Is Self Credit Repair?

Is Self credit repair? The short answer is no. Self’s tools focus on building new credit history, rather than removing old history.

Self is not credit repair, but...

Sometimes, Self’s tools can complement legitimate, reputable credit repair.

How?

While you focus on repairing your credit by removing errors from your credit reports, you can use Self’s tools to build new credit history. If you use Self’s tools responsibly, that new credit history should add positive news to your credit.

For example:

In my work as a Financial Counselor, I once saw a customer use credit repair to remove all the outdated or incorrect accounts from their credit report. At first, they were thrilled. After all, they no longer had bad credit history.

There was just one problem.

Now they had no credit history, meaning they were still getting denied for loan and credit card applications. They had overlooked a key follow-up to credit repair – credit building.

That’s where Self could offer support.

Use Self for credit building

While you can’t use Self for credit repair, we do have a multi-step credit building process that takes the guesswork out of building your credit.

Here’s how it works:

1. Open a Self Credit Builder Account.
2. Make monthly payments to establish credit history with all 3 credit bureaus while also building savings (minus interest and fees).
3. Potentially access the Self Visa^® Credit Card using money you already paid into your account as the security deposit on the card.
4. Increase the credit limit on your secured card as you continue paying into your Credit Builder Account.
5. If you qualify, get access to unsecured credit limit increases on your Self credit card.

You can use Self’s tools to build your credit several ways by:

• Building your payment history (35% of your credit score)¹
• Diversifying your types of credit (10% of your credit score)¹
• Avoiding a hard credit pull, since no credit score is needed to access Self’s tools (10% of your credit score)¹
• Managing your “amounts owed” (30% of your credit score)¹ responsibly, if you get the credit card

Learn how to avoid common credit repair scams and more on the difference between rebuilding credit and repairing credit.

Bottom line

When working on your credit to build towards your dreams, focus on building positive credit history in addition to removing errors or other negative items from your credit report. With good tools, information, support and by developing a credit-building habit, you may never need credit repair again.

Ready to start building your credit? Download the Self app now.

About the author

Lauren Bringle is an Accredited Financial Counselor® with Self Financial – a financial technology company with a mission to increase economic inclusion by helping people build credit and savings so they can build their dreams.

1. https://www.myfico.com/credit-education/whats-in-your-credit-score

All Credit Builder Accounts made by Lead Bank, Member FDIC, Equal Housing Lender, Sunrise Banks, N.A. Member FDIC, Equal Housing Lender or Atlantic Capital Bank, N.A. Member FDIC, Equal Housing Lender. Subject to ID Verification. Individual borrowers must be a U.S. Citizen or permanent resident and at least 18 years old. Valid bank account and Social Security Number are required. All loans are subject to ID verification and consumer report review and approval. Results are not guaranteed. Improvement in your credit score is dependent on your specific situation and financial behavior. Failure to make monthly minimum payments by the payment due date each month may result in delinquent payment reporting to credit bureaus which may negatively impact your credit score. This product will not remove negative credit history from your credit report. All loans subject to approval. All Certificates of Deposit (CD) are deposited in Lead Bank, Member FDIC, Sunrise Banks, N.A., Member FDIC or Atlantic Capital Bank, N.A., Member FDIC.