How Much does Credit Repair Cost
If you do it yourself, credit repair is free
Technically, credit repair is free if you choose the do-it-yourself option. Doing it on your own is a totally viable option. Disputing errors on your credit report doesn’t have to use up a lot of your resources except time really. So, if you have the time and resiliency to be able to dispute residually every month, and the cost really is simply your time.
The way the credit repair process works, is that you would send out a round of dispute letters, receive answers from the credit agencies, look for any existing derogatory items and then we dispute. This can all be kept track of in a spreadsheet again free of cost, except for the cost of paper and stamps of course.
Using a Credit Repair Service and its Cost
If you want to take the route and use a credit repair company, we will go over the expectations of what it should cost on average. But first the advantages. They will do everything for you. And they will put you in their portal so you can track your progress easily. So, if you don’t have a lot of time on your hands or the expertise, there is a big advantage for using a service.
With that being said, the average monthly fee to get into a credit repair program, is around $79 per month.
Some credit repair organizations may charge lower fees, but they also might deliver substandard results. Many credit report repair services like to cut corners and dispute items on your reports using automated, computerized dispute letters. Using such a method may not effectively alleviate your credit. Because everyone’s financial situation is unique it is much better to use a trusted company that offers personalized disputes, allowing the credit bureaus to better understand why each negative item on your report needs to be removed.
Although the price of the service being reasonable is in our algorithm for when we review our companies, we still believe in the adage of “you pay for what you get”. So, in general, if you’re paying between $79 and one $139 per month that is the average going rate for these professional online companies.
Let’s Do the Math
How much you pay for credit repair is pretty much predicated upon the length that you stay in your credit repair program. Someone with average to decent credit that may only have two or three negative items showing on the reports, and may only need to make some minor credit report disputes might only need to be the credit repair program for about three months. This person could expect to pay around $316 over those 3 months at $79 per month on average and a $79 account set-up fee on average.
But let’s look at the long-term data that we’ve collected. Using data from the many credit repair companies that we have reviewed; we have found that the average length of time that a credit repair client remains in the program is seven months. The total cost on average would be $632.
In our opinion, that is a small price to pay to raise your FICO score and get approved for a loan.
If you’re suffering from poor credit (i.e.: below 550) and you have a lot of negative items appearing on your reports, it may take you 9 months or longer and you will have to pay a significantly higher amount.
Please note that some of these companies also do offer other services and up sells. In most cases they are not necessary.
There is also sometimes a fee to obtain your credit reports initially when you start the program.