And while some credit monitoring agencies brag about their daily monitoring, the truth is that it s not as real-time as advertised, since many creditors often are late, or incur delays, when reporting new data to the credit bureaus. There are other alternatives to credit monitoring services though. The choices include identity-monitoring services, which cost less, and provide you with a fair amount of credit report monitoring for free. Always ensure that you regularly monitor your credit score, since if you allow your credit score to drop too low, then it may take a number of years for you to get it back to its desirable range. Who Are The Major Credit Reporting Agencies In The US? In the United States, there are three major credit reporting agencies, where most creditors submit their client s payment history and personal information. How To Monitor Your Business Credit Score When monitoring your business credit score from systems like Paydex, you need to bear in mind that the Paydex score ranks how early, or how late, you fulfill your debt payments. For example if you get a 70 on the Paydex system, this indicates that your business is 15 days late when making loan payments, and will certainly be considered a poor score. Once these are turned over to a collection agency, the bad news will certainly be circulated aorund the lending community. Non-Payment Of Apartment Rentals Defaulting on your apartment rental payments can also add to your credit rating woes. Your landlord can actually report that he or she has evicted you for defaulting on your apartment rent, and this would surely sne dshivers down most property management companies and mortgage lenders. Collection Proceedings In evaluating your business credit report's collection proceedings, find out whether you have a history of letting your bills lapse, or whether some of your accounts have been sent to collection. Remember that some of your late payments could come as a result of other financial issues, or a dispute with your supplier. If you ve made late payments before, relax and don t worry, since over time those infractions will slowly diminish, and you ll get back your old credit score. Avoid Applying For Unnecessary Credit Always ensure that you avoid those new credit card offerings at the mall or department store, because all the newly added credit, no matter how small, are sure to do harm to your credit score.