About one in five credit reports has an error.
Let’s find out about yours.
We read all three of your credit reports line by line, challenge what is inaccurate, unverifiable, or past its reporting window, and tell you plainly what is accurate and simply has to age off. Nothing is due before the work is performed.
Where you stand
The number lenders price off
300
Good
Illustration only
We do not predict scores and no honest firm does. Your review tells you what is on your reports, what is challengeable, and what is not.
Credit bureaus we work across
Consumer credit reports contain an error
Due before work is performed
Day deadline on every challenge, by law
Why one report is not enough
Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion do not have the same file on you.
Each bureau receives data separately, from different companies, on different schedules. That is why the same account can show three different balances, three different dates, or appear on one report and not the others.
It is also why disagreements between the three are frequently the strongest evidence you have. If two bureaus report a date and the third reports something else, at least one of them is wrong, and that is a challenge with a foundation under it. Anyone working from a single report is working half blind.
See all three of mineOne borrower, three different stories
Illustrative example of a real pattern · swipe to compare
| What the report says | Equifax | Experian | TransUnion |
|---|---|---|---|
| Collection balance | $1,842 | $1,842 | $2,310 |
| Date of first delinquency | Mar 2021 | Mar 2021 | Nov 2022 |
| Account status | Charged off | Paid, closed | Charged off |
| Hard inquiries | 3 | 5 | 4 |
| Total accounts | 14 | 14 | 16 |
What we work on
Every kind of item that ends up wrong
Each of these has its own rules, its own reporting clock, and its own common failure mode. Pick the one that sounds like your situation.
How it works
Five steps, and you see every one of them
No black box. Your portal shows every letter we send and every response that comes back, with dates.
Step 01
We read all three reports, line by line
Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion rarely say the same thing. We pull all three, build a single side-by-side picture, and flag every item that looks inaccurate, incomplete, unverifiable, or past its reporting window.
Step 02
You get a plain-English audit and a plan
Before you pay anything, we walk you through what we found, what is genuinely challengeable, and what is accurate and simply has to age off. You will know which category each item falls into.
Step 03
We challenge the questionable items
We prepare and send documented challenges to the bureaus and, where it applies, directly to the furnisher of the information. Every challenge is specific and evidence-based, never a form letter blast.
Step 04
We work the responses, round after round
The bureaus have 30 days to investigate, or 45 if you add documentation mid-stream. Anything they cannot verify must come off. When a response is inadequate, we escalate rather than resend the same letter.
Step 05
We help you build, not just subtract
Removals only get you halfway. We coach the levers you control: utilization timing, which accounts to keep open, how to add positive history, and how to stop the next problem before it reports.
The honest part
Every challenge carries a 30-day investigation deadline, or 45 days if documents are added mid-investigation. Most files need several rounds. We will not give you a finish date, because the timeline belongs to the bureaus and the furnishers, not to us.
Why trust us with this
The opposite of what got this industry in trouble
Federal regulators have shut down credit repair companies for the same handful of behaviors. We built this practice to fail that checklist on purpose.
Nothing is due before work is performed
Federal law forbids credit repair companies from charging in advance, and plenty still do it. There is no setup fee here and no deposit. Your first invoice comes after your first round of challenges is out the door.
We tell you what is not challengeable
If an item is accurate, current, and verifiable, no one can lawfully make it disappear. We will point at it on your report and say so, then focus on what can actually be changed.
No CPNs, no new credit identity, ever
Anyone offering you a credit privacy number, an EIN to use in place of your Social Security number, or a fresh file is inviting you to commit federal fraud. We do not do it and we will tell you to walk away from anyone who offers.
You can do this yourself, for free
You are entitled to free weekly reports at AnnualCreditReport.com and you can dispute directly with each bureau at no cost. We hand you that link in your first conversation. You are paying us for the analysis, the documentation, and the follow-through.
One specialist, not a call queue
You get a named person who knows your file, in an office in West Palm Beach, and a portal that shows every letter sent and every response received.
Cancel any time, and a real 3-day window
No contracts that lock you in for six months. You also have the cancellation right the law gives you: three business days after signing, in writing, for any reason, at no cost.
Straightforward pricing
Month to month, nothing due up front
No setup fee, no deposit, no contract that locks you in. You are billed after each month of work, which is both federal law and how we would want to be treated.
Swipe to see all three plans
Essentials
A clean, focused challenge campaign on the items that matter most.
$79per month
$0 to start. No setup fee. Billed only after each month of work is performed, as federal law requires.
- Full three-bureau report analysis
- Challenges to all three bureaus
- Dedicated credit specialist
- Client portal with every letter and response
- Monthly written progress report
- Score tracking and change alerts
Best for a handful of specific errors you already know about
Start with a free reviewAdvantage
Everything in Essentials, plus pressure applied directly to the furnishers.
$109per month
$0 to start. No setup fee. Billed only after each month of work is performed, as federal law requires.
- Everything in Essentials
- Direct challenges to creditors and collection agencies
- Goodwill and correction requests where appropriate
- Unauthorized hard inquiry challenges
- Debt validation letters under the FDCPA
- Utilization and account-strategy coaching
- Priority turnaround on new findings
Best for most people, and where the majority of our clients land
Start with a free reviewComplete
The full engagement, for complicated files and hard deadlines.
$149per month
$0 to start. No setup fee. Billed only after each month of work is performed, as federal law requires.
- Everything in Advantage
- Identity theft and mixed-file resolution support
- Public record and bankruptcy reporting review
- Escalation letters when an investigation is inadequate
- Mortgage or auto readiness plan with your timeline
- Quarterly strategy call with your specialist
- Ongoing monitoring guidance after removals
Best for identity theft, mixed files, or a mortgage on the calendar
Start with a free reviewThe mechanics
What actually moves the number
Five factors, and the first two are nearly two thirds of the score. Knowing the weights is what tells you which advice is worth acting on and which is noise.
Payment history
35%
Whether you have paid past accounts on time. This is the single heaviest factor, which is why a wrongly reported late payment does real damage.
Amounts owed
30%
Mostly your utilization: how much of your available revolving credit you are using. Often the fastest lever you personally control.
Length of credit history
15%
How long your accounts have been open and active. Closing an old card can quietly shorten this.
New credit
10%
Recent applications and newly opened accounts. Hard inquiries you never authorized belong in a challenge, not on your report.
Credit mix
10%
The blend of revolving accounts and installment loans. Small factor, but it matters at the margins.
What the ranges mean
300 to 579Poor
Most mainstream lenders decline. Deposits and co-signers are common.
580 to 669Fair
Approvals happen, but at the highest rates and lowest limits.
670 to 739Good
You are near the U.S. average and most doors are open.
740 to 850Very good to exceptional
Best pricing tiers, best terms, and the fewest questions asked.
There is no single score. Mortgage, auto, and card lenders commonly pull different FICO versions, and the number in your banking app is often a VantageScore. Treat a free score as a trend line, not as the number a lender will use.
The five factors, explainedThe reporting clock
How long each item can legally stay
Most negative information reports for seven years. What people get wrong is which date the seven years is measured from, and on collections and charge-offs it is not the one you would expect.
| Item | How long it can report | Measured from |
|---|---|---|
| Late payment (30, 60, 90+ days) | 7 years | The date of the missed payment |
| Collection account | 7 years | The date of first delinquency on the original debt |
| Charge-off | 7 years | The date of first delinquency, not the charge-off date |
| Repossession or foreclosure | 7 years | The date of first delinquency |
| Chapter 13 bankruptcy | 7 years | The filing date |
| Chapter 7 bankruptcy | 10 years | The filing date |
| Hard inquiry | 2 years on the report, about 12 months of score impact | The date of the inquiry |
| Closed account in good standing | Up to 10 years | The closing date |
| Tax liens and civil judgments | Generally not reported at all since 2017 to 2018 | Bureau policy change |
How long accurate negative information can legally remain on your credit report. Inaccurate or unverifiable items should not be there at all, at any point in the timeline.
Myth versus fact
Six things almost everybody believes
Some of these cost people real money. Tap any card for the actual answer.
No. Accurate, current, verifiable information stays until it ages off on its own schedule. What can come off is information that is wrong, incomplete, unverifiable, duplicated, misdated, or past its reporting window. That covers far more than most people expect, but it is not everything.
It does not. Pulling your own report is a soft inquiry and has no score effect at all. You can do it weekly at AnnualCreditReport.com. Only a hard inquiry from a credit application affects your score.
Usually not. Paying it typically changes the balance to zero and the status to paid, but the account can still report for seven years from the original delinquency. The newer scoring models ignore paid collections; older FICO versions many lenders still use do not.
It usually hurts. Closing a card removes its available limit, which pushes your utilization up, and eventually shortens your average account age. Both are scoring factors. Keeping an old no-fee card open and lightly used is generally the better move.
A CPN is a fabricated identifier, and using one on a credit application is fraud. So is using an EIN in place of your Social Security number. People go to prison for this. Any company that offers it is disqualifying itself, and you should leave.
Roughly one in five consumer reports contains an error, and about one in twenty contains an error serious enough to change what a lender charges you. Waiting does nothing about the ones that are wrong.
Before you hire anyone
What federal law already gives you, free
You can dispute credit report errors yourself for free, get your reports weekly at AnnualCreditReport.com, and cancel any credit repair contract within three business days. No company can lawfully remove accurate information or charge you before performing the work.
Free reports, every week
You can get your report from each of the three nationwide bureaus every week at AnnualCreditReport.com at no cost. It is the only federally authorized source. You do not need us, or anyone, to get them.
The right to dispute, free of charge
You may dispute anything you believe is inaccurate or incomplete directly with each bureau and with the company that furnished the information. It costs nothing and you can do it yourself.
A 30-day investigation deadline
A bureau generally has 30 days to investigate your dispute, extended to 45 if you supply additional documents during the window. If it cannot verify the information, it must delete or correct it.
Notice when your report is used against you
If a lender, insurer, landlord, or employer takes adverse action based on your report, they must tell you and identify the bureau. You are then entitled to a free copy of that report.
What good work looks like
The kinds of cases we take
Illustrative examples of real patterns, not typical or guaranteed results.
Someone else's accounts were on her report
A borrower with a common last name found three accounts belonging to a relative mixed into her file. A mixed-file challenge with identity documentation is one of the cleaner cases in this work.
A misreported late payment sat on the only account that mattered
An applicant was declined over a 90-day late that the servicer had reported on the wrong month. Correcting the date, not deleting the account, is what changed the underwriting picture.
Both practices on one file
A defaulted federal loan was resolved on the student loan side, then the credit side made sure the reporting actually reflected the new status. Servicers often do not update it on their own.
These are illustrative examples of the kinds of situations we work in, not typical or guaranteed results. We cannot promise that any particular item will be removed or corrected, or that your score will change by any amount. Outcomes depend on what your reports actually contain and on the responses of the credit bureaus and the companies furnishing the information.
Both practices, one file
Already working with us on your student loans?
Active student loan consulting clients get $20 per month off any credit plan, for as long as both engagements are open. One team, one file, one point of contact.
$20 / mo
Ask about bundlingAsked and answered
The questions we get first
Still have one? Call (866) 952-5455 and ask a person, or start with a free review.
Get my free credit reviewAnswer library
Quick answers, no hedging
Short, specific, and checkable. If an answer requires a caveat we put the caveat in it rather than leaving it out.
What is credit repair?
Credit repair is the process of reviewing your credit reports from Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion and challenging information that is inaccurate, incomplete, unverifiable, duplicated, misdated, or older than its legal reporting window. It does not reduce debt you owe and it cannot remove accurate, current, verifiable information. The industry is regulated by the federal Credit Repair Organizations Act.
How our credit practice worksCan a credit repair company remove accurate information from my credit report?
No. Accurate, current, and verifiable information cannot lawfully be removed from a credit report by any company, and it remains until it ages off on its own schedule. What can be challenged is information that is wrong, incomplete, unverifiable, duplicated, misdated, or past its permitted reporting period. Any company promising to delete accurate items is making a claim no one can legally deliver.
Is it legal to charge for credit repair before doing the work?
No. The Credit Repair Organizations Act prohibits a credit repair organization from charging or receiving any payment before it has fully performed the services it promised. That prohibition covers setup fees, deposits, and first-month prepayments. Advance-fee charging is the single most common basis for federal enforcement action against credit repair companies.
Red flags to check any company againstHow much does credit repair cost?
Most legitimate firms charge roughly $70 to $150 per month, billed after each month of work is performed rather than in advance, because advance fees are prohibited by federal law. Setup fees are common in the industry but are difficult to square with that prohibition. Our plans run $79, $109, and $149 per month with no setup fee and nothing due before work is performed.
See plans and what each includesHow long does credit repair take?
Each challenge carries a 30-day investigation deadline under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, extended to 45 days if you add documentation during the investigation, so a single round takes roughly a month. Most files require several rounds, and complex files take longer. No honest company can give you a completion date, because the timeline depends on how the bureaus and the furnishers respond.
What is a CPN and is it legal?
A credit privacy number, or CPN, is a fabricated nine-digit identifier sold as a lawful substitute for a Social Security number. It is not one. CPNs are frequently stolen Social Security numbers belonging to children or deceased people, and using one on a credit application is federal fraud. Using an employer identification number in place of your SSN to obtain personal credit is likewise fraud.
How do I get my credit report for free?
Go to AnnualCreditReport.com, the only website authorized by federal law to provide free credit reports. Since 2023 you have been entitled to one report from each of the three nationwide bureaus every week at no cost. Get all three rather than one, because Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion receive data separately and frequently report different information about the same account.
Does checking my own credit lower my score?
No. Checking your own credit report or score is a soft inquiry and has no effect on your score, no matter how often you do it. Only a hard inquiry, generated when you apply for credit and a lender pulls your report, can affect your score, and the effect is usually a few points that fade within about a year.
What affects your credit score the most?
Payment history is the largest FICO factor at about 35%, followed by amounts owed at about 30%, which is dominated by how much of your revolving credit limits you are using. Length of credit history is 15%, new credit is 10%, and credit mix is 10%. The first two factors together are nearly two-thirds of the score.
The five factors explainedGo deeper
Guides written to be useful, not to rank
Though they do tend to rank, because being genuinely specific turns out to be the same thing.