Overview
The Credit Doctor helps consumers repair their credit, while also helping them understand the complicated credit, credit reporting, and credit repair processes. They claim an average score increase of 60-100 points for their customers.
Pros
The first positive aspect of the company we found was that they file disputes with credit reporting agencies to challenge negative and inaccurate information found in credit reports. This information can severely impact a consumer’s credit score, resulting in higher interest rates for loans, or possibly getting denied for loans altogether. These disputes are one of the most common strategies for resolving credit report issues.
The Credit Doctor has the additional benefit of they only charge customers for items that have been deleted. This is better than the monthly fee model because it means consumers only pay for the results they get. Credit repair is an industry where this is particularly relevant, as most credit repair customers don’t have money to spend without seeing any results. We also noticed that companies that use a pay-per-deletion model are more likely to receive higher marks for customer satisfaction and customer service.
Lastly, they have solid consumer information regarding credit, credit services, the credit reporting process, and more. This gives them a boost because our research shows that companies that put more effort into consumer information and education generally have better marks when it comes to customer service and customer satisfaction. Moreover, consumer education shows a greater focus on helping the consumer with their financial situation, and less like the credit repair company views itself as merely another business.
Cons
The Credit Doctor does have some downsides, for example, their website is poorly put together. Information is hidden in random locations, or not available at all. The result is wasted time while consumers look for the information they need to help them make decisions. Moreover, our research shows that credit repair firms with better put-together websites frequently perform better on customer evaluations, both in terms of satisfaction and service.
The Credit Doctor has another problem, namely that they had more negative customer service reviews than we expect to see for a company of their size. This could indicate that they have had issues delivering on their promises, and is an important factor to consider for credit repair companies because the credit, credit repair, and credit reporting processes can be so confusing. Companies with better customer service generally also had better customer satisfaction.
The Credit Doctor loses points because their fees and rates for services aren’t described on their website, which means that customers will have to set up an appointment or call in to get more information. We don’t like this sales tactic, as customers are more likely to sign up with a service once they’ve shared information, so we view this as a negative when it comes to credit repair services.
