Open Book Ben

We started to use Open Book Ben a month ago to screen credit applicants seeking to purchase electrical supplies. This website is an alternative to the credit bureaus, especially D&B which we have used for many years. There are pros and cons to Open Book Ben. The biggest pro is that it is free and when it works, the business credit scores are more helpful and accurate than D&B. We will literally save tens of thousands of dollars this year thanks to this product. The con is that it currently takes time to explain the process to my credit applicants because this is a new concept. If they will not cooperate, it isn't helpful. But just about everyone cooperates once you explain Open Book Ben. So right now your customer/applicant has to either 1) agree to the peer-to-peer reviewing process, or 2) integrate with the automated credit scoring process through their accounting software. I understand that Open Book Ben has plans to create a more robust "initial" score. Once they do that I would say this solution would be perfect. Right now, it works for us an the price is right. But it would be great to have a traditional option, as well.