Reputable Credit Repair Companies We Recommend
Credit Saint is probably the most popular credit repair service in the US. They do a really good job. That said, if you prefer a different payment structure, such as a lower setup fee or an upfront rather than monthly fee, The Credit People and CreditRepair.com are also great services.
We recommend all three of these companies, it really boils down to your preferred payment method.
When Credit Repair is The Smart Thing to Do
As I often tell my readers, hiring a credit repair company is by far the fastest and easiest way to fix bad credit. Your other option is to attempt to clean up your credit report by yourself (the do-it-yourself method).
I generally recommend that people who have multiple negative items on their credit report, such as late payments, collections, or charge-offs, go with a credit repair company rather than attempt to remove these items themselves. It’s not too difficult to remove one or two negative items, but when you have several, it’s a difficult, time-consuming task.
An important point to consider is that because credit repair companies deal with creditors on a daily basis, they understand the proper techniques to use in order to get negative items removed from your credit report.
What could take you many months to do yourself, will likely take them a fraction of the time. This is an important thing to consider if you’re in a hurry to improve your credit, which might be the case if you’re trying to get approved for a mortgage.
Credit Repair Pays For Itself
The other thing to consider is that hiring a credit repair company is relatively cheap compared to what you are getting in return. If by fixing your credit, you end up getting lower interest rates on loans, the credit repair service just paid for itself.
We’ll get into pricing a little more in a bit.
How Do Credit Repair Companies Work?
So when you hire a credit repair company, what exactly do they do in order to clean up your credit report? Let’s get into that now.
Almost all credit repair companies work the same way. They generally start by pulling your credit report and reviewing it while you’re on the phone. Once the negative items are identified a game plan will be created and then the actual credit repair process begins —which is illustrated in the graphic below.
How to Choose The Right Credit Repair Company
There are a few things to take into consideration when choosing a credit repair company to work with. First of all, there are local credit repair companies, and there are national companies.
I generally recommend going with a national company just because they are generally larger companies and therefore have more resources and connections to handle your case.
After that it boils down to cost. When you compare credit repair services side by side, they all cost just about the same, give or take a few bucks. The difference, however, are the payment structures. These vary slightly so it’s important that you choose the one that works best for you.
Differences in payment structures come in the form of: higher or lower upfront costs, monthly vs. single payment, etc.
Final Thoughts
As I mentioned at the start, hiring a credit repair company is by far the easiest way to fix your credit. This is especially true if you’re in a hurry, which is usually the case with people who are looking to get approved for a mortgage loan.
What’s been your experience with credit repair companies? I would love to hear your personal stories down in the comments section. This also helps other readers who are considering credit repair to get an idea of what to expect.
This is all excellent advice. It is really important to understand that just because you qualify for a certain amount of credit doesn’t mean you should use it all.
Quick question, what is the sweet spot for credit utilization? I’ve always kept mine low but apparently it is a big factor in determining your credit score. Also what would you recommend in terms of the credit balance you access? I currently have 2 credit cards with a total available credit balance of $12,500. Should I be trying to access more? I’m not concerned about going into debt (I have a good handle on my credit card spending) but I do want to get my score as high as possible. Thanks.
$12,500 is more than enough as far as credit scores go… having more won’t impact it… I’d keep utilization under 15%.
Excellent, I was wondering about that. It just seems so weird that in order to have a good credit score you have to put yourself in a position to potentially access lots of bad debt. I think it points to a weakness in the system, an opportunity for change.
Im in he process of purchasing a home. Trying to improve my 675 FICO. I have 5k I can apply to cc debt. Not sure which one to address.
CC#1
Limit 15k
Owe 12K
CC#2
Limit 12K
Owe 11K
The numbers are so close that I don’t think it would really matter either way. I’d probably pay $2,500 on each.
Probably makes more since to pay more money on the card closer to its limit. 3K to CC#2 and 2K to CC#1 . Also, with 5K to put toward CC debt, I would cut back on the credit card spending, because is way more expensive having to pay interest.
Hi,
My husband is an authorized user on our daughter’s credit card account. We need to increase his credit score, it’s only 600, so we’re considering having him removed. The good-it’s a 16 year account with perfect payments. The bad-it’s utilizing too much of the credit line ($10,000 of a $12,000). His credit report is saying he has 5 years of credit history. Thank you!
How much will your credit score rise with the removal of state tax liens?
As much as 100 points.
This is very helpful but my problem goes much deeper. I have accounts I paid on showing high balances. When I went into the account I had with HOME DEPOT I was shocked to find that someone had gone in and just added huge charges to my bill but when I click to see what I purchased there was nothing. Just a 500.00 charge I was to now pay. And I’d had this and another HOME DEPOT ACCOUNT ON AUTO PAY THROUGH MY BANK for a couple years and my husband and I split up for some time then and the auto pay kept coming out every month but then there were electronic checks to with payment to Home Depot illegally set up. The really bad part of all this was my account now shows a 7,000 charge off and 1,700 on the other account that Portfolio Revovery out of the blue served me court papers on last june 2017. It’s the very first time I’ve ever heard of this collection agency. They claimed they own my citi bank/Home Depot charge off accounts. Which I say to that that their information on the law suit was incorrect. Oh and I did tell Home Depot in January 2015 of the problem and they issued me new cards. I had to close down the bank account too which was a mess. and Home Depot was to get ahold of me reguarding the matter. They never did. I’ve been ill since and have had major data breaches from every company who’s had data breaches. I just don’t use credit anymore. But this law suit I had to reply with in 20 days of being served. I denied the account balance and then owning my account. The court date now is set for February 2018. But in getting all my bank statements together and decoding these electronic check will thdrawls illegally taken from my account. Guess who I uncovered hiding behind codes the average person wouldn’t think to check and catch wind of? PORTFOLIO RECOVERY ASSOCIATES!!!!!!!!! What’s up with that? And on my credit report I just pulled there they are already claiming they are in charge of the fraudulent charge off account and court hasn’t even happened yet. Boy am I going to love my day in court!!!
I messed up and forgot to pay a cc bill unser my husbands name. He has had a high 700 cc as long as Ive known him. He helped raise my score Ttaching me to his credit. The cc will not remove late payment- his credit score has dropped 100 pts bc of this. We were trying to buy a home and now do not qualify for a mortgage. Any advice?
Thank you