Credit bureau

A credit bureau is a company that obtains, collects and processes financial information about individuals and businesses.

The information collected is used to assess the financial situation and creditworthiness of companies and individuals.

For example, credit bureaus collect information about unpaid invoices, accounts and the like - in order to provide this information, against payment, to companies that may have a legitimate purpose for the information.

Well-known credit bureaus in Denmark include Experian, the former Ribers - with the RKI (Ribers Credit Information) service - and Debitorlisten, owned by the debt collection company Collectia A/S.

Credit bureaus are often also called credit reference agencies - but they are two sides of the same coin.

Why buy information from a credit bureau?

Virksomheder køber oplysninger af et kreditbureau for at kunne foretage kredittjek af deres kunder.

There are many reasons to perform credit assessments on your private and business customers, but the overriding reason to perform credit assessments is to protect yourself against bad payers - and to take precautions, for example if very long and large credits are granted to the customer.

Visse kreditbureauer kan også tilbyde løbende kreditovervågning af dine kunder. Disse løbende overvågninger giver mulighed for at oplyse om ændringer i dine kunders økonomiske forhold – det kunne eksempelvis være, at en kunde med en tidligere positiv kreditvurdering pludselig får en dårlig kreditvurdering. Dette kaldes ofte for overvågning.

Some credit bureaus also offer additional information about your customers - for example, verifying if the customer information entered is correct, so you can use the credit bureau to verify the authenticity of the customer's generalia. This information can often be subscribed to, so if the customer gets a new name, changes address or similar - your system is also enriched with these updates.

Where does the credit bureau get information from?

A modern credit bureau gets their information from a wide range of sources, such as public registers like CPR and CVR - but also from more traditional sources like private companies and debt collection agencies.

The information is then sold on, either in raw form or in processed form, where, for example, a number of sources are pulled in on a customer to create a more coherent picture of the customer than if the credit rating consisted solely of information from one source.

Hvad kan vi hjælpe dig med?

Hos Qatchr har vi vores egen unikke online platform, der gør det nemt at søge privatpersoner og virksomheder frem – hvis du ønsker at lave et kredittjek.

For example, our platform can enrich you with a number of public and private sources, including CPR and CVR - but also information from the leading Nordic debt collection company, Collectia.

Med Qatchr kan du enten lave kreditopslag eller kredittjek eller vælge at abonnere på dine kunder – og dermed få opdateringer, når dine kunder skifter navn, adresse eller lignende.

You can try Qatchr today - contact us for a free, no-obligation demo of the system.