Have Questions?
Q. How does Main Street Credit work?
- Our credit account is a revolving line of credit designed to address the 3 key factors of your credit score: payment history, credit utilization, and age of accounts.
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- Build monthly payment history: Use your Credit Account to finance the purchase of the Legal Access Plan and make monthly payments without interest or fees to build your payment history. We will report the credit amount and monthly payment to Experian, Equifax and Transunion.
- Reduce your credit utilization: Signing up for Main Street Credit gives you access to a line of credit of up to $3000 to make purchases from us. We currently offer the Legal Access Plan for purchase, but plan to offer more purchase options soon.
- Raise your age of accounts: The older your accounts, the better. The Credit Account doesn’t expire – you get the account for an initial period of one-year which is renewed automatically each year unless you close the account, so keeping it open will continue to increase your average account age.
- Account doesn’t expire—so keeping it open will continue to increase your average account age.
- Our Credit Builder Loan is a 1 or 2 year credit-building plan with which you can also finance your purchase of the Legal Access Plan. At the end of the year, you’ll have built 12 months of payment history and enjoyed the valuable benefits of the Legal Access Plan. A credit builder loan in not a traditional loan where you get loan funds upfront. It is designed to show that you can make on-time payments.
Q. What are the Legal Access Plan Benefits?
The Legal Access Plan provides you with access to nationwide consumer protection law firms who can help you with any violation of your consumer rights. When you're denied a job, mortgage, loan, rental, vacation, car, or other opportunity due to inaccurate, misleading, or false information in a credit or background check report, plan attorneys can help correct your report, repair your finances, restore your reputation and win you damages. You pay nothing out of pocket because they pay when the law firm wins. The plan also gives you discounted rates from the plan attorneys on other consumer or contract related matters for which you may need help.
You should use the Plan when you….
- Are being harassed by a creditor or collection agency
- Being by a creditor or collection agency
- Are being denied credit due to an error on your credit report
- Are denied employment or rent due to error in background screening
- Unauthorized or fraudulent electronic transfers impact your bank account
- Need help with loan modification, are facing foreclosure
- Need help with a review any lease or rental agreement
- Need help to prepare a will.
And much more!!! After you enroll, you will get regular email updates with detailed information on the various features of the plan, and education regarding your consumer rights. You will know under what circumstances you should contact a plan attorney.
Q. Is this a credit card?
No. This is a line of credit account designed primarily to help you build your credit. You can only use this to finance the purchase of products and services that Main Street Credit offer. Currently, we offer a Legal Access Plan. There is no physical card with the Credit Account and you cannot use the credit account anywhere else.
Q. How much will my credit score improve?
We cannot accurately say if or how much your credit score will increase because everyone’s credit report and financial history is unique. Payment history accounts for 35% of your FICO score and credit utilization accounts for 30% of your FICO score — the most important rule is to always make on-time payments.
According to FICO: “The impact of past credit problems on your FICO Scores fades as time passes and as recent good payment patterns show up on your credit report. Re-establish your credit history if you have had problems: opening new accounts responsibly and paying them off on time will raise your credit score in the long term.”
The Credit Builders Alliance, a highly respected non-for profit organization has data has showing that reporting positive payments to the credit bureaus can improve credit scores from 30-80 points in six to eight months. Other providers of credit builder products have seen similar results.
Please note that even if you're paying your Credit Builder on-time, any negative activity from other accounts can impact your results. It is important to resolve your old debts quickly and have delinquent accounts and other negative marks removed from your credit reports to improve your credit profile.
Keep in mind, credit building is a long-term habit – like eating healthy or working out – so the most important thing is to make good financial habits: make your payments on-time, keep your utilization low, and practice good financial habits.
Q. Which bureaus will you report to?
We report the 3 major credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion and we report your accounts every month.
Q. Are there other fees?
- With the Credit Account, there are no additional fees other than the annual membership fee which you are charged for one-time. You are responsible for paying back any purchases financed by the Credit Account, which is the Legal Access Plan fees. There are no additional interest fees, late fees, or other fees.
- The Credit Builder Loan is an installment loan for a 12 or 24 month term with zero fees and zero interest rate. You only pay for the Legal Access Plan which you finance.
Q. What can I buy at Main Street Credit?
Our Credit Account currently allows you to purchase and finance the Legal Access Plan that we offer, and is designed to build your credit by making low monthly payments over time. We plan to offer other products and services that you can take finance very shortly.
Q. How does Main Street Credit help build my credit?
Our products address all the major factors of your credit score: payment history, credit utilization, account age, and credit mix. Together, these factors make up 90% of your credit score.
Payment history (35%) is the single most important factor in your score. It looks at whether you’ve paid past credit bills on time. The Credit Account and Credit Builder Loan both contribute to your monthly payment history.
Credit Utilization (30%) is how much credit you’re using divided by your credit limit. The lower this ratio, the better. Responsibly using your Credit Account can help you maintain low credit utilization.
Account age (15%) is the average age of all your credit accounts. The Credit Account doesn’t have an expiration date, so keeping it open will continue to grow your credit.
Credit Mix (10%) means you can manage different types of credit products, such as a car loan, credit card, student loan, installment loan, etc… Each Main Street Credit product helps diversify your credit mix.
Q. How long will it take for the account to appear on my credit report?
It usually can take up to 6-8 weeks for the account to show up on your credit report, depending on when in the month you signed up. We report everyone’s payments after the end of every month. After that, it usually can take up to 2 weeks to be processed by the credit bureaus, and added to your credit report.
If you have multiple Main Street Credit products, you’ll see multiple items on your credit report. Don’t worry, that’s helping you build more credit.
Q. Why can I trust Main Street Credit?
We’ve helped tens of thousands of people build credit.
Main Street Credit is 100% committed to your data privacy and security. We always use bank-level encryption in all data transmissions. We use your data for identity verification with the credit bureaus, fraud prevention, and to comply with federal laws. We will never share or sell your data to third parties without explicit consent.
We’ve experienced firsthand how scary credit building can be, especially for those who can’t afford to take chances with it. So we built a tool that strives to bring financial opportunity to everyone. We’ve been there, we know how it is, and we want to offer you something better.
Q. Is there a credit pull to apply?
We do NOT hard pull your credit. We believe in helping you build credit easily so you can reach your financial goals. We don’t hard pull your score, we just help you build it.
Q. What is credit utilization and how does it help me?
Credit utilization makes up 30% of your credit score and refers to how much of your credit limit you use at any given time. You can figure out your credit utilization rate by dividing your total account balance by your total credit limit. It is typically calculated as a percentage of your credit limit you are using on the statement date of your account.
Most experts recommend keeping your overall credit card utilization below 15%. Lower credit utilization rates suggest to creditors that you can use credit responsibly.
By adding our Credit Account with a credit limit of up to $3000, your overall credit utilization should improve near instantly.
Q. What is payment history and how does it help me?
Payment history makes up 35% of your credit score. It looks at whether you’ve paid past credit bills on time. This is the single most important factor in your credit score.
We report your monthly payments to the three major credit bureaus every month. The Credit Account, Credit Builder Loan, and Cash+ Credit Card all build your payment history--and your credit.
Q. Can I cancel my Account?
You can cancel your Credit Account and/or Credit Builder loan at any time with no penalty or fee. We want you to be in control of your finances, and you’re welcome to cancel at any time.
Closing your account early will negatively impact your average account age and will not allow you to build payment history. For that reason, we highly encourage you to keep your account open and continue making any payments due – this will boost your payment history and account age, both important factors in your credit score and you will continue to enjoy the benefit of high available credit on your Credit Account, which will help your overall credit utilization.