Errors on your credit report can lower your credit score, but if you don’t have the time to dispute these errors, credit repair companies can help. While these companies can’t guarantee results, they can contact each credit bureau on your behalf and dispute errors, so you don’t have to. Additionally, they help repair poor credit scores through consultations, monitoring, and helping you get back on track with timely payments.

When looking for a credit repair company, it’s essential to compare different options to find one that offers reliable, affordable, and effective services. Many of these companies also offer additional services to help boost your credit scores, such as sending out pay-to-delete letters, credit consultation, and credit monitoring.

What Are Credit Repair Companies?

Credit repair companies review your credit report and dispute inaccuracies on your behalf in exchange for a fee. There may be wrong information on your credit report that can lower your credit score and lead you to pay higher than necessary interest rates on credit.

Credit repair can identify and address these errors and improve your credit score through other strategies like credit monitoring and improving your repayment history. The Fair Credit Reporting Act gives consumers the right to dispute inaccurate information to get it corrected and removed. Once you dispute information, credit bureaus must investigate it and respond within 30 days.

How Do Credit Repair Companies Work?

Credit repair companies will get in touch with the three credit bureaus- Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion, to get inaccurate, incomplete, misleading information removed from your credit report. Their goal is to improve your credit score and clean up your credit profile so they also help you implement strategies that improve bad credit scores, such as getting  a credit builder loan and making sure you pay your bills on time.   

While you can do credit repair on your own, these companies can help you if there are significant errors on your credit report and you don't have time to deal with them. Many companies send unlimited disputes and bureau challenges on your behalf, helping you save time. Here are a few services that credit repair companies may offer.

“You’d be surprised how often inaccurate information appears on your credit report,” shares Teresa Dodson, debt expert and founder of Greenbacks Consulting. “Always stay on top of monitoring this and ask for help if you find any issues,” Dodson adds. 

Credit Consultations

Many credit repair companies offer free credit consultations to new customers. These consultations can provide you with the education, insight, and guidance you need to learn more about how to improve your credit.

Credit Monitoring

Credit repair companies can continuously monitor your credit report and alert you in case of suspicious activity or changes. Credit monitoring services can be quite helpful for detecting unauthorized accounts and identity theft. The package may include other services like identity theft protection, debt validation, and credit score analysis based on your credit situation.

Credit Repair

The main service provided by these companies is credit repair. They analyze your credit report, find errors, and work on your behalf to dispute this inaccurate information. They communicate with debt collectors and credit bureaus to have these items removed to improve your credit score. 

Can You Really Fix Your Credit?

It’s possible to fix your credit in multiple ways, such as paying your bills on time, opening accounts that are reported to the credit bureau, and managing credit wisely. Another way to fix credit is by reviewing your credit report periodically to find any inaccuracies and sending dispute letters. If you have no credit history, find ways to build your credit without a credit card, such as through credit builder loans.

The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act allows you to get a free credit report at annualcreditreport.com each year. You can do so at a fee if you want access to your credit reports more frequently.

If you don’t have time to do this yourself, you can work with a credit report company with a good track record of success in credit restoration. While several companies advertise how they were able to improve their client's credit scores, there are no reliable ways to prove the effectiveness of their services. They can provide you with credit repair services that can improve your credit score, but there’s no guarantee of success.

The 3 Best Credit Repair Companies in the Market

There are many companies in the credit repair industry that can help you improve your credit score. When selecting a company to work with, compare their services, prices, success rates, and Better Business Bureau (BBB) reviews to avoid credit repair scams. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) provides information on the Credit Repair Organizations Act (CROA) and credit repair red flags you should be aware of.

Credit Saint is another company with a strong reputation and years of experience. It offers three different packages, Clean Slate, Credit Polish, and Credit Remodel,  with a minimum setup fee of $99 and monthly charges starting at $79.99.

Credit Saint focuses on removing inaccurate negative information like late payments, liens, bankruptcies, repossessions, foreclosures, collections, and judgments to improve your credit score. It also offers a satisfaction guarantee stating that you can get a full refund if you don’t see any questionable items removed from your credit report in 90 business days.

2. The Credit Pros

The Credit Pros offer an AI-driven credit repair and management platform with free credit monitoring services. You’ll pay a setup fee of $119 and a monthly fee starting at $69, depending on the package you choose.

The company offers a free consultation before you sign up for their services. This is a good way to check if their services will be a good fit. All packages offer a 90-day money-back guarantee, so you can get your money back if there’s no deletion from the three major credit bureaus within that time.

3. Sky Blue Credit

Sky Blue is one of the industry's oldest and most experienced credit repair companies. It offers a single-service plan where you’ll pay an upfront first work fee of $99 and then a monthly payment of $99.

As part of the package that includes debt management, credit repair, monitoring, and disputes, you’ll get several other extra services for free, such as identity theft consultation, goodwill letters, and cease and desist letters.

Although the company doesn’t have live chat or mobile app, you can contact customer service through a support ticket, email, or phone.

Methodology

For the purpose of choosing the top three credit repair companies, we evaluated ten companies based on several criteria, including:

  • Fees
  • Services offered
  • Customer support
  • Years in business
  • Customer reviews

Based on these criteria, we selected companies that offer the best range of services at an affordable price range.

Why Use a Credit Repair Company?

Legitimate credit repair companies have an understanding of credit reporting laws and established relationships with credit reporting agencies. This can help them achieve positive results for their clients through personalized interventions. It may also be faster to achieve results with the help of a credit reporting company than trying to do it on your own.

Credit reports can be challenging to understand for many, and if you want to find out what’s causing a dip in your credit score, you may want to work with trained professionals. Their services may help you get a good credit score, which can allow you to get new credit at better terms from lenders in the future. However, it’s important to remember that these companies can only get negative items removed if they are inaccurate. 

The Bottom Line on Credit Repair Companies

Most people can improve credit scores simply by paying off outstanding debt, timely bill payments, and reviewing credit reports periodically. You can also get help from a credit counseling agency if you’re struggling with debt or need money management guidance based on your financial situation.

If the credit repair process feels too overwhelming, there are many resources available to improve poor credit and spend money wisely. Hiring a credit  repair company may help you find and correct any inaccuracies on your credit report, which may improve your credit score. However, these services are often expensive and may not be right for everyone.