Financing foreign trade is a problem that is persistent among all merchants and bankers alike. The main reason this has become a problem is because of the merchants and bankers inability to determine the credit standing of foreign buyers. Credit is an extremely important aspect that is considered before merchants and bankers begin to do business with a buyer who is overseas because they really have nothing else they can judge the buyers credibility on. Unfortunately, credit is primarily used only in the United States, so when dealing with international trade it is hard to attain any secure information from these firms about their actual credit ratings, or receive their actual credit statements. To cope with this issue, factors have to be collected by indirect means. One of the possible indirect means is to contact a bank that is familiar with the buyer, and to gain their professional judgment on the buyers credit history. Unfortunately, this method rarely gains any actual real information because the responses are usually of personal nature rather than pertaining to actual credit ratings of the buyer. Also, another factor is the difference in culture and nationality people tend to have a different attitude about giving information about their peers to strangers, potentially causing a rift in their own society furthers the idea that very little knowledge can actually be gained about the credit standing on the buyer. Lately, companies such as general mercantile agencies have begun to extend their organizations into credit fields where there is a high traffic amount of trade going on internationally, thus establishing a similar system to the credit being used in the United States. This lack of credit information vitally affects foreign trade, differentiating it from the procedure used in domestic commerce. It is vital because if the merchant does not know anything about the credit of the buyer, it induces the sellers to be more difficult to part with their goods.