Credit Score Affiliate Programs
What is a credit score?
It is just a rating system applied by a number of credit reference agencies or bureau. They use it to try to quantify someone’s creditworthiness based on their past credit history. In the US the major ratings bureaux use the FICO system which gives a score up to 850.
What affiliate products are available?
As an affiliate marketer there are two main angles where you might be able to supply products to your audience that could help them in this niche. The first would be simple credit scoring tools which just show a user’s current credit rating level. The second would be tools that attempt to improve the credit score of the user.
Here is a rundown of some of the programs available to you.
30 Day Credit Repair
A company offering credit repair services from just $29. 30 Day Credit Repair will help create a plan tailored to the client specific goals and circumstances in order to repair their credit file.
As an affiliate you would be earning 40% commissions on referred sales.
I’ll be honest and admit this one does look a little iffy. No SSL certificates on the affiliate page and It took a bit of digging to find the main website for this company.
You may wish to do a bit more research on this one before signing up.
Approved Credit Score
Approved credit score is there to help their US clients improve their credit score. This will in the long term give them access to higher credit limits and lower interest rates. They provide free education so that customers can better understand their own credit situation.
Approved credit score also offers the following services:
1. one-to-one consultations
2. build a personalised plan
3. tried and tested formula for turning the customer’s credit situation around.
As a referral partner you could earn up to $500 in commissions for each new client that you refer to ACS.
Better Way To Credit
They work on a four step system to improve their clients credit situation.
1. budget and debt counselling
2. analysis and education
3. credit and debt review
4. identification of services.
Unfortunately betterwaytocredit.com would prefer to keep their affiliate details under wraps. If you are thinking of developing a site in this niche maybe this is a company to look at later in the process you have built some momentum.
It would be nice to see their website having an SSL certificate.
Borrowell
This is a credit scoring company available in Canada. For every referred sign up you should receive C$5.
Borrowell also offers a variety of financial products including:
- credit cards
- loans
- mortgages
- banking
- insurance.
Check My File
According to their website Check My File was the first company in the UK to put credit reports online more than 20 years ago. They have now served almost 3 million customers.
They offer a 30 day free trial followed by a monthly plan payable at £14.99 per month.
As with many of the programs mentioned in this article they appear not to want to advertise their levels of commission.
Although they do mention ‘a very competitive referral rate’. The rates paid out to affiliate’s would appear to scale along with the volume of referrals made.
If you have an audience based in the UK then you could drop Check My File a quick email at affiliate@creditreporting.co.uk.
Credit Assistance Network
Oddly another firm that doesn’t seem to want to bother with an SSL certificate given they are in a finance related market.
Offering a similar service to the other credit improvement companies their prices start from $179 for an individual.
The affiliate program can be accessed via ShareASale where you can access the usual types of advertising materials. Commissions vary from $1.25 per lead up to $95 for certain sales.
Credit Firm
This company will offer you a commission of $20 every time someone signs up for their ‘professional credit report repair’ at a cost of $49.99 per month.
As is typical with ShareASale and most other networks you’ll get some creative options such as banners and videos to promote the offer. You have the benefit of a very generous 180-day cookie window.
This service is obviously going to be of benefit to people with an impaired credit rating. Particularly those who think they are unable to challenge any discrepancies on their own.
Credit Karma
Probably one of the more well-known credit scoring sites. Their affiliate program is available via FlexOffers. Unfortunately it pays only $0.25 per sign up.
Looking at their site it would appear that they make their money by recommending credit cards, loans etc.
It is a little disappointing that Credit Karma would appear to be only giving affiliates $0.25.
Credit Repair
This is a credit repair service promoted by Progrexion Marketing. CreditRepair.com have handled more than 19 million challenges and disputes for their clients.
The process of repairing credit encompasses three steps: challenge, dispute and monitor.
1. the challenge phase:
this involves looking at the credit report provided by the three main credit bureaux (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion).
2. the dispute phase:
this involves challenging creditors to verify any negative items appearing on your credit report. If they are unable to do this then they are required by law to remove them.
3. the monitor phase:
this involves continually checking your credit report to make sure that no further errors arise. Errors might negatively affect your credit rating.
You can sign up for the program via CJ.com or by using the form on their website.
It would appear you could earn $70 per referral and looking at the stats the three-month EPC is around $50.
The Credit Repair Agents
Offering commissions from as little as $5 up to $50 for direct referrals. Credit Repair Agents is yet another of the many credit repair services operating today.
They provide a similar service to the other credit repair companies, 1. an examination of the customers current credit report.
2. identifying which negative items on the report can be challenged.
3. the agents then work with the credit bureau and creditors. where possible the agents have the negative items removed from your report and therefore improve your credit rating.
Looking at their website I would be slightly concerned that their blog and Twitter doesn’t appear to have been updated in the last several years.
Credit Rent Boost
This company offers a service to both landlords and renters. If you rent a property then paying your rent is actually going to give you a boost to your credit score. CreditRentBoost will forward this information on to TransUnion and Equifax.
It would appear that the service will cost the renter around $3 to $4 per month depending upon the exact service they select. The benefit to the renter could be as much as a hundred points on their credit score.
Landlords could also sign up to the service and offer this facility to their tenants. The benefit to the landlord would be tenants that were more motivated to pay their rent and therefore see their credit score improved. Alternatively landlords can sign up at credit rent boost and earn a 20% commission for any of their tenants that enrolled.
As an affiliate you would earn 10% commission on sales referred to the company. The program is run internally and not on an affiliate network.
Credit Rx America
Rather than pay a one-off fee Credit RX will pay 15% of the gross receipts from any clients referred to them. According to their affiliate page this means you are likely to make between $240 and $360 per referral.
Note that affiliate tracking with credit RX is not done using cookies. You would need to fill in the customer’s information on their client portal. This would be a bit of a trade-off compared with most affiliate programs. Most affiliate programs don’t pay approximately $300 per lead, however.
Credit RX don’t charge any upfront fees they only charge when they have successfully managed to remove an item from the customers credit file.
Credit Sesame
This is a credit scoring website to help you manage your finances. It is also a place where you can apply for various different credit related products. Credit cards, insurance and loans are all on offer with a variety to suit the credit score of the particular customer.
Credit Sesame does have an affiliate page, however it is very light on information. The sign up can be found here.
Credit Strong
Credit Strong offers an interesting way to improve someone’s credit score. They give the customer a loan which is deposited in an FDIC insured savings product. This product is locked so that the customer cannot access the funds. The customer is then charged a monthly repayment of capital and interest. Every time Credit Strong receives a repayment they are reported to the three major credit bureaux. (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion).
Over the period of the loan customer has improved their credit score and built up some savings. Credit Strong keep the interest payments as their profit margin.
Unfortunately this is another affiliate program that likes to keep its cards close to its chest. I couldn’t find any figures on their website.
Curadebt
Not strictly speaking a credit scoring program, this is a debt consolidation company.
As an affiliate figures can be a little mind blowing. If we take their pay per sale campaign for debt and tax. Should you manage to refer 51 or more per month successfully you would be earning $600 per sign up. So 51 signups per month will give you $30,600 every month!
If your current website has content on dealing with debt then this could be a great fit.
While the Trustpilot rating is almost as good as National Debt Relief you would have to take it with a pinch of salt since it is based on only 11 reviews.
Debt
A little different to the majority of the companies listed here. Debt.com is composed of journalists, financial experts, certified credit counsellors and industry veterans. They offer a mixture of expert advice and professional solutions.
They have been featured in such august publications as the Washington Post, Forbes, and Fortune amongst others.
Debt does have a partnership program for publishers which does mention commissions. There are no specifics and you would need to apply to the program to find out more.
Dun & Bradstreet
An attention-getting affiliate program with commissions of up to $350 per sale. With figures like that it certainly one worth paying attention to. The problem would be that Dun & Bradstreet are looking for business customers. If you happen to have an audience composed of business though this could be a program to look into.
Equifax
One of the three main credit bureaux that provide credit scoring. In the past it would appear that Equifax have offered an affiliate program for their small business tools. However the website links no longer appear to work.
Experian
Experian offers their connect affiliate program. It looks like this applies to companies that would be dealing with credit applications in general. I’m not sure it would necessarily suit an affiliate website.
It is another program that is light on detail.
Experian.co.uk
Experian in the UK, launched an affiliate program in 2004.
Another that doesn’t give away any details on the website with regard to commission levels.
They do offer their customers a free 30 day trial of their credit expert product which would be charged at £14.99 a month thereafter. Presumably you would receive a percentage of this monthly plan.
FreeScore 360
Following an initial seven day free trial customers will be charged a monthly membership fee of $29.95.
In return for this fee customers receive:
1. basic credit score
2. daily credit monitoring and alerts
3. interactive tools and a learning centre
Despite seeing this offer on a number of networks I am unable to determine the level of commission offered. I did note on one network that it appeared that Google search traffic was not allowed as a method of promotion. Seems a bit odd to me.
Free Score Online
With an identical pricing and free trial as Free Score 360 you also get similar features:
1. credit scores and reports
2. monitoring and alerts
3. interactive tools and the learning centre
4. $1 million in identity theft insurance
Identity IQ Credit Repair
This company is offering affiliates $35 per sign up. That’s a pretty good level of commission.
Identity IQ offers credit scoring to their customers but they have a particular emphasis on identity theft. If you sign up to their program they will continuously monitor your credit file. They will look for data breaches to provide the customer with the best security.
Identity theft is a particularly nasty way to get your credit score trashed.
The affiliate program is run by Awin.
FlexOffers.com
FlexOffers is a network that offers many different affiliate programs. The link above will take you to their credit reporting category. At the time of writing this has 40 different offers (a few are mentioned directly in this article).
Fresh Start Credit Repair
The application form for the Fresh Start Credit Repair affiliate program along with some basic details is right at the bootom of the page.
It could be worth your while however given that for every confirmed sale you refer you are going to receive a $50 commission.
Fresh Start Credit Repair will even produce some marketing materials to fit in directly with your website which is quite unusual.
They offer their clients both a secured credit card and the monthly savings plan in order to help build up their credit file. They will also take account of any rent you pay although this will cost at least $5.99 per month.
myFICO.com
This program appears a little more cut and dried. It is available on the ShareASale network and offers three levels of commission. Depending on the product that the referred customer purchases you could earn $5, $10 or $100 if you managed to sell the ‘3 bureau’ product.
I assume these commissions translate to the basic, advanced and premier packages mentioned on the myfico.com homepage.
My Free Score Now
Offering customers the benefit of a seven day free trial followed by a monthly charge of $29.95. This company gives you:
1. credit scores and reports from the three main bureaux
2. a personalised report of factors affecting their score
3. the ability to see who has been looking at their credit score
Again there is no mention on their website of the actual commission rates. Other sites are suggesting $50-$60 for referred customers that sign up to their paid program.
National Debt Relief.com
While not strictly speaking credit scoring this site is going to help long-term to improve the credit score of your audience. It is a debt consolidation service which in theory at least will allow clients some breathing room to clear their existing debts.
I suppose it really comes down to your own personal beliefs as to whether you want to promote a company such as Nationaldebtrelief.com.
It is interesting to note that their Trustpilot score is currently 4.7/5. 95% of the 33,000 reviews rate national debt relief is either excellent or great. I would suggest there will not be many companies with that many reviews with such a high score.
As an affiliate you could earn $27.50 for everyone that obtains a free debt relief quote.
Ovation by Lending Tree
Part of one of the largest financial websites in the world, Lending Tree. Ovation Credit is another credit repair company. It will work with credit bureaux and creditors to fix issues on their clients credit reports.
Ovation’s affiliate program will pay you a $55 commission for every confirmed sale you can sign up for the program at ShareASale.
Reliant Credit Repair
Reliant Credit Repair offers the usual credit monitoring and repair.
Their cheapest product starts at $99.95 per month and as an affiliate you would be earning 40% commission.
Rent Reporters
Rent Reporters will pass on details of your rent payments to the relevant credit bureaux. It advertises an average increase of 40 points in 10 days. Seems to be significantly more expensive than the other companies operating in this niche. Requiring a sign up fee of $94.95 followed by monthly fees of $9.95.
You could earn a $20 commission for every verified sign up that you refer.
TransUnion
One of the three big credit bureaux in the US. TransUnion also provides their own credit scoring and reporting solutions. Both for personal and business customers.
The Canadian arm of TransUnion Is currently running an affiliate program via CJ.com. This will pay you between C$40 and C$60, depending upon the product purchased. Someone signing up for the C$19.95 per month plan would earn you the maximum of C$60.
How to promote
The obvious content to create would be around rebuilding someone’s credit score, debt consolidation et cetera.
If you were to focus sites that were also offering loans then you could build a site around activities that might end up requiring a loan. E.g. home improvements, house makeovers.
Honing in on companies that deal with credit cards for example. This would allow you to promote both credit card offers and the credit scoring and credit repair offers. They might need their credit repaired in order to be able to apply for said cards.
Credit Score Affiliate Programs: Conclusion
This article has covered quite a variety of credit scoring/credit repair/debt consolidation offers. That’s before you’ve gone through any that might exist at some of the network such as FlexOffers.com.
As with all affiliate offers need to be comfortable dealing with that company and their products. You need to be confident that your audience are going to appreciate the offers. If not then you have wasted your time.
One of the keys to successful marketing of any sort is identifying a pain point and then offering the solution.
James
Related: Credit Card Affiliate Programs
