Guide to Starting
a Credit Repair Business From Home

The DIY Credit Repair Business Model

Set-Up Ti,e- Several Weeks to a Few Months

Cost Will Vary Greatly Depending on the Choices You Make - Expect a Cost of at Least $3,000 and up to $5,000 to Start with On-Going Monthly Fees

Check the Credit Repair Law in Your State

There is no licensing or certification required in the credit repair industry. However, each state has its own laws regulating credit repair businesses. Some require registration of the business. Others require you to purchase a surety bond. Some require you to do both. Bonds will range in price according to the amount of the bond required and your personal credit score.  If you want to do business in another state you must then learn and adhere to that state's laws as well.

The cost will range from 1% to 5% of the bond amount annually. Bonds amounts required typically range between $25,000 to $100,000. Check the credit repair laws in your state.

Decide How You're Going to Obtain Credit Reports

Being able to obtain the credit report of your client to then process dispute letters is difficult. Typically credit reports are obtained from a credit report broker that is contracted with the 3 main credit reporting agencies (Experian, Equifax, Transunion). However, credit repair brokers will not furnish credit repair companies with consumer credit reports.

To overcome this challenge most credit repair companies ask their client to open up an account with an online credit reporting service such as IdentityIQ (7-day trial then $9.99 to $29.99/month) or SmartCredit (7-day trial for $1, then $9.99/month). The client then must furnish the company with their login credentials to obtain the report.

There is no cost to you as a credit repair business owner to have your client do this. But you may face some resistance from clients as they must spend more and then give you permanent access to their information.

Research and Choose a Credit Repair Business Software to Use

In order to analyze credit reports and draft client dispute letters quicker and more easily, you will need credit repair dispute software. There are many companies like Credit Repair Cloud that offer a variety of options along with their software. Here is a list of several of the credit repair business software companies and their pricing.

Cost for Credit Repair Business Software- You will typically pay a startup fee and monthly fee. Monthly fees range from under $100 to several hundred dollars a month.

Research and Choose a Merchant Services Company

You will require a merchant services account in order to be able to take credit and debit cards for payment from your clients. The challenge in the credit repair business is that credit repair clients are considered 'high-risk'. That means that not all merchant services companies accept credit repair companies as clients and those that do will charge more.

The Cost for Merchant Services- you will typically incur a small monthly fee plus either a fee per transaction or a base amount that covers a certain amount of monthly transactions.

Research Services to Offer Other Than Credit Repair

To compete in the credit repair business you must offer services other than credit repair (the removal of derogatory items). Every company in the industry offers credit repair. You have to distinguish yourself and offer more value especially when you are starting out.

There are many other ways other than disputing negative items to improve a credit score. And, there are services you can offer as an affiliate or even just as free advice to help your client. Items such as a secured credit card, rent reporting, debt payoff, credit builder loans, and more.

Create Marketing Platforms

As in any business, the better you are at marketing, and the more exposure you give your business, the more customers you will have. At the minimum, you need a website. You'll have to decide if you'll build that yourself or have someone do it for you. Some credit repair business software companies provide you with a website platform but the website itself needs to be populated with pages and content.

You will want to consider social media business pages and marketing materials such as business cards and a quality video that you can have on your website explaining your services. You should visit the websites of some of the top companies in your area to see what they have.

Credit Repair Business Training

Unfortunately, this topic is as misunderstood as the subject of credit repair itself. If someone understands consumer laws regarding credit repair they'll know that there is no big mystery about how to get it done. Yet, there are companies out there that will gladly charge people to go through their credit repair classes for an unnecessary and largely useless certification.

The Cost of Credit Repair Courses varies widely. However, expect to pay several hundred dollars.