Best Credit Repair Software

Want to easily improve your credit? The best credit repair software could help. Read on to learn about 9 popular options.

Poor credit can be a financial nightmare.

Loans, credit cards, and even insurance cost more. It can even make renting an apartment much more difficult.

Fortunately, credit repair software can help. In this guide, learn more about the 10 best credit repair programs, how much they cost, and how they differ.

What is a Credit Repair Software?

Credit repair software refers to a variety of different computer programs used for the purpose of monitoring and/or improving the user's credit score.

There are three different types of credit repair software programs that are currently popular in the market:

• Credit score trackers, which keep track of activity that impacts your score

• Credit repair cleaning kits, which can include tools for disputing negative marks, or may dispute negative marks on your behalf

• Credit score simulators, which let you test credit repair strategies in different simulations

Review our top picks for each type of software below to find the right fit for you.

What is a Bad Credit Score?

A bad FICO score is any score below 670, while a bad VantageScore is anything less than 650. In both cases, a score below that number will label that person a "subprime borrower."

FICO and VantageScore are the two main credit rating systems, and both range from 300 to 850. FICO scores are more commonly used by banks and other lenders.

Business credit scores typically range between 0 and 100, with scores provided by Equifax, Experian, and Dun and Bradstreet.

A bad business credit score is much more complicated, with no clear numeric ranges for what constitutes a good or bad score. Experts suggest that if your score is below the 80th percentile, you may want to consider improving your score.

Best Credit Score Trackers

Credit score trackers range from offering view-only access to your credit reports and how your score is measured to full-stack identity theft protection. Let's take a look at four of the best credit score tracking software on the market today.

Credit Karma: Most Trusted Credit Tracker

Price: Free

If you need basic credit monitoring, Credit Karma offers an excellent free service. This web-based platform pulls information from your TransUnion and Equifax reports daily to track your credit score changes over time.

With Credit Karma, you can view detailed records regarding your payment history, credit usage, derogatory remarks, credit age, total accounts, and hard inquiries.

Before you pay for a premium service like a credit repair kit, a free and trustworthy credit tracker like Credit Karma should be your first stop.

Credit Sesame: Best Free Software

Price: Free to $19.95 per month

Like Credit Karma, Credit Sesame is an easy-to-use and highly intuitive credit tracker app. However, Credit Sesame only shows your score from one bureau — TransUnion.

However, Credit Sesame has a leg up on Credit Karma in several areas. For example, Credit Sesame allows you to view your total debt burden, not just individual account balances. Secondly, Credit Sesame offers $50,000 in identity theft insurance.^[1]

Credit Sesame also offers subscription tiers to gain access to more than one credit reporting bureau and enjoy additional services like dark web monitoring, lost or stolen wallet protection, and Social Security monitoring.

These tiers start at $9.95 per month for basic perks and go up to $19.95 per month for the Platinum plan.^[2]

Mint: Best Overall Finance App

Price: Free

Mint is a holistic personal finance service that offers many of the same features as Credit Karma, which makes sense because both services are provided by Intuit.

Where Mint really shines is allowing users to track their net worth by adding all of their financial accounts to one centralized location, including:

• Bank accounts
  
• Credit cards
  
• Loans
  
• Investment accounts and wallets
  
• Property, like vehicles and homes

For the purposes of credit tracking, Mint only displays a user's VantageScore as provided by TransUnion. But this includes all of the information affecting the score, such as payment history by account, credit utilization, age of credit, etc.

Mint is also useful for setting a budget, tracking income and expenses, and setting customized financial goals.

Best Credit Repair Cleaning Kits

Credit score repair kits are by far the most advanced credit repair software available. As a result, they tend to be significantly more expensive than credit trackers or credit simulators.

Here are the three best cleaning kits available.

Credit Detailer: Best Low-Tech Option for Pros

Price: $999.99^[3]

Credit Detailer is a simplistic, low-tech option. This system is great for businesses and professionals because for one flat-rate price, you can process unlimited clients.

Credit Detailer also comes with a free seven-day trial to test drive the system before you commit.

The downside of Credit Detailer is that you must manually input all creditor information and it also comes with a fairly steep price tag of $999.99.

Personal Credit Software: Best DIY Software

Price: $199.97

Personal Credit Software is a cloud-based software system that offers a full suite of DIY credit repair services. Here's how the system works:

• First, it pulls all your credit details.
  
• Then, it finds and categorizes all derogatory items.
  
• Next, it automatically generates dispute letter templates, including reasons for the dispute.

DisputeBee: Best Budget Repair Kit

Price: $49/month^[4]

DisputeBee is a cloud-based system that provides an affordable service at just $49 per month for individuals and $129 per month for businesses.

This service will import your credit report from all three bureaus and allows you to dispute items individually or as a group (if all items are from the same source).

DisputeBee will automatically generate pre-populated dispute letters that can be downloaded and mailed to bureaus for correction.

Best Credit Score Simulators

Credit score simulators allow you to test drive financial decisions to judge how they will impact your credit. While several of the options above include a credit score simulator, these are the top three available.

CreditWise by Capital One: Best Overall Simulator

Price: Free

Capital One 360 offers a credit score tracker and simulator available to anyone with or without a Capital One account. The best part is that this service is completely free of charge.

The simulator allows you to play out a variety of scenarios that would impact your credit score, such as closing a credit card account, taking out a mortgage or auto loan, or facing a certain number of hard inquiries.

The CreditWise simulator is based on the VantageScore 3.0 model, so it may not perfectly reflect changes made to your FICO score.

TransUnion: Best VantageScore Credit Simulator

Price: $24.95/month

TransUnion, one of the three major consumer credit bureaus, offers a credit simulator as part of their credit monitoring service. Like CreditWise, this simulator is based on the VantageScore 3.0 model.

This system will allow you to preview the effect of thousands of possible scenarios from 14 distinct categories. The software costs $24.95 per month and comes with a wide variety of other services, including:

• Unlimited credit report access
  
• $1 million in identity theft insurance
  
• Instant credit alert emails
  
• Recommendations on how to improve your score
  
• The ability to lock your TransUnion and Equifax credit reports directly from your phone

myScoreIQ: Best FICO simulator

Price: $9.99 to $34.99 per month^[5]

This cloud-based software offers a similar service to TransUnion with $1 million in identity theft protection, daily score updates and alerts, and recommendations to improve your score — all in addition to a credit score simulator.

If you're looking for a simulator that is based on FICO scores instead of the VantageScore model, myScoreIQ is better suited to your needs.

The max plan costs $34.99 per month, but the service has a promotional seven-day trial for only $1 and the ability to cancel anytime.

Types of Credit Repair Software

Still not sure which type of software is best for you? Review the differences below and which type of people they'd be best for.

Credit Score Trackers (Monitors)

These systems collect data points from the three major credit bureaus to search for activity that could harm your credit score. For example, late payments, identity theft, and duplicate charges. Trackers are typically the least expensive type of credit repair software.

Best for: People of any credit score range who want to keep track of factors that impact their credit score in real-time.

Credit Repair Cleaning Kits

These are more active than trackers because they help to not only identify issues, but resolve them as well. Cleaning kits may provide dispute letter templates, submit dispute requests on your behalf, and automatically request reports.

Best for: People with poor credit who want to take significant action to repair their score

Credit Score Simulators

This type of credit score service actively runs simulations so you can anticipate how certain actions (like buying a home or opening a new line of credit) will impact your credit score before you sign on the dotted line.

Best for: People with good or fair credit who are considering significant financial changes or people who want to test out different repair strategies on their own.

Credit Repair vs. Debt Consolidation?

Debt consolidation is a one-time loan that can lump all your debts together. Ideally, this comes with a lower interest rate than your current debts too.

This can be helpful if you are juggling multiple debts and managing confusing payments. If you can get a lower interest rate, it could also save you a lot of money over the course of your debt repayment.

Which is better for you: credit repair or debt consolidation?
Well, each has its purpose.

Credit repair can help you improve or maintain a good credit score over the long term. Credit monitoring services offer free credit reports from some or all three credit bureaus. You can get real-time fraud notifications to avoid negative marks. Some will even automatically draft dispute letters for erroneous charges.

But debt consolidation offers relief to debtors struggling to keep up with numerous high-interest payments. If it helps you make payments on time and reduces your debt, this can really help your credit score.

Credit Repair vs. Bankruptcy?

If you cannot pay back your debts, bankruptcy is the most drastic step you can take. But it will make a huge blemish on your credit score.

There are several types of bankruptcy, but essentially you'd be wiping away your debts and starting fresh. However, you'd have to sell all your assets and would have a negative mark on your credit report for years.

Credit repair services might be able to help you remove bankruptcy from your credit report, which would significantly improve your score. But not everyone will qualify for this, and due to the complexity of the law, it's worth seeing a bankruptcy lawyer to determine if you qualify.

Credit Repair Software vs. Company?

Credit repair software uses automated technical tools to monitor and improve your credit. It will analyze your credit report, and find and fix credit errors. In some cases, it will automatically draft dispute letters on your behalf. However, you'd need to spend some time on this.

Credit repair companies often employ a team of professionals to help you improve your credit. They'd employ a similar strategy of finding errors and correcting them. But they could write custom dispute letters and have a licensed attorney supervise your account.

Software is a great low-cost option that will help you improve your credit on your own. A company will cost more but can develop a more personalized approach and save you time.

Is Credit Repair Worth The Money?

Improving your credit from bad to good can save you a lot of money in interest over the course of a major loan or mortgage. Having great credit also gives you access to better benefits and more opportunities, so it's worth repairing your credit.

Of course, there's nothing that a credit repair software or service can do for you that you can't do yourself. And it would be free.

But the best credit repair software and services can save you time and frustration. They might also help you sleep better at night, knowing trained professionals are there to assist you.

What the Experts Say

CreditDonkey asked a panel of industry experts to answer readers' most pressing questions. Here's what they said:

The Bottom Line

Not all types of credit repair software are created equal. The good news is that there is a wide variety of options available. Whether you desire high-level identity theft protection or just need pre-populated dispute letters, the options above have what you need.

It is recommended that you start with a free service that can display the information affecting your credit score, such as Credit Karma, Mint, or Credit Sesame, before paying for a premium service.

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