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Maintaining a high credit score can help you get approved for loans and qualify for lower interest rates. But even if you pay your bills on time and in full, credit reporting errors can damage your score with lasting repercussions. Disputing these credit reporting errors involves reviewing your credit history, identifying inaccuracies, and gathering evidence to support your claim. A reputable credit repair company can help if that process sounds daunting. However, there are plenty of less-than-reputable credit repair companies out there.
Read on to see our picks for the best credit repair companies, learn what they can and can't do, and determine whether enlisting their services is a good solution to your credit woes.
Best Credit Repair Companies of November 2023
Credit Glory - Editorial Name Only : Best for customer satisfactionProsperity Plan - Editorial Name Only : Best for additional servicesDovly Premium - Editorial Name Only : Most affordable
Compare the Top Credit Repair Companies
Credit Repair Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
How do I fix my credit?
If there is negative information on your credit report that is accurately reported, there's little you can do to fix your credit, as you cannot remove a delinquency. However, You can dispute inaccurate directly with the credit bureaus.
Is credit repair worth it?
Whether or not a credit repair company is worth it is up to you to determine. They generally have a high price tag and don't perform any service you can't achieve yourself. However, if you don't want to go through the process of disputing a credit report error yourself, credit repair services are certainly an option.
How to repair credit on my own
To dispute an error on your credit report, you will need to contact the credit bureaus individually. You'll need to gather documents that substantiate your claim, such as payment receipts from your bank that prove you paid a bill on time. The FTC has a letter template you can use if you send your dispute by mail.
Credit Repair Company Reviews
Credit Glory
Cost:
Operating since 2016, Credit Glory helps customers repair a wide range of credit errors, from bankruptcies and collections to names and addresses. The company has credit experts available seven days a week and offers a free phone consultation for you to ask questions and make sure you want to proceed. While Credit Glory should present disclosures more prominently, its FAQ page sets proper expectations about the efficacy of credit repair without overpromising results.
Credit Glory has generated near-unanimous positive customer reviews on Trustpilot, boasting a rating of 4.9 stars out of five, with 99% of over 6,800 reviewers giving the company four or five stars. However, those reviews focus narrowly on the signup process and interactions with agents during the initial consultation, leaving uncertainty about how satisfied customers are with results later in the process.
The incidence of complaints against Credit Glory filed with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is in line with complaints filed against other companies on this list. The most frequent complaint is dissatisfaction with the results of the service, which is prevalent among all the credit repair companies we researched.
One readily apparent downside of Credit Glory is its high cost. The setup fee of $299 is more than double what the other companies on this list charge, though the $99 monthly fee is comparable. The company offers a 90-day money-back guarantee in the event that they cannot remove any inaccuracies or errors, but that guarantee covers only the monthly fee and not the pricey setup fee.
The Credit Pros
Cost:
The Credit Pros has been in operation for 14 years and claims to have helped over 100,000 clients in the US. You can schedule a free consultation in English or Spanish, and once enrolled in the program, a Credit Pros specialist will begin addressing inaccuracies on your credit report in three to five business days. Some Credit Pros plans come with additional services like three-bureau credit reports and the option to apply for a credit builder loan.
Client reviews of Credit Pros are largely favorable but, like Ovation, consist of a small sample size. The company has a Trustpilot rating of 4.6 from just over 300 reviews, 93% of which rated Credit Pros as four or five stars. The BBB profile has an average review of 4.0 from just over 100 reviews, with nearly 20 complaints closed in the previous 12 months. The most common complaints include a lack of results and difficulty canceling the subscription.
The Credit Pros' lowest level Money Management plan doesn't include credit repair. For that, you need either the Prosperity plan, which costs $119 monthly with a $119 first work fee, or the Success Plus, which costs $149 monthly with a $149 first work fee. Unless you're also planning to apply for a credit builder loan, the Prosperity plan should suffice. All plans include TransUnion credit monitoring and some degree of identity theft protection, though both services are available free or cheaply elsewhere.
One highlight of Credit Pros service is a stipulation in its refund policy that covers clients for deleted items that reappear on the client's credit report. In that event, Credit Pros will reinvestigate those items without any additional charge for life.
Read our The Credit Pros Review here.
Dovly
Cost:
Dovly is by far the cheapest credit repair service on the market. At $39.99 monthly with no setup fee, Dovly is already one of the most affordable credit repair services. However, the $99.99 annual membership will save you even more. Visa cardholders can also get a 50% discount on their monthly membership through its Dovly Uplift program.
Client reviews of Dovly are mostly positive, averaging 4.7 stars on Trustpilot with 146 reviews. It averages 4.31 stars on its BBB profile across 74 reviews. Like The Credit Pros, the most common Dovly complaints include a lack of results and difficulty canceling service.
Dovly splits its service into two tiers: free and premium. The free version offers monthly TransUnion credit reports and scores and one credit dispute with TransUnion, all of which can be viewed on a browser or through its highly-rated mobile app. The premium tier offers weekly TransUnion credit reports and scores and unlimited credit disputes with all three credit bureaus. You can treat the free version almost like a free trial to see if there's anything on your credit report that needs challenging.
One of the downsides is that Dovly lacks all the guarantees that the other companies on this list provide. Dovly does not offer a money-back guarantee. That said, even without a refund policy, a month of Dovly would still cost less than the nonrefundable setup fees other credit repair companies on this list charge.
Read our Dovly review here.
How Do Credit Repair Companies Work?
Each credit repair company has its own process, but their approaches are similar. Once they confirm your identity and pull your credit, they'll review your report line by line. They'll note the issues you've flagged and advise you of any other potential inaccuracies they find, including erroneous personal information, typos, duplicate accounts, misreported late payments, and more.
Credit repair companies then do the legwork to clean up those inaccuracies. They'll communicate with credit bureaus to dispute errors on your credit report and engage with creditors to ensure they stop reporting bad information. These are all steps you can take on your own, but the expertise and experience of credit repair companies enable them to address problems more efficiently.
It's also worth noting that the CFPB found that since the beginning of the pandemic, credit bureaus are less likely to respond to credit report disputes, especially those filed by third parties on behalf of their client.
Beyond correcting mistakes on your credit report, some credit repair companies offer other services and tools to improve your score, such as free credit consultations, credit monitoring, and debt management plans. These additional services may be offered separately or as part of a credit repair package.
You should be aware of two things credit repair companies can't do. First, they can't remove negative information on your credit history that is accurately reported, such as a delinquency you incurred on your payment history. So, you should only consider credit repair services to correct inaccurate information. Second, they can't guarantee any outcome within a set timeline, and since most services bill at a monthly rate, you may be paying for a while before you see results.
Should You Pay for Assistance With Credit Repair?
Before you enlist the help of a credit repair company, understand that you can dispute debt and correct credit reporting errors on your own if you're willing to put in the time and effort. Cutting out the middleman saves you money, and there are free resources you can lean on to facilitate the process. For example, you can access letter templates from the CFPB for disputing your credit report with the credit bureaus and creditors.
Complaints against credit repair companies frequently cite dissatisfaction with results, so if you're confident in your organizational skills and are dealing with only a small number of disputes, consider a DIY approach first.
Credit repair services are best suited to those dealing with severely compromised credit — the result of identity theft, perhaps — or with credit reports showing widespread errors over years and multiple accounts. They're also a good fit if you're short on free time to handle disputes and don't mind paying for the convenience of having someone else deal with them on your behalf.
When it comes to maintaining your credit score, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. By monitoring your credit regularly, you can detect and address concerns before they metastasize. Staying vigilant will help you avoid the need for credit repair in the first place.
Why You Should Trust Us: How We Chose the Best Credit Repair Companies
We considered numerous factors in our evaluations of credit repair companies. First, the Credit Repair Organizations Act (CROA) mandates that credit repair services cannot demand advance payment, must provide a contract in writing, disclose certain customer rights, and allow cancellation with no penalty for at least three business days. We downgraded companies that failed to support these regulations in our analysis.
There is no accreditation specific to the credit repair industry, so we emphasized reviews from sources like the BBB, Trustpilot, and the CFPB's complaint database. We looked at the mean score each company received, as well as the ratio of positive to negative reviews. We also looked for patterns among the complaints left in unfavorable reviews and any lawsuits that these companies are or were involved in.
Finally, we looked at how much credit repair costs. This includes their range of potential fees and how transparently they are disclosed in advance. We also looked at the number of years a company has been in operation, guarantees, and cancellation policies.
We also considered any additional features these credit repair companies provide, such as credit monitoring and identity theft protection services. However, you can get cheaper, higher-quality services elsewhere. Check out our guides for the best credit monitoring and best identity theft protection services here.