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Just thought I'd share that I've got a handful of business credit cards but found out that I'm not building any credit without the DUNS, rookie move I guess.
I also moved shortly after opening, which probably doesn't help with credit tracking.....
anyway, had to acquire a DUNS fast for a vendor relationship so I decided to throw away my inhibitations and pay for the upgraded package instead of waiting for the free method. As I was checking out, my gut told me to look for an online promo code to offset the absurd $230+tax cost of the starter product.
I like that I get the DUNS faster(theoretically) and that I can get my credit cards to start counting towards biz credit but $250 is a bit steep in my opinion.
I did not find a specific coupon code but realized that Ebates has a sweet 12.5% cash back on D&B purchases right now. I feel foolish for not getting the DUNS earlier and I bet the rebate was even higher during their birthday promo but this is still a solid return. The Ebates D&B page is a little confusing. The layout made me think that only certain purchases qualified for the cashback.
I was tempted to put the purchase on my Hilton card to chase the free weekend night but I'm a little tight for cash flow this week so I put the purchase on my BoA MC in order to put it under 0% APR and prayed that I got the Ebates return as well.
That was earlier today and now just saw my Ebates balance creep up quite a bit - confirming that I got the 'cashback' on today's purchase. That softens the blow of $250 for a frickin' DUNS#.
I was super late to the Ebates party and therefore was able to enroll with Membership Rewards as my choice of rebate. As long as this pans out late August when all these thousands of points are supposed to transfer to AMEX, I will be very pleased with the Ebates service.
It's definitely been fun to mix a cashback credit card with MR points, or to use AMEX and stack MR points with other MR points card purchases.
And now that I better understand partner award tickets, transfer bonuses, staying away from Delta transfers, and Business PLatinum's 35% rebate program, I think there's a great 'ecosystem' for consumerism within AMEX right now.
I also have a Duns number for a while now, I find them very shady. You have to pay them to get the paydex posted on your company at $200 per month
@Anonymous wrote:I also have a Duns number for a while now, I find them very shady. You have to pay them to get the paydex posted on your company at $200 per month
They are extremely shady. They claim to provide anyone a DUNS number for free, but they won't give you one until you've run the gauntlet of their hard-sell phone salesmen pushing a "premium package" on you. I decided I didn't need the headache with my tiny sole proprietorship (I take in a cool $3-4,000 a year, since 2006, haha).
One site I did find useful, which lets you see how you rank on various business credit reporting bureaus (for free), is http://nav.com. They have lots of interesting articles for small business owners as well.