How to get a free business credit report

You can see your own company's credit score free, from more than one place – but four quite different things get called free. A free tier gives you a score and the basics, and keeps the rest behind a paywall. A free trial wants a card and turns into a subscription. A free statutory report is a static snapshot you ask an agency for. And Companies House is free public data, not a credit report at all. iwoca Credit Compass shows your Equifax business credit score free, with no trial and no tier; Creditsafe, Dun & Bradstreet, and Capitalise have free versions; Experian's is a two-month trial.

‍

Where to get your company's credit report free

Five routes let a director see their own limited company's file without paying. What separates them is whose data you get, and where each one stops.

Every row was read off the provider's own page on 20 October 2026. Terms and prices change, so check before you sign up.

A free trial is not a free report. Experian's is the fullest view of your Experian file, and the only route here that asks for a card up front, so it becomes a paid subscription unless you cancel. Experian's own pages also disagree on how long you get: experian.co.uk advertises two months, mybusinessprofile.com advertises 30 days. Read the terms on the page you sign up from.

A statutory report is free, and static. Two agencies will give you one on request. Dun & Bradstreet offers it to a director of a UK registered business with turnover under £25 million. Experian offers a limited company an online static report, updated monthly, carrying your business credit score and your credit account data – but no alerts, and no credit limit or rating. So a statutory report does come with a score, just nothing that tells you when it moves.

Companies House is free, and it is not a credit report. Companies House shows anyone your filed accounts, your filing history, your directors, and any charges against the company. The agencies build on that data rather than asking you for it, and it is worth a look because late filings and wrong details show up there first – the two things you can fix fastest.

Two names worth ruling out. TransUnion holds no UK company credit files, so it cannot give you a business report at all. Equifax sells commercial reports on other companies but publishes nothing for a company to see its own Equifax business score, which is the gap Credit Compass was built to fill.

One last thing the table cannot show you. Creditsafe's free check works by company name, so the route that shows you your own score shows a customer, a supplier, or a competitor exactly the same thing – without asking you, and without you knowing. Your file is not private, which is the real argument for reading it before someone else does.

‍

See your Equifax business credit score free with iwoca Credit Compass

iwoca Credit Compass shows you the score a lender sees, what is pulling it down, and what to work on first. Alongside your Equifax business credit score you get four more scores – your loan and credit history, your financial performance, your Companies House record, and an overall health score – plus plain-language suggestions that change as your situation does. It refreshes every month, so a new judgment or a late filing surfaces while you can still do something about it.

Three things people ask before they sign up:

• What it costs: nothing. There are no paywalls, tiers, or hidden fees, and no trial that converts.
• What you need: an iwoca account. You select your company and verify that you are a director, which takes about two minutes.
• What it does to your score: nothing. Checking your own file is not an application.

Credit Compass covers Equifax, and it gives you your score and the data behind it rather than a document you can download and send on. If the lender or the big customer reading you relies on Experian or Dun & Bradstreet, one agency on its own will not be enough.

‍

{{credit-compass-blog-cta="/seo-components"}}

‍

What a business credit report contains

A business credit report is the file a credit reference agency holds on your company: your key company details, your credit history, and information taken from public records. It is what sits behind the score a lender or a supplier sees, and it does not stand still – it moves with your payment history, your credit use, and the rest of your financial activity.

Most reports cover the same ground. Your company background and ownership, including any parent company or subsidiaries. Financial data from your filed accounts. Your banking and trading history, which shows how you actually pay. Your credit history, debt levels, and utilisation, with a score or risk rating on top. And public records of any county court judgments or insolvency.

The score on top is where the agencies part company. Each one uses its own scale, so a number from one tells you nothing about another and there is no single figure that counts as good everywhere; our guide to what counts as a good business credit score sets out the bands agency by agency. For what a lender reads in each section, see how to check your business credit score.

‍

Who reads your company's credit report

Three groups, and only one of them is a lender:

• Lenders, when you apply. The report shapes whether you are offered anything, how much, and at what price.
• Large customers and public bodies, when you bid for a contract. Your file is part of how they judge whether you will still be trading in a year.
• Suppliers, when they set your trade terms. How much credit you get, and how long you have to pay for it.

So your report decides whether you win or lose business, not just whether you get a loan.

Most owners have never seen it. Our research, published in March 2026, found that more than half of business owners neither understand nor monitor their company's credit score. That bites hardest on young companies, and on anyone whose file carries something they did not put there: a judgment from a dispute, or accounts filed late in a bad year. Those are the entries a lender reads and the owner has never seen, which is why a free look is not housekeeping. It is the difference between being declined and knowing why.

What a lender does with the number is narrower than people expect: it is one input, not the decision. We look at your revenue and what your business can afford to repay before we make an offer, and our credit team reviews larger or more complex applications – there is more on how we assess credit.

‍

{{business-funding-on-your-terms="/components"}}

‍

What to do if your report is wrong

Mistakes on a company file are common, and correcting one is usually the quickest improvement available to you. Everything else takes months. Work in this order:

1. Wrong company details. Agencies take your registered office, your directors, and your industry code straight from Companies House, so the register comes first. File the change with Companies House, then tell the agency.
2. A paid judgment still showing. County court judgments stay on the register for six years unless the full amount is paid within a month. If you have paid, apply for a certificate of satisfaction and send it to the agency.
3. Anything else. Contact the agency that issued the report and send your evidence with it. Dun & Bradstreet lets you view and request updates to your file free through D-U-N-S Manager.

One thing that is not a mistake: a low or thin score on a young company. There is nothing to dispute there, only a record to build, and our guide to building your business credit score sets out the steps in order.

‍

When a free report is not enough

A free route covers one agency and tells you where you stand today. That leaves three gaps.

The first is which file matters. You cannot know in advance which of the four agencies a particular lender, customer, or insurer will pull, and they hold different data on you. If one relationship decides your year, the sensible spend is the agency it uses.

The second is timing. A free version is a look, not a watch. If you are three months from a finance application or a tender, you want to hear about a new judgment when it lands rather than at your next look. A mainstream paid plan runs to roughly £250 to £300 a year, and our guide to business credit monitoring compares the providers on whose data they hold and how fast each one updates.

The third is a document. If a customer or a lender asks you for a full report, most free versions give you a view on screen rather than something you can send.

For a company that pays on time, files on time, and borrows occasionally, a free monthly look is the honest answer, and that money is better spent elsewhere.

‍

Free business credit report FAQs

Is there a legal right to a free business credit report?

No, not for a company. The free statutory report is something each agency chooses to offer rather than an entitlement you can insist on. Two offer one: Dun & Bradstreet, to a director of a UK registered business with turnover under £25 million, and Experian, to a limited company.

‍

Does checking your own business credit report affect your score?

No. Checking your own company's report is a soft search, and soft searches do not affect your score. Only an application for credit leaves a hard search, and those are the ones that can count against you.

‍

How often should you check your business credit report?

Monthly is enough for most companies. Check again before any finance application, before you ask a supplier for more credit, and after you file your accounts – newly filed accounts are one of the bigger single movements you will see.

‍

Can you check another company's credit report for free?

Yes, in part. Creditsafe's free check works on any UK company by name, and most agencies sell fuller reports on request. Credit Compass only shows your own company. Vetting a customer or a supplier is a different job, and our guide to how to credit check a company covers what to look for.