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A credit score is a fragile thing. Taking on debt to fund big-ticket purchases is common among Americans. Many Americans find themselves in a delicate balancing act to manage their debt and income every month. Shifts in the economy and interest rates in the wrong direction leads to difficult situations and shortage of funds.
Missing a credit card payment, loan repayment, or store card payment shows up on a person's credit report. However, it's not the only reason why an individual's credit score falters. Identity theft may occur too.
The following are the top seven credit repair companies that help consumers become credit-worthy again. Plus, we added three credit monitoring companies and a way to receive your credit report for free.
Best for:
Overall Customer Experience
Helps to Repair Credit in 6 Months
Varied Services to Choose From
BBB Accredited with Money Back Guarantee
Credit Saint receives the best overall score among the credit repair companies. In business since 2004, the credit repair company has fixed millions of errors for clients. On average, it takes credit removals six months to reflect on the report. While the team works, clients pay a monthly fee. CreditSaint offers three plans: Credit Polish, Credit Remodel, and Clean Slate. Lets taker a deeper look at the programs.
Credit Polish. Services include are: Challenges to all three credit bureaus, score analysis, creditor interventions, score tracker, and up to 5 inaccurate report challenges per dispute cycle.
Additionally, clients receive an online account to track progress made on their behalf. Credit Saint aims to tackle foreclosures, repossessions, incorrect late payments, bankruptcies, and charge-offs. The team explains to clients the length each can remain on a credit report. Their job is to dispute the ones that still reflect on the report after the statute of limitations. Also, the incorrectly reported ones.
Credit Saint offers the Credit Polish as a part of their other higher-tier plans. The service begins with creating an account for the client. Next, a team member goes over the client's credit report with them. The last step before the work begins involved the team member educating the client. They go over strategies to open and close credit lines. They also go over the importance of paying bills on time, among other techniques.
Price: $79.99 per month plus $99 initial fee + sales taxes where applicable
Credit Remodel. Includes services from the Credit Polish package plus: up to 10 inaccurate report challenges per dispute cycle, inquiry targeting, and Experian monitoring.
Price: $99.99 per month plus $99 initial fee + sales taxes where applicable
Clean Slate. Includes services from the Credit Polish and Credit Remodel packages plus: unlimited inaccurate report challenges per dispute cycle.
Price: $119.99 per month plus $195 initial fee + sales taxes where applicable
Online Account to Track Progress
Free Credit Evaluation
90 Day Money Back Guarantee
Monthly Fee is Substantial
Results May Take up to 6 Months
Best for:
Legal Expertise
Assistance from Legal Professionals
Bureau Challenges
Credits Interventions
Lexington Law has a long history of helping to repair credit, having launched in 2004. The credit repair company consists of a team of lawyers and their knowledge of the law gives the firm more credibility and experience.
To start, the company offers a free consultation and they provide a three-question survey for prospective clients. If they answer yes to any questions, the client is a good candidate for the service. The company is up-front about the individuals who most benefit from their service, namely those who require the removal of a negative item from their credit report.
Lexington Law offers three plans: the Concord Standard, Concord Premier, and Premier Plus. The Concord Standard plan is the least expensive and most basic service. It ramps up to the Premier Plus plan. Let's explore each in more detail.
Concord Standard. Services included in the Lexington Law Concord Standard plan are: Bureau Challenges and Creditor Interventions. The Concord Standard plan is a very basic service at a high fee, however, the client has access to legal professionals whose experience could be invaluable.
Price: $89.95 per month.
Concord Premier. Includes the services from the Concord Standard Plan, plus: Inquiry Assist, Score Analysis, ReportWatch, and TransUnion Alerts.
Price: $109.95 per month.
Premier Plus. Includes the services from the Concord Standard and Concord Premier plans plus: cease and desist letters, FICO score tracker, Identity Protection and personal finance tools.
Price: $129.95 per month.
Legal experts provide the service
Discounts available
Easy to determine who is a good candidate for the service
Takes six months to see results
Alerts only come from TransUnion
Results are not guaranteed
Best for:
Free Score Analysis
Free consultation
Free trial
Free recommended credit solution
CreditRepair.com boasts an impressive resume of helping clients. It first launched in 2012 and has made good use of technology. From the start, it's website is clean, crisp, and user-friendly. Since 2012, the company has removed 7.5 million issues from their client's credit reports, administered 23 million disputes and challenges, and initiated over one million interventions on behalf of their clients.
Their process places a focus on challenging negative items with the bureaus, disputing negative items, and monitoring client credit reports.
In addition, they place a heavy focus on educating their clients on the topics of credit reports, reporting, and improving credit. In their Credit Education section, they address the basics of credit reporting, disputing negative items, rebuilding credit, improving credit, and offer credit advice.
The company provides a subsection to credit management for lowering mortgage interest rates, managing student loans, hardship programs, and cutting high interest rate credit cards.
Like other credit repair companies, CreditRepair.com also offers three plans. They include: Direct, Standard, and Advanced.
Direct. Services included in the CreditRepair.com Direct plan are: Bureau challenges, inquiry assists, and goodwill interventions.
Price: $69.95 per month plus $69.95 first work fee
Standard. Includes services from Direct plan plus: FICO® Score Inquiry Assist service.
Advanced. Includes services from Direct and Standard plans plus: additional bureau challenges, monthly score updates, additional credit interventions,, and cease and desist interventions.
Price: $119.95 per month plus $119.95 first work fee
Try before you buy
Access to personal finance education tools
Takes six months to see results
Initial fee is relatively expensive
Best for:
Value
No upfront fees
Couples discounts
Unique service provided
Sky Blue Credit repair company runs their program differently from the others. They charge a flat fee for their service. Plus, they allow clients to try before committing to the service. The company has 30 years of experience under its belts. It explains why their process is straightforward.
The company takes pride in its faster 35-day cycle, all-inclusive service package and flexible payment plan that includes pausing service. In addition, Sky Blue Credit offers a condition-free refund policy, education center, and stellar customer service.
For individuals who have doubts about working with a credit repair company, a free consultation is available to them by phone. If the individual likes what they hear, they begin the enrollment process.
First, fill out the online form. Next, the service receives the customer's credit reports. Their team goes over the reports line by line. They start identifying questionable entries from the beginning. The team also starts identifying opportunities to improve the individual's credit score and report. They identify credit rebuilding opportunities too.
In addition to offering a flat-fee program, the plan includes several benefits such as: no upgrade charges, no piggy-back charges, flexible payments and an anytime cancellation policy.
The plan includes the following services: professional, expert analysis and dispute identification, 15 disputed items every 35 days, score assistance and education, credit rebuilding guidance, debt validation, goodwill letters, and finally cease and desist letters.
Price: $79 per month plus $79 set up fee, $119 for couples per month plus $119 set up fee
One package
Short dispute cycle
Money Back Guarantee
Limited disputes per cycle
No ongoing credit monitoring service
Best for:
Fastest Service
Variety of plans
Free credit evaluation
90 day money-back guarantee
The Credit Pros credit repair company is another one driven by artificial intelligence. Their services are efficient. They also add value for their clients by offering educational opportunities.
Right off the bat, the credit repair service flexes its muscles. The company points out that it has successfully serviced over 100,000 clients over 10 years. It highlights that its solutions receive power from AI.
This credit repair company offers: simple to read credit reports, personalized score insights, tools and tips that provide education, strategies for future credit decisions, and credit monitoring services.
While other companies add fees for premium services, The Credit Pros include several in their packages. The packages are Money Management, Prosperity Package, and the Success Package.
Clients of The Credit Pros receive: 1. IDCover to protect from Identity Theft. 2. Credit Sentry to monitor your credit and alert you of changes. 3. CreditRepoair.ai to programmatically repair your credit. 4. Cash Rules to help you manage your finances.
The benefits don't stop there. They continue with premium services without an additional cost including: One-on-one planning, ID theft restoration & insurance, 24/7 access to their client portal, debt validation letters, and monthly planning with unlimited dispute letters.
Money Management. The basic plan includes: CreditSentry, IDCover and CashRules
Price: $49 a month
Prosperity Package: Inlcudes the services from Money Management Plan and: Access to Slash Rx, credit restoration with the three bureaus, snowball and avalanche debt system, TCP legal network, and debt validation letters.
Price: $119 a month
Success Package. Includes all the services and benefits of the previous tiers in addition to: access to Hutton Chase Department store line of credit and Reporting to Experian and Transunion.
Price: $149 a month
Provides expanded services
Artificial Intelligence enhanced process
High fees
Takes six months for results
Relatively expensive
Best for:
Cancellation Policy
Free Consultation
30 day money-back guarantee
Associated with LendingTree
Ovation Credit Services by Lending Tree offers a complete package.
In addition to their credit repair services, they provide credit education and credit monitoring. They have the best cancellation policy. If a customer doesn't see results, the company immediately refunds the fee for the month. Other companies make clients wait 90 days.
The cancellation policy is only one reason why Ovation Credit Services ranks among the credit repair companies.
Individuals who have experienced problems with their credit report and candidates for this company's services. They believe that the first step toward improving a credit report is to fix any problems it currently has; it starts with improving the individual's credit.
This credit repair company has three focus areas: Identify and correct credit report errors, provide credit education and tools, and monitoring the customer's credit.
Founded in 1976 and incorporated in 2004, the company has helped correct over one million credit reports. They average 19 corrections per client. Even though the services come in a package, there is plenty of room customization. Ovation emphasizes that a person's credit score impacts their ability to borrow. Their approach takes four steps.
First, a company credit specialist analyses the customer's credit report. They also look over the customer's financial background. The goal is to match the client with the appropriate program.
Next, the customer signs up for an account. The account gives the client access to a case advisor. This begins the process and the Dispute Manager. The Manager goes through the credit reports and identifies areas that require resolution.
As the Manager does its job, the client can remain at ease that their case is receiving the necessary attention. The process of correcting inaccuracies begins.
Lastly, the client receives access to their account online. By setting up an account, they can check the progress 24/7. Simply log into the Case Management website. In addition, the client receives email notifications.
Plan features include: affordable customizable services, same-day service, one-on-one customer services, and personalized dispute options. There are two plans, Essential and Essential Plus
Essentials. This plan includes: personalized dispute options, access to a Case Advisor, and Financial Management Tools.
Price: $79 per month plus $89 first work fee
Essentials Plus. Essentials Plus includes the Essentials Services and: Unlimited challenge validation letters, unlimited goodwill letters, recommendation letter from Ovation and TransUnion credit monitoring.
Price: $109 per month plus $89 first work fee
Easy cancellation
Proven track record
Backed by a well known brand
Results may take 6 months
Relatively expensive service
Only TransUnion monitoring
Best for:
Free Service
Credit Karma launched in March 2008. The company's goal always revolved around giving consumers free access to their credit report data. The founders believed that consumers could make better financial decisions if they understand their financial information.
Things went well for the Credit Karma team. In 2011, they launched their Approval Odds tool. Based on their credit score and report, members could see whether or not lenders might approve them for an array of credit cards.
In 2012, the credit monitoring service launched its daily monitoring services and iOS mobile app. The following year, the company expanded into financial monitoring and tracking. As the credit monitoring service continued to gain credibility, more credit bureaus formed partnerships with them.
Credit Karma added its error reporting feature in 2015, Direct Dispute. In 2017, the service makes it possible to file taxes for free with Credit Karma Tax.
Among the several benefits of using Credit Karma, there are two disadvantages. These are the Ads that appear throughout and that they do not report on FICO score.
Instead of reporting the individual's FICO score, the service offers VantageScore, which combines reporting from Equifax and TransUnion.
Free service
Expanded services such as Direct Dispute
Ads
No FICO score reporting
Compare Best Credit Repair Services | 1. Credit Saint Overall Customer Experience View Plans | 2. Lexington Law Legal Expertise View Plans | 3. CreditRepair.com Free Score Analysis View Plans | 4. Sky Blue Credit Value View Plans | 5. Credit Pros Fastest Service View Plans | 6. Ovation Credit Services Cancellation Policy View Plans | 7. Credit Karma Free Service View Plans |
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Reviews | 792 reviews | 536 reviews | 612 reviews | 933 reviews | 387 reviews | 593 reviews | 791 reviews |
Online Quote Process | Above Average | Above Average | Above Average | Above Average | Average | Average | Average |
Customer Support | Above Average | Above Average | Above Average | Above Average | Average | Average | Average |
We understand how tedious and frustrating it can be to sift through all of the companies on the internet on your own. Painting a comprehensive picture of each company is essential in determining which option is best for you, but it requires hours of in depth research. Thankfully, we have a team of expert researchers who have already done the work.
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The rankings of companies on our site can change at any time and are dependent on evolving information on company pricing, customer satisfaction, and more. Compensation in no way fully determines the order in which we rank the providers, and all recommendations are completely unbiased.
We designed a rubric to objectively evaluate each provider, and our team does extensive research in order to give scores for each metric, like affordability, customer service, average policy value, coverage quality, and more. We analyze thousands of reviews across dozens of sites, along with signing up ourselves so we can compare first hand experiences.