How Can I Learn about a Company’s Payment History or Bankruptcy Record?

There are three national credit reporting agencies that do credit checks on businesses from which you can learn about a company’s payment history or bankruptcy record: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.

You can also research a company’s payment history or bankruptcy through Dun & Bradstreet by obtaining a Comprehensive Report. Through this report, you can find out if a company is undergoing financial stress by obtaining six months of alerts notifying you of any changes in the company’s credit, along with detailed credit information and payment history. You can obtain an overview of how a company has paid its bills through D&B Paydex Score.

KnowX is a fee-based online service that provides a variety of business background checks. Types of information available from KnowX include: bankruptcies, lawsuits, liens, and judgments, Federal employer identification numbers (FEINs), corporate records, and business address and phone information.

You can also learn about a company’s payment history or bankruptcy record from LexisNexis, provides authoritative legal, news, public records and business information with legal, tax and regulatory publications. LexisNexis is a fee-based service, with several different payment options.

Bankruptcy Court records are public records which means that anyone can access them. The Administrative Office of the Courts, PACER Service Center, is the Federal Judiciary’s centralized registration, billing, and technical support center for electronic access to U.S. District, Bankruptcy, and Appellate Court records. You can look up bankruptcy records at this site yourself, or you can pay one of the companies referenced above to access the records for you.