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Best Credit Repair Companies
Before you can start eyeing your dream home or thinking about getting a new car, you need to address all those credit misdeeds from your past. Luckily, there are ways to improve credit. But don’t just start throwing cash at anyone claiming they can do so for you.
You need a trustworthy partner, which is why in this article, we’ll introduce you to some of the market's leading credit repair companies. Keep on reading to find out how to improve your credit score and, ultimately, get closer to that next big purchase you’ve been planning for so long.
Best Credit Repair Companies of December 2024
Credit Saint
Fortunly's Rating: Our editorial team determines the rating based on a set of evaluation criteria developed for each product and service category.
Credit Saint
- Three pricing tiers; dispute all kinds of negative items
- Provides a free credit evaluation to prospective clients
- Offers a 90-day money-back guarantee
- All plans include credit score tracking
- Upper two tiers provide credit monitoring
Sky Blue Credit
Fortunly's Rating: Our editorial team determines the rating based on a set of evaluation criteria developed for each product and service category.
Sky Blue Credit
- Provides a single but customizable plan
- Offers a condition-free 90-day guarantee
- Membership can be cancelled or paused easily
- Base services include credit analysis, disputes, and score rebuilding
- Add-ons include mortgage preparation, debt validation, and goodwill letters
The Credit Pros
Fortunly's Rating: Our editorial team determines the rating based on a set of evaluation criteria developed for each product and service category.
The Credit Pros
- Credit monitoring is included in both credit repair packages
- Financial management resources come standard
- Provides a mobile app for iOS and Android
- FICO professionals at your service
- Ability to cancel the service at any time
The Credit People
Fortunly's Rating: Our editorial team determines the rating based on a set of evaluation criteria developed for each product and service category.
The Credit People
- Offers a flat-rate and a monthly membership plan
- Low one-time initial work fees
- Well-trained financial advisors
- Disputes an unlimited number or erroneous items
- Round-the-clock account access
Pyramid Credit Repair
Fortunly's Rating: Our editorial team determines the rating based on a set of evaluation criteria developed for each product and service category.
Pyramid Credit Repair
- Offers a three-step credit restoration procedure
- 24/7 support via phone, email, and text
- Clients work with dedicated account managers
- Offers access to a team of licensed attorneys
Credit Firm
Fortunly's Rating: Our editorial team determines the rating based on a set of evaluation criteria developed for each product and service category.
Credit Firm
- Provides free credit evaluations and consultations
- Available in all 50 states
- Unlimited erroneous items can be repaired
- Competitive pricing
- Round-the-clock customer support
CreditRepair.com
Fortunly's Rating: Our editorial team determines the rating based on a set of evaluation criteria developed for each product and service category.
CreditRepair.com
- Three-tiered pricing plan
- Offers round-the-clock credit monitoring
- Identity theft coverage is included
- Provides a huge library of educational tools
- Easy-to-use mobile app for Android and iOS
Pinnacle Credit Repair
Fortunly's Rating: Our editorial team determines the rating based on a set of evaluation criteria developed for each product and service category.
Pinnacle Credit Repair
- AI-assisted credit restoration
- Online educational resources and free credit coaching
- Connects clients with lending partners
- 60-day refund policy
- Fast service
How We Evaluate Credit Repair Services
Trying to sift through the various credit repair services may often feel like a wild goose chase, with dozens of websites and different plans on offer. Some companies are BBB accredited, while others aren’t. Some have high setup fees, but lower monthly costs, and others take the opposite approach.
It’s tough to know what exactly you’re getting into and if it’s worth your time and money. We used a set of criteria to pick and choose from all the relevant services and companies and then narrowed down the selection you see on the site. Here’s how we did it.
Pricing
There’s no reason to beat around the bush. We all want the most affordable service available. Something that doesn’t break the bank or, even better, barely makes a dent in our budget.
In this category, we look at three things: how much it costs to sign up, the monthly costs of the service, and whether any discounts are offered for couples, military veterans, etc.
All of these services work on a subscription model, but some offer a flat rate. We compare the different pricing tiers and examine the money-back policy.
Services and Features
Making the right choice often comes down to finding out what exactly that company can do for you. Although you can complete much of the repair process yourself, it’s often a tedious task requiring months of your time and too much paperwork.
That’s why many turn to agencies for credit counseling and restoration. These companies offer a range of services, including credit disputes, challenging late payments, and sending goodwill and cease and desist letters.
We also examine the bonus features on offer, such as credit monitoring. Finally, we look at how flexible the service is and how much it can be tailored to the customer’s needs.
First Work Time
For each company on our list, we’ll look at how fast their service is. In other words, the number of days it takes before the first batch of work is completed and reported. In many cases, this takes four to six weeks, but some services operate on a fixed schedule, meaning they process everything in cycles.
Monthly Disputes
In this section, we examine the frequency with which the company will send dispute requests to the credit bureaus. While some credit repair companies offer unlimited monthly dispute letters, this is not the case with every company, as these letters cost time and effort to draft and send.
Customer Service
Credit restoration is a serious matter and one that requires good communication between the client and the agency so that you always know the status of your case. Credit repair services must be available through as many communication channels as possible.
Phone and live chat support are essential, but nowadays, many providers are also available for questions and comments via Facebook and other social media networks.
Services with fast response times and those available either 24/7 or outside regular working hours get special kudos from us.
Top 5 Credit Repair Services - Our Picks for 2024:
- Credit Saint - Monthly fees starting from $79.99
- Sky Blue Credit - Monthly fees starting from $79
- The Credit Pros - Monthly fees starting from $119
- The Credit People - Monthly fees starting from $79
- CreditRepair.com - Monthly fees starting from $69.95
In-Depth Guide to Credit Repair
If you have poor credit, you may have a hard time getting approved for a credit card, a mortgage, or a personal loan. This can be especially frustrating if you’ve been putting a lot of effort into improving your credit, but your score doesn’t seem to reflect all of your hard work.
There may be an erroneous item on your credit report that’s dinging your score without you even realizing it. That’s when credit repair comes in handy.
The Purpose of Credit Repair Companies
Unless all the items on your credit report are completely accurate, fully substantiated, and entirely fair, we suggest you consider credit repair. Taking the do-it-yourself approach is good enough in certain situations, but most issues require the help of a credit restoration professional.
By reviewing your credit reports, identifying any errors and inconsistencies, and disputing them with the credit bureaus and creditors on your behalf, credit repair agencies can help you become a better applicant for all kinds of financial products and services.
You’d be surprised at how common credit report errors and inaccuracies can be. Let’s say you have a collection account that’s been sold to a few debt-collecting agencies. The information about this account should be displayed on your credit report only once, but it can mistakenly appear multiple times.
This is a good example of a complex situation where you’d be better off hiring a specialist rather than trying to take care of the issue on your own.
How Credit Repair Companies Work
Thanks to their knowledge and experience, credit repair professionals have the capacity to tackle credit issues that could be difficult or even impossible to solve on your own. Their expertise will make restoring your credit easier and faster, as they know what types of issues to look out for and understand the steps that need to be taken to fix these errors.
Most importantly, the leading companies are well-informed about what their customers are legally entitled to demand from creditors and credit bureaus.
And how do these companies differ from credit counseling agencies? Commonly structured as non-profit organizations, credit counseling agencies mainly focus on helping you get your credit report and providing advice about debt and finance management, but credit repair companies do much more. Here’s an overview:
Request and Analyze Your Credit Reports
These companies start by ordering copies of your credit report from the three major consumer credit bureaus: Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion.
Pulling reports from all three agencies is crucial, as each has its own data sources - credit card issuers, lenders, debt collectors, etc. An error can be displayed on one of your reports and not appear on the other two.
After acquiring the necessary credit reports, the companies analyze them to pinpoint potentially harmful issues. At this stage, they look for derogatory marks - negative, long-lasting reports of late payments, tax liens, charge-offs, and bankruptcies - that they can potentially dispute with the credit bureaus.
Work With Creditors To Get Negative Items Removed
Once the errors and inconsistencies have been identified, your credit repair experts will make a plan for correcting errors and negotiating with creditors to remove those negative notations in your file.
You’ll probably be asked to give the company the documentation it may need to proceed with the plan. The procedure may include sending requests to validate personal information, cease-and-desist letters to debt collectors, and letters to dispute erroneous derogatory marks.
After receiving the dispute and the supporting paperwork, the credit bureaus and data collectors will work with your credit repair specialist to determine if a specific negative item should be corrected or removed from your credit report altogether.
Note that most of these companies will scrub questionable items on your report using provisions of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (the major law governing consumers’ rights when it comes to credit reporting), the Fair Credit Billing Act, and the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.
Monitor Your Credit Profile
When you subscribe to a service, you’ll be assigned a financial advisor who will monitor your case and arrange periodic calls or meetings to keep you informed.
Although consumers mostly think of credit monitoring as a means of protecting themselves against identity theft, this service can also help you stay aware of other updates and changes on your credit report.
In addition to monitoring your credit and informing you about any changes, the companies will also explain in great detail how certain reported items may impact your score.
Provide Tools for Better Financial Health
A good company will put emphasis not only on improving its customers’ credit scores and helping them make better financial decisions.
Educational resources and financial management tools offered by these agencies and powered by advanced technology can guide you through the steps you must take to reach your credit goals and maintain a healthy score.
Things To Look For in Credit Repair Companies
Finding the right company to help you with credit repair doesn’t have to be complicated. Read some reviews, ask the right questions, and understand what these companies legally can and cannot do. Not only can doing your homework save you lots of time and money, but it can also protect you from unnecessary stress.
Beware of Scams
Unfortunately, this industry has its fair share of shady companies. Before deciding to work with an organization, make sure to do your research. Here are the steps you should take:
- Find out if the company has been BBB-accredited. Read customer reviews on the Better Business Bureau website.
- Look for complaints in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau database.
- Search other websites for additional reviews by users.
- Avoid deals that sound too good to be true.
Watch out for suspicious details and be wary of the following red flags:
- Heavy reliance on new credit: Even the most legitimate companies may suggest opening new accounts as a part of a credit restoration strategy. However, leaning on this tactic too much can backfire.
- Suggesting a specific credit card: If a company immediately advises you to apply for a particular credit card, chances are that it has a hidden agenda to earn commissions rather than repair your credit.
- Guaranteeing improved credit: If a company’s offer sounds too good to be true, you’d better steer clear of it. A money-back guarantee is a legitimate feature. However, if a company promises to improve your score by 100 points overnight, create a new credit identity for you, or remove accurate negative items from your profile, we suggest you steer clear.
- Boasting about inside knowledge: Credit repair companies are distinguished by efficiency and persistence, not secret formulas that no one else knows about.
- Prohibiting contact: If a company demands that you don’t communicate with creditors or credit reporting bureaus on your own, that’s another red flag.
- Demanding upfront payments: Charging fees in advance is prohibited in this industry. If a company asks for large amounts of money upfront, walk away.
- Lack of a phone number: Even if you prefer communicating via email, it’s always wise to ensure that the agency you’re thinking of working with has a valid phone number.
- Poorly designed website: If a company’s site is hard to navigate and missing some features, it’s probably a scam. You should also look for unsecured servers and strange email addresses.
How Long Does Credit Repair Take?
Hiring a restoration agency to help you remove inaccurate information and erroneous negative items from your credit reports is one of the fastest and most efficient ways to improve your score. Considering that some consumers have more complex credit issues than others, it’s hard to tell exactly how quickly your credit can improve.
Credit bureaus have just 30 (or 45 in some cases) days to respond and resolve a dispute, so the timeline is relatively short. If you don’t have many accounts and need to correct just a few mistakes, your credit correction may take only a month. On average, resolving all the credit issues on a consumer’s report usually takes 3 to 6 months.
Tips for Working With a Credit Repair Service
Hiring a credit repair professional to help you improve your credit isn’t the only option. In fact, combining a few different approaches usually turns out to be the smartest choice. Here’s what you should consider before starting with the whole credit repair process.
Determine Whether You Need The Service
If you need to improve your poor credit profile, here’s the first question you should ask yourself: Do you need help from a credit restoration expert, or do you think you can tackle your own credit repair? Furthermore, do you really need the best in the biz, or can you save some money?
If you have only a few obvious errors or inconsistencies, we suggest you start by trying to fix them on your own.
If your credit situation is complex and you don’t have the time or skills to handle it by yourself, consider hiring a professional. Just remember that credit cleanup takes time, and only certain types of negative information can be removed from your reports.
Work Independently and Consider Alternatives
Hiring a credit restoration specialist won’t make much sense if you don’t work on your spending habits and aren’t careful with your credit cards. Here are some ideas to consider:
- Credit repair software: This type of software can be quite helpful in guiding you through the error-fixing process.
- Credit counseling: A credit counselor not only assists you in understanding a complete picture of your finances and current credit score but also provides advice on paying off your debts and repairing your credit.
- Debt consolidation: Consumers usually resort to debt consolidation as a tool to refinance debts with unfavorable terms.
- Debt settlement services: Under debt settlement, you pay a lump sum that works out to about half of the amount you owe. Creditors agree to accept the partial payment as payment in full.
Going for this option won’t improve your credit score. In fact, it could be listed as a write-off with severe adverse effects on your score. But resolving your debt will improve your credit profile in the long run.
FAQ
Is it worth paying someone to fix your credit?
This depends on how comfortable you are dealing with credit companies. Technically, the process of disputing credit reports isn’t all that complicated, and credit bureaus won’t magically “fix” bad credit or modify information unless it’s proven false.
That said, companies that deal with credit repair know the system far better than the average user and can save you a lot of hassle disputing everything from late payments to identity theft.
What is the fastest way to repair your credit?
There are two ways. The first is to dispute something on your credit report (either by yourself or by using a credit repair service), which is very useful if you know there is some false information on your report but won’t be much good if there are no valid grounds for a dispute.
The other is to try and be a more responsible credit user: Pay off debts, ensure you’re making regular credit payments, build your credit file, and generally try to do the opposite of whatever you did to get your credit damaged in the first place. Also, make sure to avoid the common mistakes people make when trying to rebuild their credit.
What is the average cost of credit repair?
This largely depends on the services you pick, as simple late payment disputes won’t usually cost the same as disputing bankruptcies or repossessions. That said, some of the leading companies typically have monthly fees ranging from $79 to $99, plus setup fees and additional costs, depending on what extra services you require.