The Delphi score is Experian’s commercial credit rating for UK businesses — and it determines whether lenders say yes. This guide explains how it works, what damages it, how your behaviour as a director affects it, and how to protect it.
Most business owners have heard of credit scores. Very few understand the specific score that most commercial lenders in the UK look at first — and how much of it is within their direct control.
The Delphi score is Experian’s commercial credit score for UK businesses. It runs from 0 to 100. It is calculated from your filed accounts, your payment behaviour, your CCJ history, and — critically — data about you as a director. A poor score closes doors before a conversation even starts. A strong score opens them.
This guide explains what the Delphi score is, how it is calculated, why what you do as a director affects it directly, how Experian’s score relates to Equifax and Creditsafe, and where it sits within the FUNDMC framework that we use to assess funding readiness at Pinks.
Read it before you apply for anything significant.
Your Delphi score is a number between 0 and 100 that tells a lender how risky your business is to lend to. The higher the number, the lower the risk, the more willing lenders are to offer you money — and at better rates. It is calculated from your company accounts, how quickly you pay your bills, any court judgments against your business, and information about the directors. You cannot hide from it, and you cannot charm your way past it. But you can understand it and manage it.
What the Delphi score is — and where it comes from
Experian is one of the world’s three major credit reference agencies. In the UK, their commercial credit product — the score that lenders actually use when assessing business applications — is called the Commercial Delphi score.
The current version is Commercial Delphi Generation 6. It is the most sophisticated iteration of the model yet, combining traditional data inputs — accounts, CCJs, payment records — with newer data streams including commercial current account turnover figures and, for the first time, commercial credit data sharing across credit cards, loans, asset finance and commercial mortgages.
In practice, when a lender receives an application for invoice discounting, asset finance, a business loan or any commercial facility, the Delphi score is typically one of the first things they check. It does not make the decision on its own — but a score below a certain threshold can end the application before anyone reads the rest of the file.
The Delphi score is not a judgement of your business potential. It is a statistical model that predicts the probability of financial distress or default based on observable data. It does not know about your pipeline, your new contract, or your growth trajectory. It knows what you have filed, what you have paid, and what has been recorded against you.
The score bands — what your number means for funding
| Score | Risk band | What it means for funding | Lender response |
|---|---|---|---|
| 91–100 | Very low risk | Strongest position — lenders compete for your business | Best rates, highest limits, widest lender choice |
| 81–90 | Low risk | Strong — most mainstream products accessible | Good rates, straightforward process |
| 51–80 | Below average risk | Acceptable for many lenders but scrutiny increases | Some lenders decline; specialist lenders more relevant |
| 26–50 | Above average risk | Funding still possible but lender choice narrows | Higher rates, tighter terms, more documentation required |
| 0–25 | High risk | Mainstream funding largely unavailable | Specialist or secured lending only; address score before applying |
| 0 | Failed / dissolved | Business closed, in administration or struck off | No funding possible |
A score below 25 does not mean funding is impossible. It means that the mainstream lender market — high street banks, most invoice finance providers, most asset finance funders — is largely closed. Specialist and secured lenders may still be available, but at higher cost and with tighter conditions. The right approach at this level is to understand what is driving the score down and address it before making new applications.
Every declined application leaves a footprint. Multiple hard searches in a short period are themselves a negative signal — they suggest a business is struggling to find a willing lender. This is why applying blind, or through platforms that scatter applications to multiple lenders simultaneously, can damage the very score you are trying to use to get funded.
What feeds into your Delphi score
The Delphi score is assembled from several distinct data categories. Understanding each one helps you understand what you can influence — and what you cannot.
Filed accounts at Companies House
Your statutory accounts are publicly available and are one of the primary inputs into the Delphi calculation. Lenders and the credit bureaus read them in detail. What they are looking for:
- Positive net assets — a business with net liabilities is a concerning signal regardless of trading performance
- Consistent turnover and profit trajectory — erratic or declining numbers require explanation
- Low or manageable creditor days — how long you are taking to pay suppliers is visible in the accounts
- No qualified audit opinion — an auditor flagging going concern issues is a severe negative signal
- Late filing — even a few weeks late is recorded and weighted negatively. It signals poor governance at best, financial difficulty at worst
- Dormant or abbreviated accounts — these provide less data, which in the absence of other positive signals, can depress the score
Payment performance
How quickly you pay your suppliers, lenders and creditors is reported to credit bureaus by the businesses you deal with — banks, invoice finance providers, asset finance funders, and increasingly trade creditors through data sharing agreements. Generation 6 specifically incorporates payment data from commercial credit cards, loans, asset finance and commercial mortgages.
Late payment to a supplier that reports to Experian will appear on your file within weeks. Early payment builds positive history. Consistent, on-time payment is one of the most effective and lowest-cost ways to protect and build your score over time.
County Court Judgments (CCJs) and adverse events
CCJs are among the most damaging events that can appear on a business credit file. Key facts:
- A CCJ stays on the Register of Judgments for six years — even if the debt is paid in full
- Paying the debt within 30 days of judgment allows for removal from the Register, but the footprint on Experian’s file remains visible for the full six years
- Winding up petitions — even unsuccessful ones — are recorded and heavily weighted
- Gazette notices (first or final) are severe signals and will dramatically reduce a score
- Administration, liquidation or dissolution history associated with the business or its directors is permanently recorded
Credit applications and search history
Every time a lender runs a hard search on your business credit file, it is recorded. A single search is normal. Multiple searches across a short period — particularly if not followed by a credit facility being taken — suggests a business that is being declined repeatedly. This pattern itself becomes a negative signal.
Soft searches — the kind a broker runs to assess your position before presenting to lenders — do not leave a visible footprint on your file. This is one of the practical advantages of working with a broker rather than applying directly to multiple lenders yourself.
The director connection — how your personal behaviour affects the company’s score
This is the section most business owners are not aware of — and it is the one that catches people out most often.
Experian’s Commercial Delphi Generation 6 explicitly incorporates director consumer credit data as part of the commercial score calculation. This means that what you do personally — how you manage your personal credit, what appears on your personal Experian file, whether you have personal CCJs or defaults — directly feeds into the score that lenders see when they assess your business.
Why this matters for SMEs specifically
For a large corporation with a deep financial history, extensive filed accounts, and a diverse director board, the individual directors’ personal credit data carries less weight — the business data is sufficient to build a comprehensive picture.
For an SME — and particularly for a business with one or two directors, a trading history of under five years, or limited external credit facilities — the director data fills a significant portion of the picture. In some cases, it is the dominant factor.
A director with:
- Personal CCJs or defaults — these feed directly into the company’s commercial score
- High personal credit utilisation — using 80–90% of available personal credit limits signals financial stress
- Not registered on the electoral roll — this simple oversight reduces personal credit scores significantly and feeds through to the commercial model
- A history of directing previous failed companies — this is permanently recorded and weighted heavily in the management assessment element of Delphi
- Multiple recent hard searches on their personal file — suggests financial pressure at director level
…can materially damage the company’s Delphi score, even if the business accounts are perfectly healthy and the company itself has no CCJs or adverse history.
Personal guarantees and the credit link
When a director provides a personal guarantee for a company facility — a loan, a lease, an overdraft — they create a formal credit link between their personal file and the company. If the company defaults and the guarantee is called, it appears on both the company’s credit file and the director’s personal file simultaneously.
Personal guarantees are standard practice in SME finance and in most cases are a reasonable requirement. The point is to understand the link that is created, and to ensure that the personal credit profile that backs the guarantee is as strong as possible before the facility is taken.
Directors who have been involved with previously failed or dissolved companies need to be aware that this history is recorded permanently and assessed as part of the Delphi calculation. This does not automatically prevent funding — lenders understand that businesses fail for many reasons. But it does require proactive management: the narrative around the failure, the lessons learned, and the steps taken since all become part of the conversation a broker has with a lender before submitting an application.
Experian, Equifax and Creditsafe — three agencies, three different scores
Experian is not the only credit reference agency operating in the UK commercial market. Equifax and Creditsafe both produce business credit scores, and different lenders use different agencies — sometimes more than one.
| Experian (Delphi) | Equifax | Creditsafe | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Score range | 0–100 | 101–992 | 0–100 |
| Low risk threshold | 80+ | 670+ | 70+ |
| Product name | Commercial Delphi | Commercial Score | Creditsafe Score |
| Data included | Accounts, payments, director consumer data, CCJs | Accounts, payments, CCJs, bank data | Accounts, payments, CCJs, director data |
| Most used for | Invoice finance, asset finance, commercial lending | Trade credit, some commercial lending | Trade credit, supplier decisions |
| How to check | Experian Business Express | Equifax Business | Creditsafe portal |
The practical implication: your business may have a strong score on one bureau and a weaker score on another, depending on which data each agency holds. A lender using Equifax may reach a different decision than a lender using Experian, even on the same application.
For invoice finance and asset finance applications, Experian’s Delphi score is the most commonly used. For trade credit decisions — suppliers extending payment terms — Creditsafe is widely used. Equifax is used across a broad range of commercial lending.
Before any significant funding application, check your position on all three. Experian Business Express, Equifax Business, and Creditsafe all offer access to your own commercial file. The cost is modest and the information is essential. You should know what a lender sees before the lender sees it — not after a decision has been made.
What damages your Delphi score — specific and actionable
Some of these are obvious. Some are not. All of them are worth knowing.
High-impact negatives — avoid or address immediately
- County Court Judgments — any CCJ against the company or against a director is recorded and weighted heavily. A single CCJ can drop a score significantly. Address outstanding CCJs before approaching lenders.
- Winding up petitions — even where defended and dismissed, these appear on the file. Suppliers and creditors should be engaged before situations escalate to petition stage.
- Late filing at Companies House — file accounts on time, every time. A single late filing raises a flag. Repeated late filing creates a pattern of poor governance that compounds.
- Director with previous failed companies — particularly where the failure involved unpaid creditors or insolvency proceedings. This history is permanent. Manage the narrative proactively with your broker.
- Personal CCJs against a director — feed directly into Delphi Generation 6 for SMEs. Address personal adverse entries as urgently as business ones.
Medium-impact negatives — monitor and manage
- Slow payment to suppliers — payment beyond agreed terms reported by creditors. Pay on time or early. The difference between 30 days and 45 days is visible.
- Multiple credit applications in a short period — each hard search is recorded. Space applications and use a broker who runs soft searches before placing applications.
- Director not on electoral roll — simple fix, immediate impact on personal credit. Register and stay registered at a stable address.
- Abbreviated accounts with no supporting narrative — less data for Experian to work with means more reliance on default risk assumptions. Where possible, file full accounts or provide voluntary information.
- Sudden change in director structure — particularly the departure of a long-standing director. Can trigger a score review. Lenders notice.
Lower-impact but cumulative
- High personal credit utilisation by directors — using the majority of available personal credit limits signals financial stress even if no payments are missed.
- Short trading history — a new company simply has less data. The score starts lower and builds over time. This is manageable, but means early funding applications face additional scrutiny.
- No existing credit facilities — having no credit history is not the same as having good credit history. Establishing and maintaining a small, well-managed credit facility builds the file.
How to improve and protect your Delphi score
Improving a Delphi score is not quick — the model reflects accumulated history, and history takes time to build. But there are specific actions that have measurable impact, and there are actions that protect the score you already have.
Short-term actions — within weeks
- Register all directors on the electoral roll at their current address. Simple, free, and often overlooked.
- Pay all outstanding supplier invoices — particularly any that are overdue and may be reported to Experian. Bringing payment days down has a direct impact.
- Resolve outstanding CCJs — even if full removal from the Register takes time, demonstrating that judgments have been satisfied improves lender perceptions.
- Stop multiple credit applications — if you are planning a significant funding application, stop all other applications for credit for at least three months beforehand. Let the search footprint settle.
Medium-term actions — three to twelve months
- File accounts on time for the next reporting period. The history of late filing takes time to be superseded, but the most recent data carries more weight.
- Build a payment history — take on a small, manageable credit facility and pay it consistently. A business credit card used within 30% of its limit and paid monthly builds positive data.
- Reduce director personal credit utilisation — pay down personal credit balances to below 30% of available limits. The improvement in personal score feeds through to the commercial score within two to three credit cycles.
- Establish or formalise supplier credit arrangements — trade creditors who report to credit bureaus provide positive data when paid on time.
The most important step of all
Before you apply: Check your own Delphi score through Experian Business Express. Understand what it shows, what is dragging it down, and whether there are errors that need correcting. Credit file errors are more common than most people realise — and a lender will not tell you that your declined application was based on incorrect data. You need to know your position before the lender does.
FUNDMC — where your Delphi score sits in the funding picture
At Pinks, we use a framework called FUNDMC to assess funding readiness. It maps the six dimensions that lenders consistently apply when evaluating an application, regardless of product type. The Delphi score is not the whole picture — but it is explicitly the most direct expression of one of the six elements, and it feeds into a second.
| Letter | Element | What lenders assess | Delphi / credit link |
|---|---|---|---|
| F | Funding type | Is the product appropriate for the purpose and business type? | Indirect — score affects product eligibility |
| U | Use of funds | Is there a clear, credible commercial purpose? | Indirect — score supports narrative credibility |
| N | Net worth | Does the business have positive net assets? | Directly visible in filed accounts — feeds Delphi |
| D | Debt servicing | Can the business afford the monthly commitment? | Payment track record feeds directly into score |
| M | Management | Do directors have a credible track record? | Director history is explicitly scored in Delphi Gen 6 |
| C | Credit history | What does the credit file show? | This IS the Delphi score — the single most direct input |
The reason the FUNDMC framework matters is that it prevents tunnel vision. Business owners who focus exclusively on their Delphi score — and ignore the Use of funds narrative, the Net worth position, or the Management track record — may present a technically acceptable credit profile to a lender who then declines on a different element entirely.
Equally, a business with a temporarily depressed Delphi score due to a single historical event may still access funding through a specialist lender — if the other five elements of FUNDMC are strong and the application is structured and presented correctly.
The FUNDMC framework was developed by Pinks to give business owners a structured way to understand their own fundability before approaching lenders. A conversation with us about your FUNDMC position takes less than an hour and gives you a clear picture of where your application is strong, where it is vulnerable, and what can be done about it before you submit.
How lenders actually use the Delphi score
Different types of lender weight the Delphi score differently, and understanding this helps you position an application correctly.
Invoice finance lenders
Invoice discounting and factoring lenders are among the most consistent users of the Delphi score as a primary filter. Because invoice finance is unsecured against traditional assets — the security is the ledger, not a fixed charge — lender creditworthiness assessment carries more weight. A score below 50 will trigger either a decline or a significantly higher service charge and tighter concentration limits. A score above 80 opens the door to the most competitive facilities.
Asset finance lenders
Asset finance lenders have the security of the physical asset to fall back on — which means the Delphi score is important but not always the deciding factor. A lender who can recover and sell an asset in the event of default will accept a lower Delphi score than an unsecured lender. However, a score below 25 will still result in declines from most mainstream asset finance providers, and scores in the 26–50 range will attract higher deposits and shorter terms.
Business loan lenders
Unsecured business loan lenders — particularly those offering loans under the Growth Guarantee Scheme — weight the Delphi score heavily because it is the closest proxy to the creditworthiness assessment that the absence of physical security requires. The director’s personal credit profile is also a significant input for unsecured applications at any level.
What lenders do with the number
It is worth understanding that lenders do not simply approve above a threshold and decline below it. The score feeds into:
- Pricing — a lower score means a higher rate, all other things being equal
- Limits — the maximum facility or loan amount offered typically scales with score
- Terms — shorter repayment periods, higher deposits, or additional security requirements
- Conditions — additional covenants, more frequent reporting, or covenant testing
A business with a Delphi score of 60 is not necessarily refused funding. It is offered funding on terms that reflect the perceived risk. The broker’s job is to find the right lender for the score — not to force an application to a lender whose minimum threshold the score doesn’t meet.
How to check your Delphi score and business credit file
You are entitled to access your own business credit file, and checking it does not leave a negative footprint. The main options:
Experian Business Express
Experian’s own portal gives you access to your Delphi score and the underlying data. Subscriptions are available at various levels — the basic report shows your score and headline data. A full report shows the detail behind the score, including payment data, director information, and any adverse entries. This is the most direct route to understanding your Delphi position.
Equifax Business
Equifax’s commercial credit portal gives you access to their version of your business credit profile. Different data, different scale (101–992), different algorithm — but the same principle. A score of 670+ is considered low risk on the Equifax scale.
Creditsafe
Creditsafe is widely used for trade credit decisions and by suppliers assessing whether to extend payment terms. Their portal offers company credit reports that include their own 0–100 score. Many of your own suppliers and customers are checking your Creditsafe report before agreeing terms — worth knowing what they see.
Our recommendation: Check all three before any significant funding application. The cost is modest. The information is essential. If you find errors — incorrect CCJ records, payment data that does not reflect your actual behaviour, director information that is out of date — challenge them formally with each agency. Errors can and do affect scores, and the correction process, while not instant, is available to you.
Delphi score — frequently asked questions
What is a Delphi score?
The Delphi score is Experian’s commercial credit score for UK businesses, running on a scale of 0 to 100. A score of 0 means the business has failed or been dissolved. A score of 80 or above is considered low risk and provides access to the widest range of lenders and most competitive rates. Invoice finance and asset finance lenders in particular use it heavily when assessing applications.
Does a director’s personal credit score affect the company’s Delphi score?
Yes — particularly for smaller businesses. Experian’s Commercial Delphi Generation 6 explicitly incorporates director consumer credit data. For businesses with fewer than three directors or a limited trading history, director personal credit carries significant weight. A director with personal CCJs, defaults, or poor credit utilisation can materially reduce the company’s score even if the business accounts look healthy.
What is a good Delphi score for getting business finance?
80 or above is considered low risk and gives access to the widest range of lenders and best rates. Between 51 and 80 is acceptable for many lenders but attracts more scrutiny and higher pricing. Below 50, lender choice narrows significantly. Below 25, mainstream funding is largely inaccessible — the priority becomes addressing the underlying issues before applying.
What is the difference between Experian, Equifax and Creditsafe?
Experian uses the Delphi score (0–100, 80+ = low risk). Equifax uses a 101–992 scale (670+ = low risk). Creditsafe runs its own 0–100 model. Each uses different data sources and algorithms, so a business may score differently across all three. Invoice and asset finance lenders tend to use Experian heavily. Trade suppliers often use Creditsafe. Checking all three before a significant funding application gives the full picture.
How long does a CCJ stay on a business credit file?
Six years from the date of judgment, even if paid in full. Paying within 30 days of judgment allows removal from the Register of Judgments, which helps — but the footprint on Experian’s file remains for the full six years. Lenders treat CCJs as a serious negative signal. Their presence narrows funding options significantly and cannot be explained away — only managed proactively with the right broker.
Does late filing at Companies House affect my Delphi score?
Yes. Late or overdue accounts at Companies House are a negative signal in the Delphi calculation. Timely filing signals governance and financial discipline. Late filing — even by a few weeks — signals the opposite. File on time, every time. It is one of the lowest-cost ways to protect your score.
Can I improve my Delphi score, and how long does it take?
Yes, but not overnight. Short-term actions: pay all suppliers on time, register directors on the electoral roll, resolve outstanding CCJs, stop multiple credit applications. Medium-term: build a positive payment history through consistent behaviour over 12–24 months. The most important step before any significant funding application is to check your score, understand what is dragging it down, and address those issues before submitting — not after a decline.
What is the FUNDMC framework and how does it relate to my credit score?
FUNDMC is a framework developed by Pinks Associates mapping the six dimensions lenders assess: Funding type, Use of funds, Net worth, Debt servicing, Management track record, and Credit history. The Delphi score is the most direct expression of Credit history — the sixth element. The Management element also feeds into the Delphi calculation through director data. A poor Delphi score can prevent the other five elements from ever being considered — which is why understanding and managing it proactively matters.