How We Review and Rate Credit Repair Companies

Investopedia’s list of the best credit repair companies is based on in-depth research and robust data collection from 17 companies. We reviewed each company’s plan fees, dispute types, reputation, customer satisfaction, and more. This guide explains the categories and criteria we used to evaluate each company’s features and our scoring process for determining the best credit repair companies.

Our editors and researchers independently evaluate all recommended products and services. If you click on the links we provide, we may receive compensation. Our advertising partnerships are not a factor in how we evaluate products, although they may affect the order of products you see listed in our articles.

How We Research Credit Repair Companies

Investopedia commissioned a 29-question survey through Pollfish to learn more about consumer behavior and attitudes regarding credit repair companies. The survey, which was conducted from Aug. 23 to Aug. 24, 2024, consisted of 500 people who had hired credit repair services within the past three years. 

We asked respondents which companies they worked with and why, how much they paid, the types of credit problems they wanted to address, whether or not their credit scores improved, and how satisfied they were. We also asked respondents to rate the relative importance of credit repair company features and services, including plan fees, specific dispute types, company reputation and stability, customer support options, and availability of other services, like credit monitoring.

The insights gained from this survey informed the criteria we collected and the weights we assigned to each criterion to ensure we score the most important factors appropriately to determine the winning companies. especially the weights assigned to each criterion used in our scoring methodology. We also used the survey to ensure our reviews and “best of” list provide the most essential information for people considering hiring a credit repair service.

We identified 17 credit repair companies to include in this research project based on Investopedia’s prior research, a competitive analysis, and public interest through Google search trends. We also gathered findings on the credit repair industry to help assess which companies to include. We looked into reports by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC), especially regarding violations of the Credit Repair Organizations Act (CROA) and Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR). This provided helpful background information about credit repair transparency, legality, and settlements. 

We determined that 17 credit repair companies met our minimum standards for online transparency and customer support. We collected 69 evaluation criteria for each company, resulting in nearly 1,200 data points, and we weighted and scored 799 data points for Investopedia’s rankings. The other data points were collected for background information and to inform our content. Including our survey analysis, the research process took place from July 1, 2024, to Oct. 7, 2024.

Data Collection and Scoring

After data collection and verification, we weighted and scored 44 of the 69 criteria to determine our best picks. Weights were determined through subject matter expertise and our credit repair customer survey. Some of the research criteria we collected and scored were aggregated into combined factors (consumer review rating, for example), and some criteria were collected without being scored to enhance the editorial quality of our articles. 

We used the following method to generate our scores:

• Each company was scored on an overall “Star Rating” scale of 0.00–5.00.
• Data points are scored on a 0.00–1.00 scale
• Binary criteria = [0,1]
• Continuous criteria were scored such that the minimum data value was re-scaled to 0.00 and the maximum value was re-scaled to 1.00
• Scaled criteria (e.g., 5-point) = [0.00, 0.25, 0.50, 0.75, 1.00]
• Aggregated criteria scores were calculated based on scores of individual criteria, and the results were scored on a continuous scale.
• Any data point that was not disclosed by a company was given a score of 0.

Credit Repair Evaluation Categories

Our 69 criteria were grouped into 5 categories below, with the given weights:

Costs and Fees

Costs play a crucial role in hiring a credit repair company. Companies with lower prices, better cancellation policies, and longer money-back guarantees scored higher in this category. The following costs and fees criteria were weighted and scored as such:

Free Credit Repair Consultation

We evaluated whether or not companies offer free consultations to begin their services. We scored this on a binary scale; companies that offer free consultations received 1 point, and those that don’t received 0 points. Most credit repair companies do offer a free consultation, with only four exceptions (including CreditRepair.com and Dovly). This criterion is valued at 4.00% of the overall score. 

First Work/Upfront Fee

We looked into the cost of each company’s fee for initiating the credit repair process. We scored this on a continuous scale, with lower fees scoring higher. Several companies, such as MSI Credit Solutions, do not charge a first work fee and earned a score of 1 point. At the other end of the spectrum, Credit Glory has the highest first work fee, $279, and received a 0 score. The first work/upfront fee is worth 3.50% of the overall score.

Lowest-Cost Plan Fee

We assessed the cost of each company’s base service plan. We scored this on a continuous scale, with lower costs scoring higher. Two companies, Dovly and Credilife, have a free base plan, which amounted to a score of 1. The most expensive base plan was from Lexington Law; it costs $139.99 and scored 0 points (Lexington Law only has one credit repair plan). The lowest-cost plan fee is worth 6.00% of the total score.

Highest-Cost Plan Fee

We evaluated the cost of each company’s top-tier service plan. We scored this on a continuous scale, with lower costs getting higher scores. Credit Versio has the most affordable top-tier plan at $29.95 per month, which translated to a score of 1. Meanwhile, MSI Credit Solutions has the priciest plan at $1,500 per month and scored 0 points. The highest-cost plan fee is worth 5.00% of the total score.

Money-Back Guarantee Terms

Some companies offer a money-back guarantee if their services do not meet the customer’s credit repair requirements. We researched the length of each company’s money-back guarantee. The longest is from MSI Credit Solutions at 180 days, scoring 1 point. Several companies, such as Credit Versio and The Credit Guru, do not offer money-back guarantees, and they scored 0 points. Money-back guarantee terms are weighted 5.00% of our overall score.

Cancellation Term

Every company we researched offers no-fee cancellation of their services. However, the amount of time customers have to cancel their service at no cost varies from company to company. The longest no-obligation cancellation period is from USA Credit Repair, which gives customers a 30-day period to cancel. This amounted to a score of 1 point. On the other hand, some companies, such as Lexington Law and The Credit Pros, have no cancellation policy. This resulted in a score of 0 points. Cancellation term is weighted 4.00% of the final score.

Customer Experience

Customer experience can vary greatly from one credit repair company to another. Some are transparent about their offerings, with modern online portals, mobile apps, and solid customer support. Others have antiquated websites and unhelpful or misleading customer service. The companies that scored highest in this category educate their customers about credit, are more transparent about pricing, and provide convenient avenues for customer support. The following customer experience criteria were weighted and scored.

Online Portal

We researched whether companies have online portals for their customers to easily keep track of disputes and reach out to customer support. We scored this on a binary scale; companies with an online portal received 1 point, and those without received 0 points. Of all the companies we looked into, only The Credit Guru has no online portal. This criterion is valued at 3.00% of the overall score. 

Customer Support: Email

We looked into which credit repair companies have a functional customer support email. Every company has a working customer support email except for Sky Blue Credit and Trinity Credit Services. We scored this on a binary scale; companies with a working customer support email received 1 point, and those without received 0 points. This criterion is weighted at 3.00% of the overall score. 

Customer Support: Live Chat

Live chat allows a customer to communicate with a bot or representative in real time without picking up a phone. We looked into which companies have a chat function and whether the chat representative is a human or a chatbot. This criterion was scored on a scaled basis, where human live chat scored 1, chatbots scored 0.5, and companies without live chat received a score of 0. The Credit Pros and The Credit People, among several other companies, received top marks with scores of 1, while CreditNerds, Credilife, and some others do not have live chat and received scores of 0. This criterion is valued at 2.00% of the overall score. 

Company Service Information Page

Credit repair can be an opaque process, so it’s helpful for companies to explain their services to customers. Most companies feature a detailed page on their website describing what customers will get with their service plans. We scored whether or not each company has such an informational page on a binary scale; companies with such a page scored 1, and companies without such a page (like Credit Glory, USA Credit Repair, and Trinity Credit Services) scored 0. The availability of a detailed company service information page is weighted 3.00% of the overall score.

First Work/Upfront Fee Info Available Online

Some companies are more transparent than others when it comes to displaying information about their first work fees on their website. We scored this criterion on a binary scale; companies that disclose their first work fees on their websites scored 1 (like CreditFirm and Credit Saint), and companies that do not scored 0 (like Credit Versio and Trinity Credit Services). This is weighted 2.50% of the overall score.

Monthly Plan Fee Info Available Online

Similarly, some companies are more transparent than others about displaying monthly plan fees on their websites. We scored this criterion on a binary scale; companies that disclose their monthly plan fees on their websites were given a 1 (like CreditFirm and AMB Credit Consultants), and companies that don’t were given a 0 (Credilife and Trinity Credit Services, among others). This is weighted at 2.50% of the overall score.

Reputation and Customer Satisfaction

Our survey found that many people rely on third-party websites to help evaluate credit repair companies. They also consider legal trouble and violations, as reported by sources like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Companies that scored highly in this category have few complaints and high customer review ratings on the websites listed below. The following reputation and customer satisfaction criteria were weighted and scored:

CFPB Complaints

The CFPB tracks complaints against companies, including credit repair companies. We looked at the number of CFPB complaints for each credit repair company through September 2024 and scored this criterion on a continuous scale, with fewer complaints getting a better score. Most companies had no complaints or just a few, but Lexington Law stands out for having 283. This criterion is weighted 3.00% of the overall score.

Combined Customer Review Rating

We collected customer ratings of credit repair companies from three sources: Google, Trustpilot, and the Better Business Bureau (BBB). Since each company had a different number of ratings at each site, we used weighted averaging combined with an exponential weighting model to create an aggregated customer review rating for each company. This gave more confidence to ratings with higher numbers of raters. The following criteria are included in this combined rating:

• Google Review Rating
• Number of Google Reviews
• Trustpilot Rating
• Number of Trustpilot Reviews
• BBB Rating
• Number of BBB Reviews

Our aggregate ratings were expressed on a scale of 0 to 5. The company with the highest aggregate customer rating is Credit Glory, at 4.6. The aggregate customer ratings were scored on a continuous scale, with higher ratings getting better scores. The combined customer review rating is weighted 8.50% of the overall score.

BBB Letter Rating

BBB letter ratings don’t measure the quality of a company’s service, but they indicate whether a company cares about its reputation and will engage in dialogue with unhappy customers. We scored this as a scaled criterion from 0 to 1, with higher letter grades getting better scores (the score range was segmented based on the range of possible grades). Several companies had A+ ratings at the time of data collection, including CreditFirm, Credit Pros, and Sky Blue Credit. This criterion is weighted 3.00% of the overall score.

iOS App Rating

Only a few credit repair companies have mobile apps. CreditRepair.com, Lexington Law, and Dovly have apps available for iOS and Android while Credit Pros has an iOS-only app. They all had ratings of 4.2 or higher in the Apple App Store and Google Play store at the end of September, 2024. We scored iOS app ratings on a continuous scale, with better ratings getting higher scores. This criterion is weighted 2.00% of the overall score.

Android App Rating

We scored Android app ratings on a continuous scale, with better ratings getting higher scores. This criterion is weighted 2.00% of the overall score.

Services

Although credit repair companies all have the same goal, they don’t all provide the same services. Some work on your behalf more quickly than others, some deal with types of credit problems others won’t, and some offer useful extra services related to credit repair. Keep all of these factors in mind when choosing a credit repair company. Companies that scored well in this category act quickly and aggressively, work with a wide variety of credit problems, and provide extras like credit monitoring or identity theft insurance. The following criteria related to services were weighted and scored:

Maximum Monthly Disputes (Lowest-Cost Plan)

Different credit repair companies will submit a different number of disputes each month on behalf of their customers; companies that send more disputes can solve credit problems more quickly. We looked at how many monthly disputes are included in each company’s lowest-cost plan, with more disputes getting a higher score. This criterion was scored on a continuous scale. Several companies offer unlimited monthly disputes, including CreditFirm and Credit Versio, and they got the highest score of 1. This criterion is weighted 3.00% of the overall score.

Maximum Monthly Disputes (Highest-Cost Plan)

We also looked at the number of monthly disputes included in each company’s highest-cost plan, with more disputes getting a higher score. This criterion was scored on a continuous scale. Quite a few companies include unlimited disputes in their highest-cost plans, and they got the highest score of 1. Some do have limits—Dovly only offers three in its highest-cost plan, but this is also a relatively inexpensive plan. This criterion is weighted 3.00% of the overall score.

Days to First Work

Credit repair companies may take a few days or more before they begin working on your behalf. Several take one business day, while the slowest company in our ranking (Sky Blue Credit) may take as long as 35 days to begin working. We scored this factor on a continuous scale from 0 to 1, with faster companies getting a higher score. This criterion is weighted 3.00% of the overall score.

Debt Verification Letters

Our survey of credit repair customers found debt verification letters to be the most valued dispute type, so we gave this criterion a higher weight than other dispute types. This criterion was scored on a scaled basis from 0 to 1, depending on whether debt verification letters are included in all plans (1 point), some plans (0.5 points), some or all plans for extra cost (0.25 points), or no plans (0 points). Companies that offer these letters in all plans for no cost scored highest; only Credit Versio indicated that this is true of its services, although most other companies include them in at least some plans. This criterion is weighted 4.00% in the overall score. 

Goodwill Removal Request Letters

Goodwill removal request letters were another highly valued service in our credit repair survey, so we gave this a higher weight than most other dispute types. This criterion was scored on a scaled basis from 0 to 1, depending on whether goodwill removal request letters are included in all plans (1 point), some plans (0.50 points), some or all plans for extra cost (0.25 points), or no plans (0 points). Companies that offer these letters in all plans for no cost scored highest; Credit Versio was once again the only company to indicate they are included in all of its services for no extra cost, although most other companies include them in at least some plans. This criterion is weighted 3.00% of the overall score.

Combined Weight of Other Letter/Dispute Types

We grouped the following 12 credit repair letters and dispute types together for convenience and scoring purposes, in part because our survey of credit repair customers found them to be similar in popularity. We evaluated each of the following criteria individually and then aggregated those ratings into an overall score of 0 to 12:

• Section 609 letter/credit dispute letters
• Section 605B letters
• Method of verification letters
• Cease and desist letters
• Personal information error disputes
• Hard inquiry disputes
• Late payment disputes
• Charge-off disputes
• Repossession disputes
• Bankruptcy disputes
• Collection account disputes
• Foreclosure disputes

Each criterion was scored on a scaled basis from 0 to 1, depending on whether that option is included in all plans (1 point), some plans (0.5 points), some or all plans for extra cost (0.25 points), or no plans (0 points). Companies that offer those options in all plans for no cost scored highest; Credilife had the highest score for this combined factor, with 10.25. The above letter and dispute types are weighted 6.00% of the overall score.

Credit Monitoring Service

Many credit repair companies offer some form of credit monitoring, either themselves or through a third party. This criterion was scored on a scaled basis from 0 to 1, depending on whether credit monitoring is included in all plans (1 point), some plans (0.5 points), some or all plans for extra cost (0.25 points), or no plans (0 points). Companies that include it in all plans for no extra cost scored highest, and there were quite a few of those, including CreditFirm, Credit Versio, and The Credit Pros. This criterion is weighted 3.00 of the overall score.

Identity Theft Insurance

People may seek credit repair after falling victim to identity theft, so it makes sense that some credit repair companies offer identity theft insurance. This criterion was scored on a scaled basis from 0 to 1, depending on whether identity theft insurance was included in all plans (1 point), some plans (0.5 points), some or all plans for extra cost (0.25 points), or no plans (0 points). Companies that include it in all plans for no extra cost scored highest. Many companies offer it in some plans, and several offer it in all plans for no extra cost, including Credit Versio, Credit Pros, and Sky Blue Credit. This criterion is weighted 3.00% of the overall score.

Stability and Availability

Company stability is an important factor, given the frequent litigation in the credit repair industry and its reputation for scams. Staying in business for many years is a good sign, as are widespread state availability and access to physical locations. Companies that scored highly in this category have been around a long time, have nationwide (or near-nationwide) availability, and even have a physical presence. The following stability and availability criteria were weighted and scored:

Year Established

The age of a company doesn’t necessarily indicate good or poor service, but it does show experience of a certain kind and an ability to remain in business. We scored this criterion on a continuous scale, with older companies getting a better score. The oldest company (Sky Blue Credit, founded in 1989) received a score of 1, and the youngest company (Credit Versio, founded in 2020) received a score of 0. This criterion is weighted 3.00% of the total score.

States Available

Most of the credit repair companies we researched have good state availability, and a few are available nationwide. The company with the least state availability (aside from companies that didn’t disclose this information) is Credit Saint, which is available in 45 states. We scored this factor on a continuous scale from 0 to 1, with more state availability scoring higher. This criterion accounts for 4.00% of the total score.

Number of Brick and Mortar Locations

Some people prefer to work with a credit repair company in person, but few companies offer brick-and-mortar locations to get help. CreditFirm has the most locations (three). We scored this criterion on a continuous scale from 0 to 1, with more locations scoring higher. This criterion accounts for 3.00% of the total score.

Criteria Collected But Not Weighted

The following criteria were collected but not weighted. Some were not weighted because they were collected for editorial purposes, such as adding more details to articles that mention the company. Others were not weighted because all of their data points across companies were identical.

Costs and Fees

• Plan Fee Structure
• Middle-Cost Plan Fee
• Discount Opportunities
• No-Fee Cancellation Available
• Minimum Cancellation Fee
• Maximum Cancellation Fee
• Cancellation Other Policy

Customer Experience

• Customer Support: Phone
• Customer Support: Website Ticketing
• General Educational Material
• iOS App Availability
• Android App Availability

Reputation/Customer Satisfaction

• FTC Cases and Proceedings
• BBB Accreditation

Services

• Number of Credit Repair Service Packages
• Monthly Dispute Type
• Maximum Monthly Disputes: Middle-Cost Plan
• Credit Bureau Coverage: Equifax
• Credit Bureau Coverage: TransUnion
• Credit Bureau Coverage: Experian
• Judgment Disputes
• Debt Management Program
• Business Credit Repair Services
• Services Description

Stability/Availability

• Brick and Mortar State Availability

Articles That Use Our Methodology

We have many articles about credit repair to meet your needs. The data collected in this project has been used to compile the following credit repair recommendations, reviews, and educational guides:

• Best Credit Repair Companies
• CreditFirm.net Review
• The Credit People Review
• The Credit Pros Review
• How Much Does Credit Repair Cost?
• How to Choose a Credit Repair Company

Meet the Credit Repair Research & Reviews Team