Credit Saint is not the most affordable choice on the market and we think that their pricing is unjustified. They have high initial fees, but don’t offer more than competition. However, they are transparent about their fees and terms of service and they do offer 90 day money back guarantee, which does inspires some credibility.
Although it is a relatively new company, The Credit Pros is one of the most expensive ones in this field. It does offer more financial services than most of its competitors, 90 days money-back guarantee and it works with certified FICO professionals, but its fees are nevertheless unjustified. Moreover, the length of their program is above the standard.
With over 12 years of experience in this business and an A+ rating with the BBB, Credit Assistance Network proves to be a good choice for people who want to repair their credit. The company’s credit repair program includes all the desired and needed features and more and it also comes with 100% money back guarantee.
Lexington Law is one of the largest law firms in the US. They have a network of 24 lawyers who work in 19 states. They offer credit repair services since 1991 and claim to have helped over 500.000 clients so far and removed 7,5 million negative items from credit reports in 2015 alone.
Veracity Credit Consultants is a credit repair company from Denver, Colorado. Although it has an impressive number of clients, it also has one of the highest numbers of customer complaints. Most of them are related to billing, false advertising and the quality of the service itself.
It has an F rating from the Better Business Bureau (BBB).
Sky Blue is one of the most popular and high-rated credit repair company on the market.
It strives to restore your credit in about 6 months, give or take. It comes with a full 90 day refund, no questions asked and a top-notch customer support. It is a good choice for people who want to get mortgage-ready or eligible for a car loan or other types of credit inquiries.
MSI Credit Solutions is a reputable credit repair company with over 10 years of experience in this field, which makes it trust-worthy for most customers. Although they are quite expensive compared to the competition, they pretty much know what they are doing and they offer a guarantee for their services. Their educational center is really helpful for anyone looking to expand their knowledge on anything related to credit or financial issues in general.
MyCreditGroup offers more than just credit repair services. It also specializes in debt settlement and pay for delete negotiations. Although it is not among the cheapest services we reviewed, it does offer generous discounts for couples and it doesn’t charge for pulling your credit reports. They could have more educational resources on the website, but other than that, their services are mostly irreproachable.
Ovation is a BBB accredited credit repair firm with an A+ rating. The company is based in Florida but they provide online and phone services in the entire US. Today it is one of the top 10 credit repair companies in the country.
The Credit People is a credit repair company based in Florida, with over 16 years of experience in this business and it is endorsed by publications such as USA Today, The Wall Street Journal and Smart Money.
The Credit People is one of the most affordable credit repair firms on the market today. They even state on their website that they have one of the lowest fees in the industry.
Last updated April 18, 2024
There are a lot of reasons why credit issues can affect your life. From the impossibility to get insurance, to paying higher interest rates, having difficulties in getting a job or even renting an apartment. A bad credit report can mess up every aspect of your life.
A credit score is a numerical expression that represents how ‘credit worthy’ you are as a citizen. Credit scores are based on credit reports generated by credit bureaus (the main three in US are TransUnion, Experian and Equifax) and are used by banks, credit card companies and other lenders, in order to assess how risky it is to lend money to people. Other organizations such as insurance companies, mobile phone ones, etc. use them as well. Their purpose is to reduce as much as possible the losses caused by the fact that borrowers don’t pay their bills.
When credit bureaus calculate your credit scores, they don’t take into consideration your income. They have other methods to do it. One common one is the FICO score (previously known as Fair Isaac Corporation). The FICO model measures the risk of default, by analyzing different factors in someone’s financial history. But there are other alternative credit scores as well, which use factors such as your income, your job stability, the economic context and its impact, etc. Among other popular credit score models we can also mention VantageScore, PLUS Score, Equifax and TransRisk.
US citizens are entitled to one free credit report/year from each of the 3 bureaus, but the reports don’t contain the credit scores. The scores are only available as a paid add-on feature of the report.
There is, however another way of obtaining your credit scores free of charge. That is by subscribing to a credit report monitoring service that is available either from credit bureaus or third parties. But in order to get the scores you have to use a credit card to sign up for a free trial subscription. If you don’t want to be charged, you have to cancel your account before the trial expires and they start to charge you.
Having a high credit score is very important, because the higher it is, the lower your interest rates on loans or credit cards. As mentioned before, you also stand a better chance for loan approval with a good credit score and you can also borrow more money from the bank. Even when you simply want to buy a smartphone on contract, a good credit score will allow you to do so without paying a security deposit and you will also get larger discounts. You can also avoid security deposits on your utilities, for example, when you have to move and want to establish or transfer your utility service to the new location.
Credit repair is the process of repairing or improving a bad credit report, regardless of why it went wrong. Sometimes it can simply be a reporting error, since this is a common problem. Studies show that almost 80% of all credit reports contain some errors. Other times credit repairing implies dealing with identity theft or financial issues such as budgeting.
There are people who choose to repair their credit using the DIY method. Others prefer to leave it to professional credit repair agencies.
Regardless of your chosen method, the idea of credit repair is to analyze all the debt a person has accumulated and come up with a plan to mitigate it or get rid of it entirely.
One popular way to go is to use credit repair software. There are myriad companies out there that offer credit repair software and online services. Some of them are free, others require a monthly fee.
Credit repair software helps you repair you bad report, organize your documents, dispute items, negotiate your debt with the creditor, easily order the annual credit report you are entitled to, etc. You also get links to free credit reports sources or paid ones, access to helpful blogs, etc. Credit repair software can even help you start your own credit repair business.
Most users see the results after a month of use, but the service doesn’t guarantee that your credit score will rise to a certain amount.
A bad credit report should be addressed and fixed one way or another. The question though is how should you do it? A lot of people choose to undertake this challenge on their own. That is because this particular industry is very controversial. The market is filled with scammers and people are wary and skeptical about leaving their financial situation in the hands of these so called ‘professional agencies’.
Moreover, the main purpose of a credit repair service is to try and improve your credit score by finding and disputing items on your credit report that might be incorrect or imprecise. However, you could do this by yourself and for free, because the credit bureaus are legally compelled to reply in 30 days. But if you don’t have the time and mood to go through all that hassle, you can opt for a credit repair service. If you choose to go with a credit repair company, you should take some factors into account:
