Credit Saint Review

Worried that a bad credit score will affect your chances of getting a loan? Maybe your recent loan application was denied and you’re ready to do something about it?

That’s a great idea — most people don’t know that credit repair actually works. 🎉

Right now, it’s hard to know exactly how COVID-19 is impacting your credit score. All we know is this: The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES) protects the credit scores of those who have been negatively impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.

This means that loan payment deferrals and other forms of relief offered by banks during COVID-19 should not negatively affect your credit score.

Alas, mistakes happen. The fact is, one in five U.S. citizens have at least one mistake on their credit report, according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). That’s about 40 million people in total — who suffer from bad credit due to errors.

So, what can you do about it? 👇

Credit Saint is a highly reputable credit repair company in the U.S. It can figure out exactly why your credit score has dropped and get to work on fixing it. More than that, it offers three plans depending on how aggressive you want the service to be. But are they worth it?

Here, we’ll tell you just what other people like you think of Credit Saint. We’ll outline their fees, and the five-step process, and tell you whether it’s all really worth it in the end. We’ll also tell you the exact criteria that could be directly affecting your credit score — and what you can do about it.

What is Credit Saint?

Credit Saint aims to help people improve their not-so-favourable credit histories. After opening in 2004, the company has since grown to become highly regarded in the industry, taking the number 1 spot in many reviews.

Since 2007, Credit Saint has consistently received an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau. This is quite the achievement considering its clients are people in distress, and feeling frustrated with their current credit standing.

For sure, Credit Saint has earned some of this high customer satisfaction rating due to its full transparency and its 90-day money-back guarantee. We’ll discuss both of these in more detail soon.

How Does Credit Saint Work?

Getting started with Credit Saint can be done in just five simple steps.

1. Book a Free Consultation

First things first. All potential Credit Saint customers benefit from a free credit evaluation from one of its financial advisors. Throughout the consultation, your negative items in your credit score will be reviewed one-by-one through one of their experts.

A credit analysis will then be run by your advisors to find out the best way to remove each negative item. You will then get a tailored and specialized plan from Credit Saint, based on the outcome of the analysis.

2. Your Identity is Verified

Before you can start though, you will need to verify your identity. This can be done through email by submitting a photo of your credit card to confirm that it’s you.

Once your identity is successfully confirmed, you will have access to your online account.

3. Choose a Plan

Okay, so now you’re verified and you’ve access to your account. Next it’s time to choose your plan.

Credit Saint offers a few options to meet different needs. Are you looking for a low cost option? Or is receiving the most aggressive plan more your priority?

Once you have your consultation you’ll have a better idea of what’s needed. Plans start at $79.99 and go up to $119.99. On top of this, each plan has an upfront fee of either %99 or $195. We’ll discuss these in more detail next

4. Removing Your Negative Items

By now you’re officially signed up with what many rank as the number one credit repair company. At this point, you have one thing left to do: sit back and let the experts make things right.

The firm will liaise with the three major credit bureaus to remove negative or inaccurate items from your credit report. This will improve your credit score over time. 

That said, once your credit is improved, it’s important to stay on top of it. To help you do this, there are some quality credit monitoring services that you could utilize.

5. Credit Report is Released

After the first 45 day cycle, the credit bureaus will release the updated credit report. These results will then be used by Credit Saint to create a progress report which will appear on your profile.

Another 45-day cycle will begin at this stage, so long as you decide to continue using the program, of course. If you’re happy with your credit by the first cycle and would prefer to cancel, you have that option. However, most clients receive the most benefits after two cycles.

How Much Does Credit Saint Cost?

The fees charged by Credit Saint will be based on the plan you choose. Here are the three credit repair plans and their fees:

The Polish Plan 🥉

Cost: An initial fee of $99 must be paid within the first week of signing up. Following this, there is a recurring monthly fee of $79.99

What’s included: 

• Debt validation
• Online access to Credit Saint’s resources
• Challenges to late payments
• Phone support
• Identity theft repair
• Challenges to account charge-offs
• Challenges to collections agencies

Terms of the plan: Option to cancel at any stage or claim your money back within 90 days if you’re not happy with the service.

The Remodel Plan 🥈

Cost: Initial fee of $99 and a recurring $99.99 monthly fee.

What’s included:

• Debt validation
• Access to Credit Saint’s online resources 
• Challenges to late payments
• Phone support
• Challenges to account charge-offs
• Challenges to collections agencies
• Identity theft repair
• Escalated information requests
• Challenges to repossessions
• Challenges to bankruptcies

The Clean Slate Plan 🥇

Cost: Initial fee of $195 and a recurring monthly fee of $119.99.

What’s included:

• Online access to Credit Saint’s resources
• Phone support 
• Debt validation
• Identity theft repair
• Challenges to late payments
• Challenges to account charge-offs
• Challenges to collections agencies
• Escalated information requests
• Challenges to repossessions
• Challenges to bankruptcies
• Challenges to Judgments
• Dispute Avalanche: This feature fights negative items and speeds up the credit repair process

Pros & Cons of Credit Saint

Here are some of the key benefits and downfalls of Credit Saint to bear in mind when deciding if it’s the right credit repair company for you.

What We Like About Credit Saint

As a market leader, Credit Saint offers a high quality credit repair service with some customer rated features. Let’s go through them. 

90-Day Money-Back Guarantee ✅

While the majority of credit repair companies offer a money-back guarantee of some kind, Credit Saint goes a step further by offering a money-back guarantee for up to 90 days – two full cycles.

If the firm is unable to remove negative or inaccurate information, you can take advantage of the guarantee. This means that you’re essentially taking on little to no risk when signing up to the service.

Credit Saint’s 90-day money back guarantee is not simply a “customer satisfaction” refund. Instead, it is issued only if your credit history has not improved within 90 days.

Furthermore, if you miss payments or manage to worsen your credit after signing up to Credit Saint you may disqualify yourself from receiving the refund.

Lower Monthly Fee 💵

Let’s be real, most credit repair services charge at least $100 per month. Credit Saint offers a budget plan for $79.99 a month suitable for people who need slightly less help in improving their credit. 

If you don’t have too many items that need repairing on your report, for instance, you could get all you need from the Credit Polish option.

A one time first work fee of $99 is also charged when you sign up to the credit polish plan, as we mentioned above. It is more than the monthly fee but you will receive a first class service from industry experts in return.

Custom Disputes 🎯

Credit Saint puts forward unique and customized disputes to the credit reporting agencies, depending on the information on the customer’s report. 

Unlike some agencies that send generic, templated letters, Credit Saint listens to each customer’s individual story before crafting a one of a kind removal request letter.

Full-Featured Online Portal 💻

Credit Saint allows clients to stay on top of their progress and see the expert analysis of the different factors affecting your report. This helps you know what actions you can take to start improving your situation.

Where Credit Saint Could Improve

Discounts 📉

There are options with other credit repair services to receive discounted prices if two people sign up together. Credit Repair might be missing a trick here.

It does, however, offer a waived fee to help you get going if you add a family member in your household to the process, but no reduction in monthly fees are given for the other person.

This means that even if you and a spouse want to both remove negative information from your credit histories, you will both be paying full whack.

No Mobile App 📱

In the age of technology, Credit Saint really should offer an app. Other credit repair services offer apps for both iOS and Android, Credit Saint on the other hand does not. You can only access your account online.

If you are used to accessing information through apps, Credit Saint might not be for you.

What Does Credit Saint Actually Do?

Credit Saint represents you in making sure that everything on your credit report is accurate, as is your right legally.

The Credit Saint process is clear and simple and helps customers clear up their credit. Here’s a runthrough of what Credit Saint does.

Personal Consultancy

To start, Credit Saint offers a team of expert personal advisors that look after your case and are free to speak to you and answer any questions you might have about the process or your credit report.

An advisor will have a consultation with you to go through all the details in the beginning and let you know exactly what they can do to help improve your situation. You will also receive customized advice on steps you can take to improve your credit score during the consultation.

Disputing Negative Items

When communicating with creditors and the main credit bureaus to dispute negative or inaccurate items on your credit report, Credit Saint creates personalized dispute letters that discuss your individual situation.

This might be most likely one of the reasons why almost 95% of Credit Saint’s customers report seeing improvements to their credit report in the first 45-day cycle.

How Does Credit Saint Help Repair Your Credit? 🛠

It’s important to keep in mind that there are five key factors that affect your credit.

1. Payment history: Keeping up to date with your bills and making payments on time is the best way to keep a good credit score.
2. Credit utilization: Aim to use a maximum of 30% of your credit. For example, if you hold several credit cards with a $10,000 limit, try not to use more than $3,000. 
3. Credit history: Keep your credit accounts open, even if you don’t need them. These will give you a longer credit history and keep your credit score high. 
4. Credit Mix: Try to maintain a good mixture of different credit types: credit cards, mortgages, student loans, and auto loans all work.
5. New credit: Don’t open several new credit cards all at the same time. This will cause a hard inquiry which will result in a drop in your score. 

Essentially, Credit Saint addresses some of the biggest credit score factors on your credit report by focusing on disputing things like late payments or a lack of credit mix, in addition to inaccuracies.

During COVID-19 it’s particularly important to understand how to protect your credit.

If you have multiple credit cards, for example, it might be a better idea to consolidate your debt. This will help you get better terms which will help you pay it off quicker in the end.

Each error can drastically affect your score. Think about it like this: someone applies for a loan that is mistakenly associated with your security number. The person then misses payments and maybe even fails to pay altogether. 

These things happen far more often than people realize and can really harm your chances of being approved for a loan in the future.

Though it wouldn’t be fair to say that all errors are a result of honest mistakes.

Over 16 million U.S. consumers were the victims of identity theft in 2017. In 2019, this figure was still an outstanding 14.4 million – that’s around 1 in 15 people. 

Overall, 33% of people in the U.S. experience identity theft, which is over double than the global average. Within this, 1 in 5 people have been the victims of identity theft more than once. 

Credit Saint helps people put things right in instances like this. These particular situations might require the most aggressive package so that the company can fight in the best light for you.

Lower Interest Rates ⚖️

A bad credit score can impact you in more ways than one. If your score is low, you might already have experienced the difficulty in getting some debt relief. In fact, that might be the exact reason you decided credit repair is worth it.

Even if you do get approved for a loan with a low credit score, you might need to pay extremely high interest rates.

Better Job Opportunities 📈

It’s compulsory for a lot of potential employers to ask for a credit check as part of their  background checks. Good credit scores show that you are a responsible and reliable person.

That’s not to say that just because you’ve fallen on hard times, you’re a bad person. But for someone who knows nothing about you, numbers are all they have to go off, so unfortunately a better credit score will open the way for more opportunities.

Is it Worth Paying Someone to Fix Your Credit?

Having a good credit rating is really important and can impact you in more than one way. If your credit history has any errors, using one of the leading credit repair companies. 

Before you sign up to a company, however, make sure you have a good understanding of exactly how credit repair companies work.

If you’re worried about money, a better option might be to use one of the most effective credit repair software. This can fix bad credit and, well, even save you money in the end.

Where Credit Saint Can’t Help ⚠️

Now that we’ve listed the multiple ways Credit Saint can help, it’s important to highlight where the firm cannot help.

Credit Saint, or any company for that matter, can claim to raise your score by a certain amount, or even offer you a guarantee that items will be removed. If a company does claim this – run! It’s likely a fraudulent company. Credit repair companies have tight laws and regulations that they must adhere to.

Is Credit Saint Legit?

Credit Saint is a highly regarded credit repair company. Since it opened in 2004, the company has racked up a significant amount of positive customer reviews placing them in the number one spot. It has also consistently received an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau since 2007.

Credit Saint vs. Lexington Law

Credit Saint and Lexington Law are both highly reputable companies that can help with bad credit. Here are the key differences between each:

How is COVID-19 Impacting Your Credit Score?

It’s hard to know right now just how credit scores are being impacted by COVID-19 because data is still being gathered and sometimes, it is reported differently since different agencies use different models and scoring methodologies.

Because the COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented event, a lot of work is going into figuring out how different situations are best treated and reported, which have an impact on credit scores. That said, Mitchell Lee, Director of Fintech Group at SF Fed has outlined some things consumers should be aware of:

• Consumers have certain rights when it comes to their credit reports as a result of The Fair Credit Reporting Act or FCRA is a law passed in 1970. These include the right to dispute credit reporting errors or inaccuracies when they occur, and to receive a free credit report once a year. It also states that “furnishers” (those producing credit reports) must report information that is accurate and up to date.
• People impacted by the pandemic can benefit from loan accommodations without it negatively impacting their credit score. The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES) came into effect in March 2020 which ensures consumers impacted by COVID-19 receive loan accommodations that do not affect credit scores.

The Bottom Line

When you have an initial consultation with Credit Saint and the company decides to take you on, it is because it is confident it can fix your credit.

Depending on how bad your credit is, it could all be good again in a few months, giving you access to better loan rates and terms, hassle-free borrowing, and deposit-free utilities when you’re applying to one of the leading mortgage lenders or even a top lender for personal loans.

Let’s consider that the Remodel Plan is the best fit for you. You will pay around $400 in the first two cycles – 90 days. If this resulted in your FICO score increasing by 50 points, it might save you a significant amount in interest on your next loan. The impact it will have on your financial future is clear.

The consistent A+ BBB rating since 2007, and the 90-day money back guarantee make Credit Saint an almost risk free option. If the firm agrees to help improve your credit score, it might just be your best bet.