One of the easiest ways to start off on the right foot when it comes to building business credit is to get net-30 vendor accounts with companies that report to commercial credit agencies. Pay on time and you will build credit references that help boost your business credit scores.
Not sure what those are? Not to worry. This is your guide to setting up vendor accounts that will actually benefit your business credit.
What is a Net-30 Account?
A net-30 account is one that extends you 30 days to pay the bill in full after you have purchased products. It’s vendor credit that allows you to buy now and pay later. Vendors that report those payments to commercial credit agencies help your company establish strong business credit.
So what other options are out there? How can you build your business credit if you have a fledgling company?
Here’s a simple way to get started if your business is young or isn’t making a lot of money yet: vendor trade credit. Vendor credit lets you purchase goods or services from suppliers and vendors and pay later. It’s a great way to maintain cash flow and build your business credit history over time.
A net-30 account is one that gives you 30 days to pay your bill in full after you have purchased products. It’s vendor credit that allows you to buy now and pay later. Net-30 vendors that report those payments to commercial credit agencies help your company establish a strong business credit history.
Vendor trade credit is not just limited to net-30 accounts either—some vendors offer net-15 (15 days to pay), net-60, or even net-90 day credit terms. You’ll agree to whatever terms they are willing to offer and establish those terms on your purchase order, so make sure to read the fine print to ensure you understand your payment terms.
Where do you find these vendors? Below, we’ve provided three net-30 vendors (+ a bonus resource) that will make it easy to get started. Want more? Get a free Nav account and use the free Business Launcher tool, which provides the names of lenders and vendors that report.
Before You Open Net-30 Accounts…
Before you jump in and open accounts, we recommend you take a few essential steps to make sure your business is viewed as legitimate. If you don’t take the time to set up your business properly, you may not get approved for trade credit. This free guide explains how to set up your new business the right way, but here are a few tips to get started.
If your business is not set up as its own legal entity (such as an LLC or S Corporation), consider creating one. If you decide to operate as a sole proprietor, make sure your business is at least registered with your Secretary of State.
Make sure you have a separate business bank account rather than pay for business expenses from your personal checking account. And use a business email address on your account, rather than a generic email address like Hotmail to further legitimize your company.
You’ll also want to make sure your business has a D-U-N-S number, used to identify your company in commercial credit reporting agency Dun & Bradstreet’s database.
While you can always purchase items from these vendors and pay with a credit card at the time of purchase, that doesn’t help you build business credit. You need to purchase on credit through the vendor.
5 (+ Bonus) Net-30 Vendors That Report to Commercial Credit
Let’s look at the vendors that offer net-30 payment terms and that report to the major credit bureaus.
1. Grainger
Grainger offers a large variety of products for businesses, including tools, plumbing supplies, and safety equipment. They also offer office and janitorial supplies. There is a very wide variety of merchandise offered, so you should be able to find something your business needs.
Signing up for a Grainger account is free and easy. You can create your online account to store shipping and invoicing details, but you’ll need to call 800-GRAINGER (472-4643) to set up your line of credit. Grainger reports to Dun & Bradstreet.
2. Uline
Uline also offers a wide variety of products your business may need including shipping boxes, office furniture and supplies, food service packaging and kitchen supplies, and more. To qualify for a line of credit with Uline, you’ll need to first apply here.
Once you’re approved, just shop for supplies your business needs, then at checkout, choose net-30 billing as your payment option.
Pay on time or even make an early payment and you’ll have another credit-building account under your belt. Like Grainger, this account is considered quite easy to get. You don’t need to submit your Social Security number and your personal credit scores won’t be checked. Uline reports to Dun & Bradstreet and Experian (business).
3. Quill
Another place to get office supplies online, from printer ink to pens, is Quill. When you set up your account you will be asked to fill out a profile that describes your business, including the year the business was started and the industry in which you operate. (Don’t be discouraged if your business is young; newer entrepreneurs often report success getting a Quill account.)
Once you find what you want to buy, add it to your cart. Proceed toward checkout and you’ll see a payment option called “invoice my account.” If approved, you’ll get net-30 terms on your invoice. According to Quill, approval can take 1-2 hours during business hours, or up to a business day if you apply outside normal business hours, Monday through Friday.
Similar to the other two vendors mentioned here, you don’t need to provide a Social Security number. Quill will verify your business address before extending terms. Again, most business owners who have properly set up their businesses should find it to be an easy process. It reports to Dun & Bradstreet.
4. Summa Office Supplies
Another net-30 vendor who reports to credit bureaus is Summa Office Supplies, where you can shop for paper, folders, envelopes, labels, and any other office supplies your company might need.
The great thing about Summa is that they offer credit for both new and well-established businesses, and they’ll provide written trade credit references upon request. Pay your bill on time and then you can request larger credit lines. Summa reports to Experian and Equifax business credit.
To open your line of credit, fill out this application and put the code SOSNAV in the referral code field.
5. Crown Office Supplies
Crown Office Supplies offers a wide variety of office supplies along with robust credit reporting. They offer a wide variety of items business owners need, from basics like stationary, all the way up to computers. They work with brand new businesses as well as those more established.
Crown Office Supplies reports to all the major commercial credit reporting agencies: Dun & Bradstreet, Experian, Equifax, Credit Safe, and NACM. There is a $99 annual fee (which may be waived for businesses with excellent business credit). The annual fee is reported to the credit bureaus as well, which can also supplement the business credit history.
6. Nav
Nav isn’t technically a net-30 vendor, but paying your bill every 30 days for one of Nav’s paid plans (Business Boost or Business Loan Builder only) can help you build business credit by establishing a new tradeline with Experian, Dun & Bradstreet, and Equifax. You can automate payments so you never miss one! If you want to track your progress building business credit but don’t want to commit to a monthly plan, you can always check your business credit score for free on Nav.com.
Tips for Success
There are a few important caveats in this process.
First, and this is important, you do not have to run up debt and pay interest to build business credit via net-30 vendors. Most vendor payment terms allow you to purchase items and pay them off in full by the due date on vendor invoices to avoid interest. You may even get early payment discounts if you pay before the due date. That’s perfectly acceptable when it comes to building business credit.
It is also worth noting that credit limits typically do not appear on these reports. Instead, the highest recent balance will be reported. So if you spend a very small amount, you may not see the same impact as you will if you make larger purchases. You don’t want to fall into the trap of buying things your business doesn’t need, but if you do need more expensive items, consider getting them from companies that will report the transaction to credit bureaus whenever possible, to get the added benefit of building credit.
Note that unlike personal credit, the names of your vendors will not appear on your business credit report. Instead, they will report as “business type” such as packaging. So keep track of which accounts you have opened and when; you may need to match that to your credit reports if you aren’t sure which account is coming from which vendor. Also, keep in mind that not every vendor reports to all the major business credit bureaus.
Learn more: Experian business credit report
Pay early when possible. Unlike with your personal credit accounts, where you can usually go online to pay your account and have your payment credited the same day, it may take longer for payments to vendors to be processed. If you mail in your payment, do so at least a week before the due date to ensure your credit report reflects on-time payments, because late payments can negatively impact your business credit score and credit history.
It may take a month or even two before one of these accounts shows up on your business credit reports. Be patient and monitor your credit. If it doesn’t appear in your payment history by the third month after you’ve opened it, contact the vendor to make sure it is properly associated with your business and to confirm it will be reported with at least one of the three business credit reporting agencies.
Also worth noting: new accounts sometimes have the effect of lowering business credit scores. This is usually temporary and over time you should see a positive impact as you pay on time.
Net-30 Vendors are Great for Your Business Credit
Once you’ve established a business credit file, make sure you are doing your part to build your credit history. If you apply for business credit cards or loans, lenders and card issuers will look at your history of on-time payments, how much credit you have available versus how much you have used, and your business credit profile and score. All of these factors go into whether your credit application will be approved, as well as the payment terms you are offered for a loan, so it’s in your business’ best interest to work with net-30 vendors to build that credit.
If you can’t work with a vendor that reports to business credit, Nav’s Business Boost and Business Loan Builder plans feature tradeline reporting, which, over time, may help you build a stronger business credit profile.
This article was originally written in September 2017 and updated on February 7, 2020.
This article was originally written on December 16, 2019 and updated on February 11, 2020.
Do I need a separate business address from my home address?
No, not necessarily. You can build business credit for a home-based business using your home address if you choose.
How come nav can’t find my
Business in the search
You may not have a business credit report. Feel free to contact our customer service department for more help.
Please how do you record payments from vendor who are not reporting to D&B? Thank you
Not all suppliers and vendors your business uses will report to the business credit bureaus. If they don’t, encourage them to do so. Of course whether or not a vendor reports to the credit bureau, is not the only reason you would choose the vendors you do, but it is one of the considerations.
Need advice on this credit stuff or guidance
This is the right place for that Nelson! Feel free to sign up for a free Nav account to check if you have business credit reports already. This article should also help: How to Build Business Credit From Scratch/ As a Nav customer you’re also welcome to reach out to our customer support team with questions.
For some
Reason nav cant locate my company is that because I do t have a Dun&Bradstreet number yet?
Yes that could be the problem. You may need to request a D-U-N-S number from D&B.
If the Net30 companies do not report until about 3 months , do I have to continue to purchase goods over that period even after I have paid for the first order for each vendor?
What a great question! First, I always recommend buying things your business needs anyway, and not purchasing items you don’t need or want just to build credit. That said, while it may take a little while for these accounts to show up on your reports that doesn’t mean your initial activity will go to waste. I can’t speak for every single one but once they start reporting they should normally report the account activity to date. In other words, if you made three monthly payments it should reflect that fact. You can certainly start with a few small purchases to see how that vendor reports before you ramp up your purchasing activity.
This information is very helpful. After I received my first invoice from Quill do I need to call them and provide my DUNS # for reporting purposes?
They should be able to report with your business name and address. It’s a good idea to double check to make sure D&B has correct information on your business.
Thank you so much!!
Even, is late for me.
What if you already have good personal credit?.How are these vendor accounts better than just getting a business credit card that reports to D&B and the others?… An example is I’m pre-approved for a chase business credit card and they report to Equifax, Experian and Dun & Bradstreet so wouldn’t this be the same as the vendor accounts to build business credit?
Having both good business and personal credit can open up more financing opportunities for your business. (Fed research shows that 54% of business owners used either business credit or business and personal credit to get financing.) A business credit card can certainly help you build business credit. Like any credit scores, though, a mix of different accounts can be helpful. If you check your business credit (which you can do for free through Nav) and you don’t see many accounts reporting you could consider one of these as well.
Do I need all four vendors of net-30 on my business credit profile to get the paydex 80 score? and how is it possible to get the paydex 80?can I give me a quick detail how to do so.
You don’t need four but you should have three. Paying early can help you earn a higher Paydex score. It’s a process so don’t expect overnight success but you can absolutely make progress by getting credit with vendors that report.
Peace and Love to everyone,
I would like to thank everyone on this post and Nav for all the knowledge. I applied for Net 30 accounts with Uline (amount unknown) but my order has already been shipped, CrownOfficeSupplies.com was approved for $5000 (but must pay $199 first for the annual membership), Grainger (amount unknown) I contacted customer care via chat before placing my order and Oliver told me I already have Net 30 on my account,
Quill wants me to pay upfront for purchases before giving me the Net 30 (so I canceled my order lol) Ill eventually will do business with them in the future.
Thanks for sharing your experiences Shanika! Feel free to update us with your progress.
What all have you found to help boost business credit
As I’m a new business owner and I’m looking to get a loan of 45-75000$ as quick as possible what do you say I do ???
I was approved for a NET30 account with Quill.com (NET30 $500), CrownOfficeSupplies.com (NET30 $2000), and BP (NET30 $300)
What are some other vendors to get for starter tier 1 accounts?
Zacharia,
We are adding more options to this article: Easy Approval Net-30 Accounts
Correct me if I’m wrong so you’re saying that Nav will report monthly to Equifax, Experian (specifically the business section of those bureaus) and D&B when you pay off any of the mentioned plans per month?
Yes, as you pay your monthly subscription for Business Boost and Business Loan Manager, those payments will be reported to all three commercial credit reporting agencies: Equifax, Experian and Dun & Bradstreet. You’ll find more details about Nav tradeline reporting if you scroll down the Nav pricing page.
Way to go
What process did you go thru to gget your net 30’s
I am a vendor that sells digital products. I would like to help my customers by reporting positive payments to the business credit bureaus. What steps should I take to become a vendor who reports to the business credit bureaus and help my customers build their business credit?
So glad you’re interested in reporting! Here’s an article we wrote on that topic: How to Report to Business Credit Bureaus
Let us know if you start reporting as we work with business owners who like to do business with companies that report.
what happens if you get behind by a week or 2 on your quill.com invoice after its due? Just curious.
Generally, vendor accounts report Days Beyond Terms (DBT) so if you pay 10 days after the due date the account will be reported as 10DBT. We wrote more about that here: Payment History and Credit Scores.
You’ll likely be reported as 5DBT (5 Days Beyond Terms)– substitute 5 for the exact number of days the account is paid late.
Great article, it help alot.
– Quill was easy for me.
– Uline is requiring me to have 5 purchases and then they will consider my credit line. Am not too sure about that because the main reason of spending money with this companies was to establish payment history. So am moving on to other vendors that report my history.
– Grainger never offered a credit line but i’ll reach out to them today and find out more.
Does anyone know other vendors that report your history?
Have you checked out Summa Office Supplies? They are eager to work with new businesses. Also, in case you missed the announcement, a Nav Business Boost or Business Loan Builder account will now report to all three major commercial credit agencies: Equifax, Experian and Dun & Bradstreet.
Looking to build my business credit and are you a company that charges to do this? Thanks JOHNNY
Johnny, we have a lot of free resources to help you build business credit. Start by getting a free Nav account here. Then use the free tool Business Launcher to get started.
Grainger did not give me the option to set up a payment term other than enter in credit card information
Julie – Have you tried reaching out to them to see why you weren’t offered the option of purchasing on terms?
Great advice! Thank you very much!
Hey, Gerri
This advice is working for me to keep sharing with like these tips. The no 3. Quill is very important for me That information includes the year the business was started and the industry in which you operate… Right.
Thanks
Buzz CNN
Awesome advice. Every one of these tips worked
Quill will not offer you a line of credit if your business dose not have existing credit or trade lines elsewhere. I attempted to place an order today and was told that being that they were unable to verify credit history via our DnB account, they could not offer us credit. However, if we purchase our items upfront for the first 90 days, they will then offer the Net30 option.
My experience was the opposite. I was able to purchase a item through the net 30(invoice) and my package was delivered the next day. I’m only using it to build some business credit for my establishment.
same they let me do net 30 immediately
How long have you been in business???
When you applied
Did you have any previous business history??
Greatly appreciate Nav. It is very informative and helpful. Thank you for being there.
Thanks for the kind words! Be sure to share your success with us as well.
Iam taking suggestion on ways to help this process be successful.
Hi I am trying to log on for the credit card portion & its not accepting my business name.
Eleanor, Apologies for the difficulty you are experiencing. If you’re having trouble with your Nav account please feel free to reach out to our customer service team. They will be happy to help you.
Good and valuable information!
Thank you,
Tony Montgomery
I applied for your one of your recommended vendors, Amsterdam Printing. But they don’t operate as you had advertised.
1). They only offer a “Bill me later” option for “established customers”. And established customer was defined by Amsterdam as a customer who has ordered with them previously and has made on time payments.
2). I was told they only report negative information to the credit bureaus. On time payments are said to not be reported and therefore cannot be used to build any sort of credit.
This is true and confirmed by to Amsterdam reps. I wish people would stop spreading misinformation because now they won’t stop calling me. If you pay 199 for a vista print business acct and are approved they will give you net terms. And much more reasonable pricing in the way of product offerings. Ask for Amanda Horton she’s the best.
This information is very useful and thanks for leading Me and me business in the proper direction Mr. D . L . W
Glad you found it helpful. Let us know how it works for you.
You didn’t mention whether these vendors make a hit on your personal credit rating when applying. Let me know.
I should have made that clear. These three vendors don’t check personal credit so there isn’t an inquiry when you apply.
How long did it take to established your D&B credit?
Mine was Approved in 2 weeks
Hello,
If your business has no credit history at all. Quill will require that you order a minimum of $100 each month pre-paid over a 90 day period. After that 90 day period
where a minimum of $100 was successfully paid on time, they will then extend your business credit to pay on Net 30 terms. After your business starts making these Net 30 payments is when your Businesses payments will be reporting this payment history to Dun and Bradstreet. So it will take a while to get your business credit established.
How long did it take to established your D&B credit?
Lisa,
Most vendor accounts take 30 – 60 days to start reporting.
No I was approved right away as a business.
I was able to get a quill net 30 and a Uline net 30 with no issues and I just started my business on Jan 2nd. I do not have any established business credit. Grainger however, wanted me to have some business credit established. And both my orders with quill and uline were under $100
This kind of feedback is always helpful. Thanks Trey!
Not to be nosey but since last year and this post have you / or how long has it taken you to get loan approvals or offers for loans ???
I just started my LLC and my question is how many trade lines do really need. Too much credit can be just as bad as no credit. I say stay under budget. If you not making enough business to pay off at the end do not buy. Do most of it on business money from account ie checking maybe some on credit. Any suggestions that will me. Business Savings.
It’s perfectly fine to start small with a couple and then monitor your results.
Just started my business this year and was able to open a Net-30 Account with Quill (if no history they may start you off with $100 with 90-Day potential increases if credit is utilized). However, once I called they bumped it up to $350 no purchase necessary.
Thanks for sharing your experience Mel.
Thank you for this. I applied with Grainger and got the net 30, $1,000 credit approval. No credit check required. I initially signed up but it didn’t give me the option like the screen shot above. I had to contact customer service via chat but they gave it to me right away. Thank you!!
Thanks for sharing your experience. Helpful!
It’s helpful to hear your experience. Thank you!
I have truly been blessed and informed. Thanks for the information
Dear Gerri,
Thank you for your suggestion, I have already apply with Grainger and was qualified for $1000 Credit.
Great to hear Angela!
I was able to get an immediate net30 account with Quill and Uline. I made an order with Grainger and will make another couple of orders and check them in 90 days to see if they will give me a net30 account.
I got a partially secured BP card and an Edge (Pilot/Flying J) fuel account.
I’m also going to use Monopolize Your Marketplace and Jason Adams Transport to get my beginner reporting lines connected.
were both BP and EDGE in need of “partial secure”? And were they at all needing your personal ID/Social?
Excellent article, Gerri! Uline is super simple to qualify for if you take it slow. Initially requesting $50 as a start for your net-30 account will probably increase your odds. Also, Mumeen Media Group offers new small business start-ups a business line of credit with 5% down. They report to DNB and Experian.
Hi have u tried Mueen Media Group? I don’t see any reviews on the company.
Quill gave us a 30-day pay account immediately. We did not have to purchase anything with cash at all. Uline also set us up with an account immediately, as did Grainger. All are reporting for us.
hey when you applied did you already have trade lines on your business credit or was your company new because quill and uline denied me because of no trade history on my business credit
It just depends sometimes
I was finding it hard time to apply for net 30 with grainger because no vendor was reporting on my credit
After 3 months of reporting I re apply with grainger and was qualified for $1000 Credit because I had few tradelines.
I will suggest you to try other vendor credit like gemplers,strategic network solutions and grainger
Thanks for sharing your experience!
Gemplers and Strategic network solutions offer net 30
They do report commercial bureau.You can try them too.
Gempler require that you spend $2500 pre-paid over 1 year before they will extend you a line of credit.
Quill does not offer a line of credit until your business has spent a minimum of $200.00 a month for three consecutive months. The challenge we ran into is as a small business that is watching the bottom line, the 25% more that Quill charges for those things we use than we have to pay Staples (delivered free) does not make it a worthwhile account.
agree
I did not need to purchase that much in fact I only purchased $36 to start not knowing if it was a minimum, and when I didn’t have the invoice option, I called they fixed it and was invoices for $36 and now have my net 30, lol.. always best to call they can just set you up over phone often times anyway
Thanks for the advice! I’ll check out Quill.
Yes not all report to everyone. The three listed do report to either D&B or Experian or both. My Nav.com scores shows both D&B and Experian. My D&B shows trade lines . There is also Equifax but I don’t have an account with them.
What business bureaus do they report to exactly? From what I understand not all accounts report to everyone.
I have these 3 and 3 more. I’m working on getting a fleet fuel card. It was an easy process to get the three mentioned above and my d&b does show I have trade lines now. I also have Nav and it shows my business rating. I made no personal guarantees. Strictly business credit.
Jill, please tell us what are the names of the other 3 vendors other than Grainger, Uline & Quill? Thanks,
Wilmar was one I have from 2016 not sure & I also had a website & email venture Logix that reported but site crashed just recently so not sure what’s going on. It was great $20 / mo
Also keep in mind most small business credit cards report as well. I wrote about that in this article: Which Credit Cards Can Help Me Build Business Credit?
Shell fleet card is great, they provide a line of credit and bill monthly. Chevron bills every two weeks and charges a $75.00 late charge if you do not pay the entire bill every two weeks.
How do you get a Shell Fleet card or a Chevron using commercial credit only?
Erica – Do you mean without a personal guarantee? Shell’s site says: “If any of the following apply, you may be eligible for an account with only business liability. Does your business meet any of the following criteria: a government entity, a non-profit organization, or a corporation in business for at least 3 years with more than $1,000,000 in annual sales?”
Thanks Jill for sharing your experience.
HI Jill, what are the other 3 vendors that you have besides quill , uline, and gainger ?