25 REASONS FOR DECLINED VENDORS

Business owners often submit trade references to be included in their business credit file only to later find they were not accepted or the data is not being included.

This can be especially frustrating after paying for a service intended to do just that. Unfortunately, one never knows when purchasing the service or uploading their vendors whether they will get accepted or not.

When asked why a trade reference was declined, D&B® 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 in 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.

LESSON: You'll have to pay for a Creditbuilder® service to submit your vendors to D&B®. Even though there is a possibility your trade references will not get accepted to report into your credit file, it is still far better to give it a try since that is the fastest way to boost your scores and ratings beyond the average. You'll generally know within 30 days if it was a hit or miss.