How much does credit repair cost? While credit repair companies will be quick to provide you with their monthly pricing, your actual cost will depend on how much help you need navigating the process.
On the one hand, free credit repair is possible if you’re willing to put in the time and do it yourself. But if you require more support, you can rely on credit repair software or hire a credit repair company to do the job for you.
Credit repair takes time. That’s why most credit repair services charge a monthly fee. How much you pay to repair your credit will depend on the particulars of your situation.
In this article, we’ll compare credit repair costs and why they vary, how credit repair services differ, and provide alternatives to hiring a credit repair company. Should you pay someone to fix your credit? Read on to find out.
Best credit repair services
The table below ranks popular credit repair services by cost. They’re ranked from “cheapest” to “most expensive” considering the sum total of set up and monthly fees.
| Credit Repair Service | Set-up Fee | Monthly Cost |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Lexington Law | $6.99 | $89.95+ |
| 2. The Credit People | $19.00 | $79.00 |
| 3. Creditrepair.com | $14.99 | $99.95 |
| 4. Sky Blue Credit Repair | $79.00 | $79.00 |
| 5. Ovation Credit Services | $89.00 | $79.00 |
| 6. Credit Saint | $99.00 | $79.99+ |
| 7. AMB Credit Consultants | $149.00 | $99.00 |
When selecting a credit repair company, it’s always worth your while checking what others – such as the BBB – say about their services. The Better Business Bureau (BBB) is an independent company that helps people find and recommend businesses they can trust.
Here are the BBB ratings of popular credit repair companies.
| Credit Repair Service | BBB Accredited | BBB Rating |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Credit Saint | Yes | A+ |
| 2. Ovation Credit Services | Yes | A+ |
| 3. AMB Credit Consultants | No | A+ |
| 4. Sky Blue Credit Repair | No | C |
| 5. Lexington Law | No | C |
| 6. The Credit People | No | C+ |
| 7. Creditrepair.com | No | D |
Comparing credit repair companies by cost is useful, but it’s not the only metric you can (or should) consider. Consumer reviews provide additional valuable information to help guide your final decision.
The table below shows the user reviews of popular credit repair companies.
| Credit Repair Service | BBB User Review | Number of Reviews* |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Sky Blue Credit Repair | 5.00 | 21 |
| 2. Ovation Credit Services | 3.75 | 62 |
| 3. Credit Saint | 3.25 | 11 |
| 4. AMB Credit Consultants | 3.25 | 5 |
| 5. Creditrepair.com | 3.00 | 33 |
| 6. Lexington Law | 2.25 | 289 |
| 7. The Credit People | N/A | 1 |
Why credit repair cost varies
When you hire a credit repair company, you’re basically asking them to investigate negative items on your credit report and fix them for inaccuracies.
Everyone’s situation is different. Some people may have judgements and tax liens on their records, while others may not. How much credit repair costs you will depend on a number of factors, including:
- Whether you have public record items such as foreclosures
- The number of negative items you wish to have examined and corrected
- Whether you have original creditor items such as charge offs and closed accounts
Some companies even offer service tiers, with a sliding price scale depending on the complexity of your case.
Credit repair process
To understand why credit repair takes time, it helps to review how credit repair works. The process generally follows these steps:
- Obtain your credit reports. The credit repair service gets a copy of your credit reports and reviews with you the list of items that need to be challenged.
- Contact credit bureaus. To dispute an item, a credit repair service must contact the national credit bureaus in writing. And each credit bureau, in turn, must investigate the items in question within 30 days.
- Avoid frivolous items. The credit repair service must avoid challenging or disputing frivolous items, otherwise the credit bureaus may take longer than 30 days to respond.
- Review with creditors. Then, each credit bureau will contact the organizations who provided the information being disputed. If the information is inaccurate, the creditor or the organization that provided the information must notify the bureaus to get it updated.
- Get updated credit report. When the above steps are completed, the credit bureaus will mail you an updated credit report. Some items may be validated as accurate, while others will be deleted from your file.
- Monitor. Some credit repair services may offer additional services, including monitoring your credit to help you stay on track.
As you can appreciate, all of these steps take time. And the longer they take, the more your credit repair will cost.
Understand how your credit repair service works
Your credit repair cost will also depend on the approach used by the service you hire. An unscrupulous provider may choose to dispute only a few of your negative items at time.
That is, they may select only a few items to challenge, complete the dispute process for these and then move on to the next group of negative items. Or they could approach the credit bureaus one at a time. The reasoning is simple: the process will drag on, and their hope is that you’ll remain a paying customer for longer.
Before you choose a service, check their user reviews and understand how they work. It might save you some frustration and precious cash.
Additional levels of credit repair cost
In addition to paying someone to fix your credit, there are two additional approaches to fixing your credit:
- Use credit repair software
- Do-it-yourself credit repair
Credit repair software
Credit repair software can save you money if you want to handle your own credit errors. The software can be simple or quite detailed and can range in price from around $30 per license to upwards of $400 and more.
The simpler, cheaper versions will provide you with templates for typical items to dispute. But the more detailed software will offer guided steps, more customization and even handle dispute letters.
Do-it-yourself credit repair
If you’re willing to put in the time and effort required, you can correct credit inaccuracies on your own. By law, you have the right to a free credit report every 12 months from each of the nationwide credit bureaus: Experian, TransUnion and Equifax.
You can obtain your free credit reports at AnnualCreditReport.com, and can request them all three at the same time or request each report at different times during the calendar year.
You’ll need to contact each credit bureau in writing explaining the items which you believe are inaccurate. Sample credit bureau dispute letters are available online and you can find dispute letter templates for free.
If you’re unsure where to start, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau offers some common errors people find on their credit report, including your:
- Personal information
- Account status errors and
- Balance or credit limit errors
Should you pay someone to fix your credit?
Credit repair companies offer to help you remove inaccurate negative information from your credit reports and fix your credit. The keyword to pay attention to here is ‘inaccurate’.
If your credit report contains accurate negative credit information like a judgement or a bankruptcy, you won’t be able to have it removed from your credit reports using legal means.
But over time, items on your credit report will age and start carrying less weight on your credit score. Your more recent credit history will start playing a greater role. In that regard, a secured credit card can help.
When used responsibly, a secured credit card can help you build credit and improve your credit history. Consider it as an additional tool to help you improve your credit score.
Other articles you may be interested in:
How do I find a credit repair service near me?
We’ve simplified the process of finding a credit repair company near you. Just click the button below. It’ll open a Google map in a new tab listing companies providing credit repair services near you. The list will display users’ ratings, when available
FAQs
How long does credit repair take?
Removing inaccurate items from your credit report can take from a few weeks to several months. Credit reporting agencies must investigate errors within 30 days, but they must rely on the organizations providing the information to verify inaccuracies.
Do credit repair companies hurt your credit?
The act of disputing errors in your credit report and requesting they be corrected does not hurt your credit.
Can you fix your credit?
You can correct credit reporting errors on your own. Doing so requires you to obtain your credit reports, review them for errors and contact the credit bureaus to dispute inaccuracies. You may also need to contact the organization that furnished the information used by the credit bureaus.