Visual display distributor Steljes Trade has launched a credit checking service to help resellers avoid costly mistakes when considering new customers.

Steljes has teamed up with credit checking agency Credit Assist to offer an online reporting service to VARs that provides instant reports on potential customers or can help them increase their own credit lines.

The service from Credit Assist costs up to £33 per report, but resellers signing up for the Steljes deal will be given a number of free searches on a database of more than four million UK companies.

According to Andy Rump, channel sales manager at Steljes, credit assessments can take weeks to produce results.

"This system will give you a really quick sanity check to see whether you want to do business with Company X," he said.

He added that the system was already proving useful in helping Steljes assess whether to increase credit lines to resellers.

Bob Tarzey, channel analyst at Quocirca, said: "Credit checks take the risk out of sales, providing resellers with assurance that they will get paid, which has a knock-on benefit for distributors.

"But whether the deal is actually good value depends on what commitment you have to make. If it becomes a way to charge extra, acting like an insurance policy for the distributor, it could eat into margins."

gareth_morgan@vnu.co.uk