CreditRepair.com has been an industry leader in providing credit repair services for many years. They are known for their simple business model that includes a straightforward three-step approach.
In May of 2019, Credit Repair.com, their sister company, Lexington Law, and parent company Progrexion Inc. were hit with a lawsuit from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for deceptive marketing practices that may affect your decision on which credit repair company to choose.
CreditRepair.com
CreditRepair.com has a proven business model and is one of the country’s most prominent credit repair companies. However, based on customer reviews and a lawsuit that raises serious allegations about the Company’s business practices, choosing another credit repair company might be a more prudent choice.
Pros
Education Resources
Simplicity
Small Initial Fee
Cons
'F' Rating With BBB
Pending Gov Lawsuit
Business Ethics
Table of Contents
Who Is CreditRepair.com?
The two most commonly searched questions are “Who is CreditRepair.com” and “What does CreditRepair.com do?”
CreditRepair.com has been in business since 2012 and is owned by parent company Progrexion.
Progexion also owns Lexington Law credit repair services, the largest company in the industry. The combined entity is a dominant force in the credit repair business.
All three of these businesses were named in the government lawsuit filed by CFPB for questionable marketing practices in May 2019.
If you’d like to read more about the latest news on the Lexington Law and CreditRepair.com lawsuit click here.
They provide credit repair services by following a simple three-step process to dispute records that appear to be inaccurate, unfair, or invalid.
What Makes Them Different?
Credit Repair.com helps its customers remove negative items from their credit files using its three-step system.
- CHECK – review credit file
- CHALLENGE – dispute negative records
- CHANGE – track credit score progress
They have developed an excellent set of credit education resources that include categories such as credit building, debt solutions, and budgeting.
CreditRepair.com offers some of the more innovative technology to its customers with access to a personal online dashboard, credit score tracker, mobile app, and email or text alerts.
Remember that credit repair companies can only correct errors on your credit report, which you can dispute yourself. There is no assurance that they can remove legitimate entries or that they can improve your credit.
2019 Lawsuit
Credit Repair.com and Lexington Law are well known in the industry for aggressive marketing tactics. These companies are closely related entities, parts of a complex cluster of entities focused on credit repair services.
These companies include PGX Holdings, which owns Progrexion Marketing, Progrexion Teleservices, eFolks, and CreditRepair.com. Progrexion Marketing and Progrexion Teleservices provide marketing and other services to Heath PLLC, which does business as Lexington Law.
On May 2nd, 2019, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) filed a lawsuit against “PGX Holdings, Inc. (PGX Holdings), and its subsidiaries Progrexion
Marketing, Inc. (Progrexion Marketing), Progrexion Teleservices, Inc. (Progrexion
Teleservices), eFolks, LLC (eFolks), and CreditRepair.com, Inc. (CreditRepair.com), and John C. Heath, Attorney at Law, PLLC (Heath PLLC), d/b/a Lexington Law Firm or Lexington Law”.
Despite the complex corporate structure, these entities appear to be effectively part of the same enterprise. The CFPB clarifies that the technical separation of these companies does not exonerate one from the actions of the others.
The Progrexion Defendants operate as a common enterprise. They have
conducted the business practices described below through interconnected
companies that operate under common control, have common business functions, officers, employees, and office locations, and share advertising and marketing. Accordingly, an act by one entity constitutes an act by each entity comprising the common enterprise
The suit alleged that these companies were actively involved or complicit in deceptive and abusive practices perpetrated against their consumers.
The CFPB alleges that Progrexion engaged or was complicit in deceptive and abusive marketing practices. One particularly disturbing allegation was the use of completely fictitious claims to lure customers into retaining credit repair services. The complaint states:
To generate credit repair sales, Defendants rely on a network of marketing
affiliates who advertise a variety of products and services, often related to
consumer credit products. As alleged below, Progrexion’s marketing affiliates have used deceptive, bait advertising to generate referrals to Lexington Law’s credit repair service. For example, one of Progrexion’s most productive marketing
affiliates falsely advertised that it “guarantee[d] ANYONE a 0-3.5% Down Home
Loan no matter how bad their Credit is when we start!” In reality, the affiliate did
not provide any loans at all. Interested consumers were told that, to participate in
the (non-existent) loan program, they had to sign up with Lexington Law. The
Progrexion Defendants paid this marketing affiliate for each credit repair sale that resulted from its efforts, despite knowing that it engaged in deceptive practices.
Essentially, marketing affiliates offered credit services that did not exist and advised potential customers to retain Progrexion-owned companies to repair their credit in order to qualify for those services. Potential clients were directly transferred to Progrexion call centers.
These offers allegedly included a wide range of financial services:
Partners have used advertisements that included fake real estate ads, fake rent-to-own housing opportunities, fake relationships with lenders, false credit guarantees, and false and unsubstantiated statements about past consumer outcomes. The ads have also included false and unsubstantiated statements about consumers’ likelihood of success in obtaining products and services such as rent-to-own housing contracts, mortgages, or personal loans.
Marketing is a natural function of any company, but these claims raise serious questions about this company’s ethics and practices.
Smoking Gun E-Mails: Management Knew
Progrexion executives and management staff exchanged multiple emails amongst themselves and the affiliate that indicate Progrexion was involved in this scam or at the least knew of it and did nothing to stop it.
In one instance, staff exchanged emails discussing how the affiliate’s script included promises that were clearly deceptive and contrary to CFPB rules.
…in a July 2016 email, a Progrexion employee reported concerns to another Progrexion employee that certain… partners offering rent-to-own housing were making implicit guarantees that credit repair would result in consumers obtaining the rent-to-own housing advertised. The Progrexion employee suggested that this situation be handled by changing the scripting used… in order to “avoid our agents hearing those expectations. The logic being that it is easier to plead ignorance if you’re truly ignorant.”
Instead of demanding the affiliate to cease and desist, they tried to find a way for associates to not be on the phone with the affiliate when the client was illegally misled to specifically induce the client to sign up for credit repair services.
Illegal Billing Practices
The complaint also alleges that Progrexion charges up-front fees, a violation of the Telemarketing Sales Rule.
The Telemarketing Sales Rule states that “the company may not request or receive fees until it has provided you with a credit report generated more than six months after the promised results that shows the results”.
Note that this rule only applies to companies that use telemarketing as defined by the Telemarketing Sales Rule.
Both telemarketing and advance billing are widespread practices in the credit repair industry, though not all companies use them. It is possible that the CFPB focused on the largest and most visible credit repair firm in order to deliver the point that this practice is illegal.
Are They Guilty?
This case has yet to be settled, but the allegations are serious and very detailed. They cast doubt on the business ethics of the companies involved. If a company uses unethical practices in one part of their business, would you trust them to conduct any part of their business ethically?
While CreditRepair.com has gotten results for some clients, these allegations suggest that they may not be trustworthy partners.
👉 There are many more very troubling and unethical business practices alleged in the 48-page complaint which you can read for yourself here.
What Does CreditRepair.com Cover?
CreditRepair.com has kept its product offerings as simple as possible, offering three credit repair packages.
These plans will cover your credit restoration needs at an affordable price.
Here’s what the plans cover:
| Features | Direct Plan | Standard Plan | Advanced Plan |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $69.95 | $99.95 | $119.95 |
| First-work fee | $69.95 | $99.95 | $119.95 |
| Bureau challenges | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Inquiry assists | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Goodwill intervention | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Quarterly credit score updates | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| FICO® Score Inquiry Assist service | No | Yes | Yes |
| Monthly credit score updates | No | No | Yes |
| More bureau challenges | No | No | Yes |
| More creditor interventions | No | No | Yes |
| Cease and desist interventions | No | No | Yes |
What Does Credit Repair.com NOT Cover?
They cannot guarantee you a specific outcome with your credit but you can cancel at any time.
They legally can’t guarantee what will happen to your credit due to laws within the Credit Repair Organizations Act (CROA).
They also probably won’t be able to help with:
Student Loan Removal
Unless you are having a financial burden or can find a loan forgiveness program, the possibility of getting a student loan removed from your credit is going to be nearly impossible.
There are things you can do to lessen the blow of a student loan and Credit Repair.com can help with that.
Because of the guidelines laid out by the CROA, no credit repair company can guarantee that they will improve your credit score.
How Much Does CreditRepair.com Cost?
CreditRepair.com is one of the few restoration companies that does not charge an upfront work fee. They do charge a first-work fee that varies depending on the type of plan you choose.
They offer three credit repair plans, Direct, Standard, and Advanced.
Below is a detailed breakdown of the pricing:
| Plan | First-work fee | Monthly Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Direct | $69.95 | $69.95 |
| Standard | $99.95 | $99.95 |
| Advanced | $119.95 | $119.95 |
CreditRepair.com Reviews
The longer we find a company has been in the credit repair industry, the more opportunity they will have to collect negative reviews.
CreditRepair.com has been in business since 2012 and has quite a few negative complaints claiming that the service was ineffective or that they were guaranteed successes that never came.
The positive reviews speak of their industry-leading technology, higher credit scores, and their credit education section.
We gathered customer review averages from the most trusted websites which gave CreditRepair.com Reviews a 2.9 customer average rating.
This rating puts them in the bottom of the pack for credit repair companies that we reviewed.
| Trusted CreditRepair.com Reviews | Customer Average Rating |
|---|---|
| Top Ten Reviews Avg. Rating | 3.0 |
| Better Business Bureau Avg. Rating | 1.1 |
| Consumer Affairs Reviews Avg. Rating | 3.0 |
| Best Company Reviews Avg. Rating | 4.1 |
| CUSTOMER REVIEWS AVG. RATING | 2.8 |
*We were unable to find customer reviews for CreditRepair.com on Yelp and substituted the TopTen customers’ review average.
Better Business Bureau Rating (BBB)
The Better Business Bureau, more commonly referred to simply as the BBB, is an ethical marketplace where buyers can review sellers’ ratings and see what others are saying in the reviews.
CreditRepair.com BBB rating is an F due to multiple unanswered complaints from customers and questionable advertising practices.
Reading CreditRepair.com BBB Reviews include many troubling common complaints like an apparent continuing problem of customers being led to believe the monthly price is $49.99 when they actually charged $99.95 a month.
CreditRepair.com Phone Number & Address
CreditRepair.com headquarters is located in West Valley City, Utah.
You can find them at 2850 S Decker Lake Dr, West Valley City, UT 84119, the same address used for Lexington Law.
They can be reached 24 hours a day by dialing the toll-free CreditRepair.com Phone Number 866-731-4156.
Who Is Credit Repair.com For?
Credit repair is mainly for people who have bad credit. If you need to get better credit so that you can get that new car or move into an apartment or home, a credit repair company may be able to help.
With better credit, you can also get better employment opportunities as people do review your credit for certain jobs.
Credit repair can also help a young couple looking to move to a new house but cannot afford or accept the terms of a mortgage because of pricing reasons due to a low credit score.
Mortgage lenders determine the terms of the loan based on your credit score and report. The higher the score, the better the terms and lower the cost of the loan.
What To Expect After You Sign Up
After your consultation, you will be charged a one-time fee of $14.95 for them to obtain your credit report.
Your credit repair expert will contact you within 48 hours of signup.
Together you will determine realistic goals and review your credit reports to identify negative records that may be inaccurate, unfair, or invalid.
CreditRepair.com will take the necessary steps to dispute these records on your behalf.
You will be able to track your progress by using their mobile app to access your online dashboard, credit score tracker, and manage text/email alerts.
Helpful Tip
You should upload all of your documents, the sooner they receive the information the better results you will have overall.
How To Cancel CreditRepair.com
The fastest way to cancel CreditRepair.com is to contact member services directly by phone at: (800) 232-6499 between the hours of 8 a.m. – Midnight (EST) M-F or Saturday between 9 a.m. – 11 p.m. (EST).
Cancellations will be processed immediately, however, they will not pro-rate your monthly service fee which will continue to give you access to your account until the end of the billing cycle.
You can also attempt to cancel CreditRepair.com by emailing [email protected] but most likely they will require you to speak with a representative.
CreditRepair.com Availability
There are some places where CreditRepair.com does not provide credit restoration and those states are:
CreditRepair.com does not provide credit repair services to the following states:
- Colorado
- Georgia
- Mississippi
- Ohio
- Kansas
- Maryland
- Minnesota
- Oregon
- South Carolina
- Maine
- Wisconsin
- Michigan
Best Alternative To CreditRepair.com
While you might be expecting to see the name of some competitors, the truth is that for many people, doing the work yourself is the best alternative. If you have a relatively simple credit report with a small number of inaccurate entries, you can send the necessary dispute letters yourself.
If your credit report is complex and has a large number of disputable issues, you may wish to consider other credit repair companies. We’ve reviewed some of the best in this article on the best credit repair companies for 2023.
Taking Action On Your Credit
Starting your credit journey can be complicated and confusing.
There is no better time than now to get things started and the sooner you get your credit in a better position the better off you can obtain the things that have been eluding you.
Whether you choose to do it yourself or hire a credit repair company, the most important decision you can make is to start the process now!
