StellarFi
Strengths
- Could enhance your credit score rating inside the first few months
- Reviews to all three credit score bureaus
- No hidden charges or curiosity expenses
- Can earn money rewards on invoice funds (Plus and Premium plans)
Weaknesses
- No free plan
- Restricted customer support availability
- Doesn’t report previous funds earlier than enrollment
- Nonetheless a younger firm
StellarFi is a credit score builder platform that doesn’t require you to borrow cash, pay curiosity, or make any safety deposits. As a substitute, it converts your common month-to-month payments into a robust credit-building software.
However how does StellarFi examine to the numerous credit-building merchandise accessible in the marketplace, and does it actually work? On this StellarFi assessment, we’ll clarify how the platform works, how a lot it prices, and the way it may help you construct credit score.
Desk of Contents
What Is StellarFi?
StellarFi is a credit-building service that opened to the general public in July 2022. Based on the monetary expertise (fintech) platform, over 130 million People don’t have entry to a homeownership path or a monetary security web to afford emergencies.
Considered one of StellarFi’s key promoting factors is that it lets you construct credit score and not using a bank card by reporting your month-to-month funds to 2 of the most important credit score bureaus (Equifax and Experian). Moreover, you received’t bear a tough credit score examine which might impression credit score selections for the subsequent two years.
How StellarFi Works
Getting began with StellarFi is straightforward. You merely join your month-to-month payments to a StellarFi Invoice Pay Card, which acts like a line of credit score. This credit score line pays your payments and instantly attracts the funds from a linked checking account, so that you by no means carry a stability or pay bank card curiosity.
StellarFi has been including further perks as its buyer base expands. This contains invoice fee rewards and different perks on its upper-tier plans.
Let’s take a better take a look at how one can bolster your credit score rating.
Free Credit score Report
You’ll be able to examine your credit score rating free of charge after creating your StellarFi profile (there is no such thing as a impression in your credit score.) This supplies a baseline from which to trace your progress with every invoice fee.
Your StellarFi credit score rating is a Vantage 3.0 scoring mannequin from the three bureaus. Most credit score rating apps solely monitor one or two scores.
One minor frustration is that you just see a Vantage 3.0 credit score rating as a substitute of a FICO Rating, which is the most typical credit score rating. The FICO Rating is the one the lenders use once they carry out a credit score examine. So, the VantageScore isn’t as exact, however you may have a agency thought of your present credit score rating vary.
Add and Pay Payments
After finishing the preliminary account setup, you may hyperlink your recurring month-to-month payments, similar to your cable TV, web, or telephone invoice. You obtain a digital StellarFi fee card which you can present the biller to pay the month-to-month tab.
StellarFI’s auto-connect characteristic enables you to shortly replace your fee methodology with most nationwide manufacturers. You can even hyperlink payments manually with retailers that StellarFi doesn’t have a direct relationship with.
Along with linking payments, you join your checking account to StellarFi to pay payments. There are not any further charges to make use of this service, similar to fee processing charges or financial institution switch charges. When a invoice is due, StellarFi will examine your financial institution to make sure there are ample funds to pay the invoice to keep away from inflicting an overdraft. If there aren’t ample funds, the invoice won’t be paid. If, for some motive, an overdraft does happen, StellarFi received’t cost overdraft charges, however your major financial institution could.
Enhance Your Credit score Rating
By paying your payments by means of StellerFi, you identify a optimistic fee historical past, as you’ll with a credit score builder mortgage. Despite the fact that you’re not borrowing cash or shopping for on credit score, it seems as a month-to-month mortgage reimbursement.
Your month-to-month funds report to 2 of the most important credit score bureaus:
This in depth reporting is just like the free service provided by Experian Increase. Nevertheless, Increase solely improves your Experian credit score rating. It received’t enable you construct credit score with Equifax or TransUnion.
It’s possible you’ll discover a brief drop in your credit score rating if you first be part of StellarFi, as the road of credit score seems as a brand new account in your credit score experiences. A brand-new credit score account negatively impacts your common size of credit score historical past (15% of your whole credit score rating) and new credit score components (10% of your whole rating).
You will get comparable outcomes to StellarFi by paying your payments with a secured or unsecured bank card. Nevertheless, a bank card isn’t preferrred if it encourages you to overspend or you find yourself paying excessive bank card rates of interest. It additionally won’t instantly take the cash out of your checking account if you pay a invoice.
It will also be tough to qualify for a bank card in case you have unhealthy or truthful credit score.
Different StellarFi credit-building instruments embody:
- Creating personalized credit score targets
- Credit score rating simulator
- Debt-to-income (DTI) calculator
- Dynamic rating projections
✨ Associated: Learn how to Improve Your Credit score Rating
StellarFi Pricing
StellarFi gives three paid plans (there is no such thing as a free model.) You’ll be able to improve to a better plan to entry a better credit score restrict, which can enable you decrease your credit score utilization ratio and mean you can pay extra payments. Right here’s a better take a look at what every plan has to supply.
Lite
The entry-level Lite plan prices $4.99 month-to-month and lets you report as much as $500 of payments as credit score. Your preliminary line is smaller till you full your first invoice fee earlier than it expands to $500.
With Lite, you additionally get entry to different important StellarFI options, together with invoice pay auto-withdrawal, invoice fee notifications, credit score rating monitoring and alerts, 1-on-1 stay credit score teaching, and extra.
Prime
StellarFi’s mid-tier plan known as Prime, and it prices $9.99 month-to-month after a $0.99 trial for the primary 30 days.
You’ll be able to have as much as $25,000 in payments reported as credit score, a major improve over the Lite plan.
Premium
StellarFi Premium is the highest-tier plan and prices $29.99 month-to-month. As of January 30, 2024, it’s but to go stay – there’s a ‘Coming Quickly’ discover on the StellarFI web site.
Based on StellarFi, the Premium plan will embody the next unique advantages:
Is StellarFi Secure?
StellarFi makes use of bank-level 256 AES safety to encrypt your private knowledge. The platform additionally makes use of randomized digital tokens and by no means shops your monetary data.
With that mentioned, tech glitches do happen, and there are occasions when invoice funds might not be accomplished as scheduled. If that occurs, StellarFi will make it proper by reimbursing any late charges and defending your privateness.
Keep in mind that StellarFi is a younger firm, so that you should be comfy coping with a startup.
Does StellarFi Truly Work?
You’ll be able to profit essentially the most from StellarFi in case you have a credit score rating within the low 600s or beneath. Listed below are some reported outcomes from StellarFi customers on Trustpilot:
- Adrian N. reported a median 40-point improve after the primary month
- Angel M. reported a median 45-point improve over 4-6 months.
- Caitlynn D. reported a 20+ factors enhance in the course of the first 30 months.
- Destany B. reported a 28-point improve after the primary month and 0 factors after the second month earlier than leaving their assessment.
Understand that these are on-line reviewers, and their outcomes can’t be substantiated.
Additionally, from Trustpilot, the most typical StellarFi complaints are inclined to encompass a scarcity of customer support choices. A number of opinions point out that chatbots deal with the preliminary inquiry course of, and it may be tough to achieve a human.
In the end, you may’t depend on StellarFi alone to strengthen your credit score historical past. You should additionally concentrate on paying your current loans and bank cards on time, avoiding opening new bank cards or loans, and holding current bank card accounts open so long as doable to have the utmost advantages.
Execs & Cons
We’ve recognized the next strengths and weaknesses of StellarFi’s service providing:
Execs
- You’ll be able to enhance your credit score rating inside the first few months
- Reviews to all three credit score bureaus
- No hidden charges or curiosity expenses
- Can earn money rewards on invoice funds (Plus and Premium plans)
Cons
- No free plan
- Restricted customer support availability
- Doesn’t report previous funds earlier than enrollment
- Nonetheless a younger firm
Options to StellarFi
Earlier than signing up with StellarFi, it’s a good suggestion to discover different credit score builder platforms. With that in thoughts, listed here are a couple of StellarFi alternate options price contemplating.
Kikoff
Kikoff is a credit-building platform that provides a credit score account in addition to a secured bank card. The Kickoff Credit score Account is a $750 credit score line. As a substitute of paying payments, you should buy monetary training merchandise, and your fee exercise experiences to the three bureaus.
Two further instruments embody a secured bank card and a credit score builder mortgage. There’s a flat, $5 month-to-month payment for Kickoff’s Credit score Service, however not like some opponents, it doesn’t cost any charges for its secured card or credit score builder mortgage product.
Kikoff assessment for extra.
CreditStrong
You’ll be able to enhance your private or enterprise credit score by means of CreditStrong. A number of credit score builder mortgage tiers can be found relying on how aggressively you need to improve your rating and your month-to-month funds.
Try our CreditStrong assessment to match credit-building plans.
Self
Self enables you to deposit month-to-month funds into an FDIC-insured certificates of deposit (CD). The credit score builder mortgage’s reimbursement time period is so long as 24 months with a month-to-month dedication between $24 and $150. Every fee experiences to the three main bureaus, and you might be reimbursed the contribution quantity on the maturity date, excluding charges.
Further merchandise embody a secured bank card and free lease reporting.
Learn our Self Credit score Builder assessment to search out out extra.
FAQs
No arduous credit score examine is critical to use as you solely want a Social Safety quantity or particular person taxpayer identification quantity (ITIN) to report funds to your credit score bureaus.
Your StellarFi account seems as a revolving line of credit score just like a bank card. Every month, the platform experiences your month-to-month invoice fee quantity and compares it in opposition to your whole restrict to calculate a credit score utilization ratio.
You’ll be able to pause or cancel your account by accessing the “handle account” button within the private data menu. Pausing your account retains your line open to stop an account closure from showing in your credit score report, but it surely now not experiences month-to-month funds as you’re not paying a membership payment anymore.
Chat and e mail help is accessible from 8 a.m. to six p.m. Central from Monday to Friday. Stay telephone help is unavailable except the platform contacts you to schedule a name.
Is StellarFi Value It?
StellarFi is price contemplating for those who’re on the lookout for a strategy to construct or restore your credit score and not using a secured bank card or different credit score product. One of many largest benefits of utilizing StellarFi is that it helps you automate your funds and report your invoice funds to 2 main credit score bureaus, Experian and Equifax.
Simply be aware of the charges – sadly, StellarFi doesn’t provide a free tier – and be life like about how a lot StellarFi can enhance your credit score rating. Keep in mind that you’ll have to follow sound credit-building practices, similar to well timed credit score funds and common budgeting, to remain on monitor for monetary success.
