When asked why a trade reference was declined, representatives are only permitted to reveal five possible reasons:

• Vendor is not a US-based business

• Vendor does not have a full D&B file of their own

• Vendor is a bank, credit card, utility, or financial institution

• Vendor already auto-reports into D&B’s automated system

• Have failed six attempts to reach vendor to gather credit history

In reality, there are lots more reasons why a trade reference can be declined or blocked from reporting into your file.  In addition to the primary 5 above, here are 20 of the more common reasons your trade reference is not being accepted.

• Your company and vendor have a common principal

• Reciprocating submissions (reporting on each other)

• Vendor contact number disconnected/ rings to different business

• Vendor’s phone only rings to an answering machine or fax tone

• The vendor declines to report credit references on their clients

• The vendor’s callback number is not associated to the business

• Vendor has too low of payment history in their own report

• Vendor refuses to answer one or more of the required questions

• Only invoice is less than 45 days old or more than 365 days old

• Vendor does not recognize business name as a current customer

• The vendor can only be reached on a non-corporate line

• Vendor voices unusual/suspicious concerns about the customer

• Reporting agent is not in a position to report (credit/billing dept)

• The vendor is part of a known trade ring

• The vendor is a branch location of a company who auto-reports

• The vendor pushes “too hard” to be added to customer’s report

• The vendor is listed as a utility (phone, water, electric, cable)

• The only credit history is an unused line of credit

• The vendor’s SIC code deems their company as unqualified

• Vendor is being investigated for suspicious activity or reporting

Only D&B can accurately identify why a vendor has been declined, but they are not required to provide that information and, in most cases, they will not.  If the vendor has been declined twice, best practice is to accept D&B’s determination and submit a different vendor.

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At Starpoint Credit Solutions, we gather a list of your vendors and suppliers so we can fully vet them before the upload process.  We check to make sure they have a D&B file of their own, that their address and phone number is correctly showing in that file, and that they do not fall into any of the previously identified categories.

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Once their vetted, we submit them to D&B and track their progress.  We watch for added payment history, and attribute that history to the appropriate vendor so you know who has been qualified and shows in your file.  We also track each inclusion to make sure only positive payment history gets added.  If something negative does show up in your report, we'll launch a dispute so D&B can re-check the vendor's reporting for accuracy.

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Adding payment history doesn't have to be a long, drawn out, frustrating process, and it doesn't have to cost you an arm and a leg.  Let us show you how to build your scores and ratings without all the headaches.  Call for a free consultation today.

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