Note: We receive a commission for purchases made through the links on this site. Our sponsors, however, do not influence our editorial content in any way.
Reader question: I need to fix my credit score and I’ve heard about credit repair services, but I’ve heard they can be a scam. Are there any that work? How much does credit repair cost? I’d like to find a cheaper service.
Answer: It depends on your credit situation. If you have legitimate negative information on your credit report that is accurate, credit repair services may not be able to help. Credit repair services are best when used for disputing errors on your credit report or contesting information that may be easily removed or negotiated off your report. Even with that being the case, some credit repair companies tend to have higher reliability for boosting a credit score and offer better value than others. The best, most reliable credit repair services we have found and recommend to consumers are Sky Blue, Credit Saint, The Credit People, Lexington Law, CreditRepair.com.
Rank | Credit Repair Service | Best For | Monthly Fee | STL Reliability Rating |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Sky Blue Credit Repair | Overall Value | $79 | ★★★★★ |
2 | Credit Saint | Transparency | $79.99 | ★★★★★ |
3 | The Credit People | Trial Period | $79 | ★★★★ |
4 | Lexington Law Credit Repair | Reputation | $99.95 | ★★★★ |
5 | CreditRepair.com | Features | $99.95 | ★★★ |
Rank | Credit Repair Service | STL Reliability Rating |
---|---|---|
1 | Sky Blue Credit Repair | ★★★★★ |
2 | Credit Saint | ★★★★★ |
3 | The Credit People | ★★★★ |
4 | Lexington Law | ★★★★ |
5 | CreditRepair.com | ★★★ |
Sky Blue is the most affordable and reliable credit repair option that we looked at. Sky Blue has streamlined their credit repair service so that they offer strictly credit repair (like fixing mistakes on your credit report, good-faith letters to your creditors, etc.) and don’t include extras that raise the price like other credit repair companies do.
Also, Sky Blue has a great feature for the budget-minded customer that allows you to pause your service with the click of a button if you need to take a break or can’t afford a month or longer.
Price: $79 to start, $79/month after
BBB Rating: A+
Reliability? Sky Blue has been around for several years now, and its reliability has stood the test of time. It has received many positive reviews across the web, but more importantly, it has historically received an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau. Sky Blue scores the highest in reliability as it is the only credit repair services that offers a full 90-day refund if you are dissatisfied with its service for any reason You can sign up for Sky Blue Credit Repair here or call (888) 534-1510 to talk to a live person.
Credit Saint is not the biggest name in credit repair but it offers some aggressive services for not a lot of money. It also offers a number of options, depending on what you are looking for, which is good for a budget credit repair service. Credit Saint will dispute late payments, identity thefts, charge offs, collections, bankruptcies and repossessions. It also offers a more expensive option that gets more aggressive with the disputes filled.
Price: $99 to start, $79.99/month after
BBB Rating: A+
Reliability? Credit Saint is unusual in that in gets a lot of positive reviews online for its services. Generally, credit repair companies have a lot of complaints because people expect miracles when it comes to credit repair, but customers seem pretty pleased with Credit Saint. The company has an A+ rating from the BBB and generally does well in online reviews. It also offers a money-back guarantee if it doesn’t remove any items from your credit report within 90 days. You can sign up for Credit Saint here or call (855) 559-5762 to talk to a live person.
The Credit People charges $79 a month, but it also has some incentives that knock it into the good-deal credit repair category. First, you can sign up for a 7-day trial for only $19, so you don’t have to commit to anything long-term and can try out the service first.
Price: $79 a month for the monthly service. $19 for a 7-day trial of the services
BBB Rating: B
Reliability? offers the level of reliability guaranteed by the Credit Repair Organizations Act, which is that prospective credit repair consumers don’t have to pay anything upfront for the work that is set to be completed in a given month. An additional level of reliability is in place, however, in that if you aren’t satisfied with any of the work that Credit People has done, you can cancel at any time and don’t have to pay for that month’s work. You can check out The Credit People here or call (866) 323-0104 to talk to a live person.
The best part about Lexington Law is that it is an actual law firm that specializes in credit law, which means they know what they are doing when dealing with lenders. Lexington Law has been around longer than most other credit repair services and includes all of the bells and whistles that come along with their credit repair plan, including credit report monitoring and identity theft protection that comes along with its most expensive package.
If you want to opt for a cheaper credit repair plan, you can always sign up for an expert identity theft protection service like Lifelock. (You can check out our comparison of Lifelock to Experian here.)
Price: $99.95/month (for cheapest plan.)
Reliability? Lexington Law scores high for reliability because it has been around for more than 27 years. It also meets the reliability and legal demands of the Credit Repair Organizations act in that it only charges for the work it has already completed. You can check out more about Lexington Law here or call (844) 259-3376 to talk to a live person.
CreditRepair.com offers a top tier service for $99.95 per month, which offers all the standard services, as well as identity theft protection and credit report monitoring.
CreditRepair.com actually has a relationship with TransUnion, so they can actually pull your credit score for you, which is extremely helpful. They also have an “A” rating from the BBB, and are known as one of the better credit restoration services. The only downside to CreditRepair.com is the cost. They charge $99.95 a month, although they don’t have an initial fee like most other credit repair services. With the $99.95, you get your standard credit repair services, as well as monthly credit monitoring, a score tracker and analysis, mobile apps and text and email alerts.
Price: $99.95/month
BBB Rating: A
Reliability? CreditRepair.com scores high for reliability due to its many high ratings, its solid track record and its previously awarded rating of A from the Better Business Bureau. Further bolstering the reliability of CreditRepair.com is that fact that you can cancel at any time if you feel the work that you agreed upon is not being completed. Sign up for CreditRepair.com here or call (844) 764-9863 to talk to a live person.
Pyramid is one of the most expensive of the reliable credit repair companies. You pay $99 as the monthly price, which includes your own personal advisor, unlimited bureau disputes, as well as dispute management, as well as validation and goodwill letters to help you improve your credit.
Remember, if you are having issues with your debt, credit repair companies can not help you. Try a debt relief program. Check out our Freedom Debt Relief reviews here and Accredited Debt Relief reviews here to see two of our top-ranked services.
Price: $99 a month.
BBB Rating: N/A
Reliability? Pyramid is a fairly new credit repair service, so it has not rating from the Better Business Bureau. It does, however, allow dissatisfied customers to cancel at any time and does not charge them the monthly fees for that month. Put simply, if Pyramid doesn’t do the agreed upon work in a given month, you get a refund for that month. You can check out Pyramid here.
If you really want to save some money, you should try repairing your own credit. Most of what credit repair companies do is contest negative items on your credit reports, which you can also do from the comfort of your own home. Here are four easy steps to doing this:
From there, the credit bureaus will have 30 days to do their own research and respond to your request. You should get a response shortly after that whether the item was removed or not.
When sending these requests, here are a couple things to keep in mind.
If the cheapest option is to do it yourself, why should you pay for credit repair? Here are a couple of reasons that people use credit repair services instead of doing it themselves.
Whether you use a repair company or not is up to you. If you are a diligent self-starter, it might be worth it to save some money and do it yourself. If you know you might never get around to disputing your items, an agency might be a better pick. Just remember that there are no guarantees in credit repair. Whether you use a service or not, there is no guarantee that your score will go up. All you (or the agency) can do is dispute the items; the rest is up to the credit bureaus.
To increase credit repair company reliability and protect consumers, the Credit Repair Organizations Act says that credit repair services cannot make any false or misleading claims. This is why no credit repair service can offer a guarantee on its work or potential results.
Even so, we can still make an educated guess at the reliability of a credit repair service based on the reviews it has received, its BBB rating, and whether it offers any kind of refund if consumers are unhappy with their results.
We believe Sky Blue, Credit Saint, The Credit People, Lexington Law and CreditRepair.com are among the best credit repair services out there when it comes to cost and reliability. Sky Blue leads the industry in reliability with its 90-day money-back policy, but all of the other services listed here follow close behind.
11 Comments
Patty Nolan • August 10, 2022
Can you tell me if any of these have any kind of guarantee?
Jeff Hindenach • August 10, 2022
Hi Patty, Sky Blue and Credit Saint have a 30-day money-back guarantee. If you aren’t happy with the service, you can get a refund. I hope that helps!
yaakov • October 28, 2015
I dont have any credit, can you build my credit from scratch? If you can how much does it cost?
Jeff Hindenach • October 28, 2015
Sadly, credit repair companies cannot build credit for you. The only way to build credit is to apply for a loan or credit card. Since you don’t have any credit yet, I would suggest applying for a secured credit card to start building your credit.
Susan • August 26, 2015
Lexington law charges $99.00 a month and does not make a guarantee on fixing a persons credit.
Megan Smith • August 25, 2015
Ending up going with SkyBlue, so far I’ve had a great service! Thanks!
Jasmine Jones • February 10, 2016
Have you been paying a monthly service?