Credit-builder apps and loans in the US (2026): costs compared
Credit-builder loans, plans and reporting tools compared on yearly cost, the bureaus they report to and whether they run a credit check.
Quick answer
Experian Boost is free and adds bill payments to your Experian file only. Among paid products, Kikoff's Basic plan costs $5 a month, or $60 a year, with no interest. CreditStrong Instal costs about $87 a year: a $349 finance charge, which includes its $15 activation fee, over four years. CreditStrong Revolv costs $15 a month. Missed payments are reported too, so a credit builder can also harm a file.
Key points
- Experian Boost is free but affects only the Experian credit file.
- Kikoff Basic costs $5 a month for 12 months, $60 in total, with no interest and no credit check.
- CreditStrong Instal is a $1,010 loan at 15.61% APR over 48 months: $349 in finance charges, including a $15 activation fee.
- CreditStrong Revolv is a 0% APR revolving line for $15 a month.
- Payments into a credit-builder loan come back to you at the end; the cost is the interest and fees.
- Chime Credit Builder and MoneyLion could not be read and are not yet included.
The list, in order
Order follows the published method on How we rank. Providers cannot pay for a position.
Experian Boost
A free tool that adds bill payments from a linked bank account to your Experian credit file. It is not a loan or card.
Suits: people already paying bills such as phone or streaming on time. Watch for: it affects only your Experian file, and not every lender uses Experian.
- Price
- Free
- Type
- Bill reporting
- Bureaus
- Experian only
Kikoff
A credit-building plan from $5 a month with a reported $750 credit line usable only in the Kikoff Store. Kikoff says it is not a credit-builder loan and charges no interest.
Suits: people with no credit history who want a low monthly cost. Watch for: the line can only be used in Kikoff's own store, and the bank may charge fees if a debit fails.
- Basic
- $5/mo ($750 line)
- Premium
- $20/mo ($2,500 line)
- Interest
- None
- Bureaus
- Equifax, Experian, TransUnion
CreditStrong Instal
A $1,010 installment loan held in savings and released as you repay, at $28 a month over 48 months. CreditStrong discloses a 15.61% APR and a $349 finance charge.
Suits: people who want an installment account on all three reports. Watch for: a four-year commitment, and missed payments are reported too.
- Payment
- $28/mo for 48 months
- APR
- 15.61%
- Finance charge
- $349, incl. $15 activation fee
- Credit check
- No hard pull
CreditStrong Revolv
A revolving credit line at 0% APR from $15 a month, with no hard credit pull.
Suits: people who want a revolving account without a credit card. Watch for: the monthly fee is the whole cost, and it continues as long as the plan does.
- Price
- From $15/mo
- APR
- 0%
- Credit check
- No hard pull
Self
Credit Builder Accounts held as certificates of deposit at partner banks. The pricing page did not display its payment amounts when we read it.
Suits: people who want a credit-builder loan from an established provider. Watch for: no price could be read, so it is not ranked.
- Price
- Did not load
Figures read from each provider’s own page on 29 October 2026. Payments you get back at the end of a credit-builder loan are not counted as a cost. Reference profile: the cheapest published plan, with its fees and interest spread evenly over each year of its term. Unranked entries publish no price that fits it.
- Chime Credit Builder and MoneyLion Credit Builder Plus — their pages could not be read on 29 Oct 2026. To be confirmed by hand.
Credit-builder cost calculator
- Monthly payment$28.14
- Interest over the term$350.77
- Fees$0.00
- Released to you at the end (the loan amount)$1,000.00
With a credit-builder loan you repay money you only receive at the end. The cost is the interest and fees, not the payments themselves. Missed payments are reported too.
Credit builders help people with little or no credit history create a record of on-time payments. They come in several forms with different costs, and all of them report missed payments as well as good ones.
We ranked products by the yearly cost of their cheapest published plan, spreading any finance charge and fees evenly over the term, using figures read from each provider's page on 29 October 2026. Payments into a credit-builder loan that you get back at the end are not counted as a cost. The calculator above works out the cost of any credit-builder loan. See how we rank.
| Product | Type | Yearly cost |
|---|---|---|
| Experian Boost | Bill reporting, Experian only | $0 |
| Kikoff Basic | Credit plan, store-only line | $60 |
| CreditStrong Instal | Installment loan held in savings | ~$87 ($349 over 4 years) |
| CreditStrong Revolv | Revolving line, 0% APR | $180 |
Experian Boost is free and adds qualifying bill payments from a linked bank account to your Experian file. It affects only Experian.
Kikoff charges from $5 a month for 12 months, $60 in total, for a reported $750 credit line usable only in the Kikoff Store. It says it is "not a credit builder loan", charges no interest and runs no credit check, and reports to all three bureaus.
CreditStrong discloses its Instal loan as $1,010 over 48 months at $28 a month, a 15.61% APR, $1,359 in total payments and a $349 finance charge. The total is 48 payments of $28 ($1,344) plus the $15 activation fee, so the fee is already inside the finance charge. Revolv is a 0% APR line from $15 a month.
The CFPB describes credit-builder loans as loans where "the money is not yours for spending" but held as savings, repaid over six to 24 months, with the full amount returned at the end. Our guide on how credit-builder loans work explains the cost, and the credit-builder cost calculator works it out for any loan.
Self's prices did not display on its page. If you are also building savings, our high-yield savings comparison ranks accounts by rate. Chime Credit Builder and MoneyLion could not be read on 29 October 2026. The UK comparison covers rent and bill reporting tools.
Keep reading
Credit-building tools in the UK (2026): rent and bill reporting compared
UK tools for building a credit file compared on cost and which credit reference agencies they report to.
Guide · US & UKHow credit-builder loans work, and what they really cost
A credit-builder loan holds the money you borrow as savings until you have repaid it. Here is how it works, what it costs, what the research found, and the alternatives.
Calculator · US editionCredit-builder cost calculator
The same calculator on its own page, in dollars.
Questions
How does a credit-builder loan work?
The CFPB says the loan money is held for you as savings rather than paid out. You repay it in small payments, usually over six to 24 months, and receive the full amount at the end. The payments are reported to the three nationwide credit reporting companies, which builds a payment history.
Can a credit builder hurt my credit?
Yes. Late or missed payments are reported in the same way as on-time ones, so a credit-builder product you cannot keep up with can damage your file. Nothing on this page guarantees a higher score. Choose a payment you can make every month for the whole term.
Which credit bureaus do these products report to?
Kikoff says it reports to Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. CreditStrong says its installment products report to all three. Experian Boost adds payments only to your Experian file, and Experian itself notes that not all lenders use Experian credit files when they make a decision.
Do credit builders run a credit check?
Kikoff says there is no credit check, and CreditStrong says there is no hard or soft pull. Experian Boost works from bank data you connect. The CFPB says you can get free credit reports from Equifax, Experian and TransUnion every week at AnnualCreditReport.com to see what is reported.
Why is Self not ranked?
Self’s pricing page did not display its payment amounts when we read it on 29 October 2026. Its page names Lead Bank, Sunrise Banks and First Century Bank as the lenders. We list it without a rank until its prices can be read from its own page.