2017 RANKING & REVIEWS
TOP RANKING CREDIT REPAIR COMPANIES
Issues with the Credit Repair Industry
Every day, we are bombarded with advertisements for credit repair companies, most of which directly or indirectly promise to “fix” your credit history and significantly increase your credit score through some sort of easy “program.”
Unfortunately, many of these advertisements contain misrepresentations about what can legally be done to accomplish this, which has led to legal suits, scam allegations, and a general distrust of the credit repair industry.
Finding the Best Credit Repair Company for You
Of course, not all credit repair companies engage in scrupulous practices; there are a great many legitimate firms out there; companies whose methods are completely legal and whose services really help consumers improve their credit history and score.
So how do you determine the best credit repair companies to deal with?
That’s where this credit repair companies review comes in. The AdvisoryHQ research team has performed detailed research and created an overview of top credit repair companies, and we’ve presented our findings below.
These firms are legitimate credit repair companies that have a great reputation and have received a lot of online “credit repair reviews” from their customers and other consumers.
2017’s Top Ranking Best Credit Repair Firms
- Lexington Law Firm
- CreditRepair.com
- CuraDebt
- Sky Blue Credit Repair
- Credit Sesame
- MyCreditGroup
Lexington Law
Lexington Law is this year’s top rated credit repair firm. As the name implies and unlike the rest of the credit repair companies on this list, Lexington Law is an actual law firm.
What this means is that they are required to maintain the highest level of ethical standard when providing credit repair services since they will lose their law license otherwise.
Lexington Law has 24 attorneys, as well as hundreds of agents and paralegals who operate in 19 states. In operation for around 25 years, Lexington Law has long been considered one of the largest and most trusted credit repair companies in the country.
Lexington Law continuously receives extremely high ratings on online credit repair services reviews that have been posted by customers.
Below are a few examples of raving reviews received by Lexington Law.
Image Source: Lexington Law
The firm has helped thousands of clients fix their credit, and they are not shy about promoting this fact; their website actually features an accounting of the number and types of disputes they have resolved, and they update that quarterly.
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Lexington Law provides two types of credit repair plans<.
Concord Standard Plan:
Their Concord Standard plan provides you with an unlimited number of disputes related to virtually any credit issue for a single monthly fee. The types of disputes can include anything from simple matters like removing late-payment notices or as complicated as removing liens, bankruptcies or civil judgments.
As you might be aware, there are many types of credit disputes and issues. Lexington Law handles all of these. In addition, they intervene on your behalf and maintain detailed documentation of every step they take.
Concord Premier Plan:
Lexington Law’s “Concord Premier” plan includes everything that is provided under the Concord Standard plan. Additionally, it includes several monthly credit score analyses (detailed evaluations of all relevant factors that impact your credit score), and they also provide tips designed specifically to help raise your credit score (versus just fixing issues with your credit score).
Free Consultation:
Much like the other top credit repair companies in this review article, Lexington Law offers a free consultation before you officially sign up, including a thorough discussion of your credit history and whether the type of service they provide is right for you.
They will also provide instructions to you on how to get copies of your credit reports from the three credit reporting agencies. This is something they recommend you do, whether or not you register with them.
Process:
Once you’ve registered with Lexington Law, you are assigned an account manager who will be responsible for your case. That account manager will review all aspects of your credit report and educate you on how to improve your credit and how to keep it in good shape after you get it all cleaned up.
After your Lexington Law account manager has received your credit report and begins working on your account, the firm will charge a First Work fee, usually within a week after registration; after that, there is a monthly fee, but you can cancel their services at any point.
When you do so, expect the firm to bill for any additional services rendered after your last payment.
Top Ratings:
Lexington Law gets high marks for educating their clients; their website offers a very detailed FAQ, as well as many video tutorials regarding credit repair.
They are also highly rated for their history of providing outstanding client service; they provide a toll-free phone number to be used anytime clients need immediate assistance or answers to questions.
Lexington Law’s Ranking:
The bottom line is that Lexington Law is easily among the best credit repair companies in the country.
The firm offers a website that is easy to use, personalized assistance, comprehensive educational resources for their clients, and because of their status as a licensed law firm, an ethical framework that many other companies will find difficult to match.
CreditRepair.com
CreditRepair.com is this year’s second highest rated credit repair firms.
The firm advertises that it goes well beyond “one-time credit repair.” They aim to be a lot more than a credit repair company, and they work with consumers to develop a healthier relationship with their finances, their credit, and their overall financial portrait.
Image Source: CreditRepair
Their process involves working to remove negative items from your credit report, as well as creating what they refer to as a “lifestyle change” that can make your financial dreams possible.
The firm is a strong advocate of educating clients to ensure that customers maintain good credit practices that will last a lifetime.
As they point out, “If we don’t help the consumer realize the reasons why their credit score dropped so badly in the first place, then it will just happen again, and that does no one any good.”
They make sure you gain and retain control of your credit reports and credit scores, no longer in the hands of outside forces beyond your control.
Three-Step Process:
Of course, CreditRepair.com offers the standard services offered by most top credit repair companies, like removing liens, chargebacks, late payments, judgments and other items from your credit report that may be old, questionable, or downright false.
They use a specialized three-step process to do all of that, and they customize the plan to each consumer’s needs.
1. First, their experts review and analyze your credit report to help you identify items that should be disputed with your creditors.
2. In the second step, the company will intervene on your behalf, contacting creditors directly to make the necessary changes to your accounts.
3. The third step is to make sure your credit reports and score are properly updated.
Cost to Use CreditRepair.com:
The basic cost of CreditRepair.com is reasonable, given the level of service. You will be charge $89.95 at signup, and the same amount every month thereafter.
The only other fee is a one-time charge of $12.99 at signup to cover the cost of pulling an initial credit report. If a married couple signs up together, there is a $50 discount per person, and military personnel are also entitled to a discount of $50 per person.
As part of their service, CreditRepair.com will file an unlimited number of disputes to remove questionable items from your credit report and increase your credit score. They don’t offer refunds, in part because it’s possible to cancel the service at any time.
Registering with CreditRepair.com:
There are two ways to register with CreditRepair.com; either online or by phone.
If you choose to sign up by phone, the company promises a wait time of no more than a minute to speak with an actual human being. They claim that customer service call wait times are less than 30 seconds.
The online registration process is also very simple. Before you register, however, CreditRepair.com offers a free consultation, during which a specialist will look at your credit to assess your current standing. Once you register, you’re assigned an account manager, whom you will deal with during the entire process.
Their website is easy to use and information, like a list of services and pricing, are easy to find and very easy to understand. Their FAQ is extremely detailed and includes a lot of general information on fixing bad credit and credit repair law, in addition to the services they provide. CreditRepair.com offers a full array of credit repair services, and they make the services easy to use. There is a reason why thousands of customers and reviewers consider CreditRepair.com one of the best credit repair companies in the U.S.
CuraDebt Review
CuraDebt takes the number three spot on this year’s list of the top rated credit repair companies.
Of the top credit repair companies discussed in this credit repair companies review, CuraDebt is among the oldest. They were founded in 1996 in California, but now they operate in 39 states.
Many of the other companies deal primarily in clearing items from consumers’ credit reports and improving their credit scores, but CuraDebt goes a lot further. Not only do they offer free debt consultation and negotiation services and give advice; they also offer debt consolidation services as well.
And based on the numerous positive reviews received by the company as well as their track record, they are consistently rated one of the best credit repair companies in the business.
Stats:
According to their website, CuraDebt helps more than 10,000 consumers a year get out of debt completely, and they have saved their customers more than $250 million in the process.
The average CuraDebt customer saves about 50% on their debts, although some save as much as 90%.
What sets the company apart is their multi-dimensional nature; not only do they deal with basic credit repair and monitoring and debt consolidation, but they also tackle other problems commonly faced by debtors, including home loan modifications, tax debt relief and student loan relief.
Process:
If you are interested in CuraDebt’s services, you can simply fill out a form on their website and a debt counselor will call you within a couple days to discuss the best options available for debt reduction and credit repair, as well as to provide you with a savings estimate.
For that first call, the debt counselor provides the services stated above without doing a credit check and everything is confidential, so it’s possible to find out a lot of what you need before you even officially register with them.
However, there is a benefit to registering because, once you do, CuraDebt will begin handling all calls from creditors and debt collections, thus minimizing the level of harassment or pressure on your end.
Negotiating the Best Terms on Your Behalf:
CuraDebt will also immediately assess your financial situation and use that to negotiate the best possible terms with all of your unsecured lenders, including credit card companies. They’ll work to consolidate your payments into a lump sum figure or into payment plans with payments that are manageable within your budget.
Top Reviews:
CuraDebt has a stellar reputation for its negotiating skills, and they also hold an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau (BBB).
Based on their reviews, CuraDebt has a solid reputation as a customer-oriented company. They feature affordable pricing and monthly payments that will fit anyone’s budget.
They also have partnerships with service providers, such as lawyers, lenders, financial planners and credit arbitration specialists, all of whom help you reduce your debt by at least 50%, which will go a long way toward paying off your debts and increasing your credit score to levels you may have only imagined.
CuraDebt is definitely one of the best credit repair services of the year, but it also enhances that reputation with top credit restoration services that are among the best in the business.
Sky Blue Credit Repair Review
Of all of the credit repair companies in this review, Sky Blue Credit Repair has been in business the longest, having been formed in 1989.
They advertise unique customized services designed to challenge negative items on a credit report, and they say they provide a variety of credit improvement services and the expertise needed to identify all possible opportunities to improve their credit scores.
Free Consultation:
As is the case with most legitimate credit repair companies, Sky Blue offers a free consultation before you commit to anything, in which you and a professional agent discuss your credit, circumstances, and possible outcomes and repercussions of any action that may need to be taken.
Image Source: BigStock
Process:
As soon as they receive a client’s credit reports, they perform a review of the reports, and their specialists begin to compose letters to dispute any negative items.
Their approach is slightly different from other credit repair companies in that they will dispute a maximum of 15 items, or five items per credit reporting bureau, every 35 days. They have found that submitting more than five increases the chance that all of them will be rejected by the credit bureau.
Of course, this means it will take longer to clear everything that needs to be cleared.
Dispute Prioritization:
They also attempt to identify which negative items are the most important to go after, by identifying what they refer to as “the most subtle dispute candidates.” These are those types of disputes that many consumers miss, though they may actually have the most impact.
Customized Services:
Sky Blue also provides customized disputes for special situations (procedure demand letters, research and verification of statutes of limitations and debt validation) as well as comprehensive consultation regarding credit scores and rebuilding credit.
They go well beyond simply removing items and raising a FICO score.
Educating Consumers:
In addition, their website includes some of the most elaborate educational components in the business, and they email their customers tips for improving the quality of their credit.
Fees:
The prices for their services are competitive, although the fees you pay will depend on the services you seek. The first fee, which they call a Review/Setup fee, is not charged for six days and the monthly fees are not charged until a month after that.
Blue Sky Credit Repair also offers a 90-day money-back guarantee.
Without a doubt, Blue Sky Credit Repair is one of the top-rated credit repair companies in the business.
Other Reviews
Click below for a detailed review of other top-ranking credit repair companies:
Conclusion
Although AdvisoryHQ has performed a ranking of these top credit repair companies, it is up to you to decide which one of these firms is the best one for YOU. This will be based on your specific needs and situation.
Each of the companies listed in this credit repair review will make an excellent choice for your credit repair and credit restoration service needs. Hopefully, armed with this information, you can select the ONE credit repair services that can best meet your needs.
Most people understand that fixing bad credit can cost a lot of money over the long haul, but that failing to fix issues with your credit may end up costing even more.
Low credit scores can often mean higher interest and insurance rates, larger deposits on rental properties and utilities, and higher car payments. It also means having a difficult time getting approved for credit, which could mean higher payments on almost everything.
That is why an entire industry has popped up to assist consumers and help them improve their credit scores and financial situation.
With any new industry, there are always people out there who see an opportunity to take unfair advantage of vulnerable people. Some credit restoration companies are fly-by-night operations that take a lot of money for doing things consumers can do themselves for free, which doesn’t do much to help the consumer.
There are even instances in which such companies were set up with the sole purpose of stealing identities, making an already difficult situation for the debtor far worse.
All consumers who are looking for a legitimate credit repair company should realize that, while they seem really simple, credit scores are actually extremely complicated.
The scores are based on an instantaneous assessment of hundreds of factors, as new data about each person is funneled into the credit reporting agencies. This is further complicated by the fact that there are three separate credit reporting agencies, each producing their own reports, which can mean three separate scores using slightly different criteria.
And if that’s not complicated enough, there are two primary systems of credit scoring out there. The best-known is called FICO, a system developed by Fair Isaac Corp. for banks that came into wide use back in 1989.
The other one is called VantageScore 3.0, which was developed by the credit reporting agencies themselves to compete with FICO.
All of these credit scores are dynamic and constantly changing, so keeping up is in your best interest, since credit scores are relied upon by 80% of lenders to make decisions on granting credit to consumers—which is why what credit repair companies do is so important.
AdvisoryHQ (AHQ) Disclaimer:
Reasonable efforts have been made by AdvisoryHQ to present accurate information, however all info is presented without warranty. Review AdvisoryHQ’s Terms for details. Also review each firm’s site for the most updated data, rates and info.
Note: Firms and products, including the one(s) reviewed above, may be AdvisoryHQ's affiliates. Click to view AdvisoryHQ's advertiser disclosures.