Many finance providers use this little debt collection “secret” when chasing slow payers to encourage them to pay. (Works really well for “old” debts as well.)
Although you may not often want to use them to “check out” a new client before doing any work for them you most certainly could use them as a genuine “threat” on rare occasions to encourage account payments where the cost to litigate would be prohibitive. It’s an invaluable extra step. We’ve used this “tactic” very successfully for some time now and accounts have been paid as a result simply by sending an email or letter with wording like this …
Hi, To answer your question … “Is there anything like Veda in the USA?”, I’ don’t think so.
To quote form this site – http://www.failedcreditscore.com.au/what-is-my-credit-score
In the States there are country wide credit reporting agencies which generate a score based on your credit history. The most commonly used system is known as the FICO score. A FICO score is between 300 and 850, the higher the score the better. A low credit score will almost certainly result in you being unable to borrow money, or to be only able to access money through expensive specialist lenders.
This may also be useful to you … http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_score_(United_States)
But, bottom line, I don’t think so. If anyone else knows, please add your post here.