Entrepreneurs Suspect Credit-Rehab Service Misled Them

Entrepreneurs suspect they've been hoodwinked by Dun & Bradstreet Credibility Corp., a company that monitors and rehabilitates small-business credit scores, according to an investigative report by the Wall Street Journal. A number of business owners say the company's salespeople convinced them to sign up for its CreditBuilder credit-rehab service by telling them that their credit ratings had gone down. A lower rating means that banks, suppliers and clients would shy away from working with them. Once they purchased the service, their rates improved.

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According to a former Credibility employee, the company's salespeople misled entrepreneurs about the state of their credit report and the number of inquiries it had received from other companies. It appears that businesses may have been fooled by Credibility's close ties to its former parent company, Dun & Bradstreet Corp., the preeminent business credit-ratings firm. Dun & Bradstreet's credit score is widely used by banks to determine whether to provide capital to small businesses. Credibility has a license to use the D&B name, though D&B declined to say whether it gives the smaller firm special access to its database.

For Subscribers

FOR SUBSCRIBERSAmerican passenger drafted goodbye texts to her family as Flydubai plane plummeted

FOR SUBSCRIBERSCornell rape allegation pushes embattled New York prosecutor into national spotlight

FOR SUBSCRIBERSAbdul El-Sayed tries to woo MAHA voters as Democrats seek inroads with RFK’s supporters

FOR SUBSCRIBERSKratom-like substances are popping up in a typically benign supplement

FOR SUBSCRIBERSGOP super PAC increases its spending for Sen. Jon Husted in tough Ohio race

FOR SUBSCRIBERSRecords reveal tumultuous marriage between slain New York Times executive and wife

FOR SUBSCRIBERSFrom clean energy warrior to ‘wall of shame,’ James Talarico reverses on a fossil fuel money pledge

FOR SUBSCRIBERSCongressional staff planned official trip with luxury stops in Italy and France weeks before election

FOR SUBSCRIBERSA harrowing ordeal aboard an Israel-bound plane

FOR SUBSCRIBERSOpenAI CEO Sam Altman to skip congressional hearing on rogue AI agents

FOR SUBSCRIBERSKey DOJ lawyers departed Trump ‘grand conspiracy’ probe amid pressure to produce, source says

FOR SUBSCRIBERSTrump’s new AI chatbot often links to a site launched under Clinton 26 years ago

FOR SUBSCRIBERSAt MAHA summit, industry CEOs the movement once vilified take the stage

FOR SUBSCRIBERSThis Paralympian has two goals: Win medals and give away $500,000 to her teammates

FOR SUBSCRIBERSCornell rape allegation spotlights stringent New York state laws that have long drawn criticism

Visit the WSJ website to read the full story, and tell us what you think of Credibility's marketing tactics in the comments below.

Related: Negotiating Secrets: How to Convince Creditors Not to Ruin Your Credit Score