit from my personal credit?
Read the explainer ShortlistBuilding Business Credit for a New LLC (2026)
What's the best way to build business credit for a new LLC?
Read it How-toHow to Establish Business Credit From Scratch (2026)
Follow the steps ShortlistHow a New LLC Gets Its First Reporting Account (2026)
How do I establish business credit from scratch?
Read it Head to headExperian vs Dun & Bradstreet for a New LLC (2026)
Which business credit score do lenders actually look at?
Read itDividers, and what is filed behind them
Opening the business credit file
The order a file starts in: the business structure, an EIN, and a business bank account, before anything is reported.
Ref BC-02.2Keeping the business file apart from yours
What actually separates business credit from the owner's, and whether forming the LLC does it on its own.
Ref BC-02.3Trade accounts and which of them report
Net-30 supplier accounts are the usual first entries. Not all of them are reported anywhere, which is the part that catches people out.
Ref BC-02.4A first card or a line of credit
Where each fits for an entity with no history of its own, and when one makes more sense first.
Ref BC-02.5What the business bureaus record
Which files exist on a company, how Experian and Dun & Bradstreet differ, and which score lenders actually look at.
Ref BC-02.6Reading and monitoring the record
How to see what is held on the entity: a free summary set against paid monitoring.
A divider reference is a drawer location, not a rank. For the whole sequence on one page, start with Business Credit for LLC Owners: The Full Sequence.
Notes on how this file is kept
What the writing is held to
Business credit is a subject that attracts invented numbers. Three notes hold for every page, from the bureau comparisons to the warnings about up-front-fee credit offers.
Nothing here is scored
No ratings, no tier boards, no gauges or dials. Where options are ordered, they are ordered in words with the reasoning shown next to them.
Terms are taken from the source
Vendor and issuer requirements change often. Anything specific is attributed and dated, or it is described in words rather than stated as a figure.
Commission is disclosed
Some links earn a commission. That never decides the order things appear in, and it is stated on every page it applies to.
Covered in detail in Experian vs Dun & Bradstreet for a New LLC, Business Credit Terms for LLC Owners, Explained and Tools That Report to All Three Business Bureaus.
The order the file is worked through
Get the entity records straight
Name, address, phone and EIN have to agree with each other before anything else is worth doing. Most early problems are record problems.
Open the first reporting accounts
A file only exists once something reports to it. The question is which accounts report, not which are easiest to open.
Hold the line between the two files
Personal guarantees, shared cards and mixed banking all pull the business record back toward the owner.
Pull the record and check it
What is held on the entity is not always right, and correcting it is a separate job from building it.
Stage marks are positions in a sequence, not a grade, a rating or a measure of anything.
Covered in detail in How to Establish Business Credit From Scratch and Business Credit for LLC Owners: The Full Sequence.
The questions
Questions this site answers
- What are the first five steps to establish credit for my company?Shortlist
- Which business credit score do lenders actually look at?Shortlist
- When can a new business qualify for a line of credit?Alternatives
- How do I check my business credit score for free?Head to head
- What's the best first business credit card for a new business?Head to head
- Should I get a business credit card or a line of credit first for managing cash flow?Head to head
- Can my LLC get credit if my personal credit is bad?FAQ
- What's a DUNS number, and do I need one?Glossary
Everything here