StellarFi Review: Build Credit By Paying Your Bills On Time

Raise your hand if the financial credit scoring system confuses you. Experts recommend paying your bills on time and keeping debts low, but if you don’t actually have any credit that reports your history to the credit bureaus, you may still find it difficult if you’re trying to open a credit card or get a car loan. StellarFi is a public benefit corporation that’s working to improve people’s access to credit. 

The company reports regular bills to credit reporting agencies, so you can build credit simply by paying your gym, cell phone, or even streaming services on time. 

If you’ve struggled to get approved for credit or had issues in the past, StellarFi may be an option for you to consider to help you along your credit journey.

What Is StellarFi?

StellarFi is a public benefit corporation that helps you build credit through any kind of bills you regularly pay. To help you establish and grow credit, StellarFi takes a holistic, long-term approach. They also aim to increase access to credit among marginalized groups.

Unlike some of the bad actors in the credit repair space, StellarFi is a credit building company and isn’t using cheap tricks to boost credit for a few weeks. Instead, the company addresses root issues that keep creditworthy people from accessing credit. It also helps people with historic credit troubles repair and upkeep their credit.

What Does It Offer?

StellarFi’s flagship product allows you to convert regular bills into payments to report to the credit bureaus. These bills may include: 

• Rent
• Phone
• Streaming services
• Utilities

By reporting everyday bills to the credit bureaus, you’ll start to see your credit history grow. Remember, StellarFi doesn’t offer quick fixes, but it can help you grow your credit history over time.

Bills Automatically Debited From Checking Account

When you open an account with StellarFi, you’re issued a StellarFi Bill Pay Card. The card can be used as a payment method for any bill that you pay online. 

Once you have the card, you can link your existing bills to the StellarFi account. Then, StellarFi will pay your bills through your account, immediately debiting the amount from your linked checking account. This way, you’ll never overdraft or forget about the bill.

Credit Reporting To Major Credit Bureaus

Any bills that you pay through your StellarFi account will be reported to all three of the major credit reporting bureaus: Experian®, Equifax®, and TransUnion®.

By reporting your payments, you will start to build a positive credit history. Over time, strong credit behavior may help to boost your credit score. 

Option To Access Credit Counselors

If you opt for any StellarFi plan, you gain access to certified credit counselors. Certified credit counselors can offer individualized guidance on how you can achieve your credit and financial goals.

Bill Monitoring And Status

Sometimes, the hardest part about improving credit is learning how to change habits that aren’t serving you, such as better organizing your financial life. StellarFi tracks all your linked bills and their payment status in a single location. 

You’ll also receive alerts when a bill payment is due. StellarFi will automatically pay your bills once you have enough money in your linked account to cover the bill.

Credit Score Monitoring

To help you grow credit, StellarFi gives users up-to-date credit scores each time they log into the platform. While you can get your credit score for free, it is useful to have the score integrated into your financial hub, especially if you’re working on establishing credit.

Are There Any Fees?

Yes, there are. 

StellarFi offers your credit score and report for free. But in order to build credit, they need to pay the subscription fee.

Based on the site, you can upgrade, downgrade, or quit the service at any time without any negative impact to your credit score.

According to StellarFi's website, they will soon offer a higher-tiered paid membership plan after Prime. At $19.99 per month, it will include everything Prime offers, plus flexible bill pay dates, pay with ACH transfer, and credit security tools. 

How Do I Contact StellarFi? 

The Texas-based company’s headquarters are located at 1700 S. Lamar Blvd, Suite 338, Austin, TX 78704. You can also email StellarFi at hello@stellarfi.com. 

There is an option to connect with StellarFi agents by using the chat function on the customer support website.

How Does StellarFi Compare?

StellarFi is one of the more expensive credit-building services on the market, but it offers an excellent value-to-cost ratio. The flat $4.99 monthly fee gives you up to $500 in credit. 

The $500 in credit is significantly more than the $204 in credit offered by StellarFi’s competitor, Grow Credit. Like Grow Credit, StellarFi reports bills paid to all three credit reporting bureaus, so you can expect to see real growth in your credit history through StellarFi.

Right now, StellarFi doesn’t offer credit-building loans. If you want direct access to credit, consider a service like Self. Self gradually extends access to credit as you prove your ability to pay back loans.

From a long-term credit growth perspective, StellarFi likely offers the best service. It helps you to build positive credit and their focus on credit education can help you achieve long-term goals.

How Do I Open An Account?

You don’t need an established credit score to open an account. To open an account, visit the StellarFi website and click Sign Up. Creating an account requires your name, email address, bank information, and Social Security Account. 

You need to set credit goals and link a bank account. The bank account will be used to pay for the service, and StellarFi will use the account to pay your linked bills.

Is It Safe And Secure?

StellarFi uses several layers of security to keep your information safe and secure. Like all financial institutions, StellarFi encrypts all your personal information using industry standards. 

In addition, the company does not directly store any of your financial information. StellarFi uses randomized tokens to represent your data, but the information is linked instead of stored. Even if StellarFi was hacked, your financial data would not be accessible. 

The use of digital cards also offers another layer of protection, allowing you to quickly turn payments on or off if something goes wrong, such as your phone company experiencing a data breach.

Is It Worth It?

If you have at least one credit card, you don’t need StellarFi. You can use a free app like Credit Karma to monitor your credit score and get tips to boost your score. 

StellarFi’s product is designed for people without credit history or poor credit. It may be for you if you:

• Don’t understand why you keep getting rejected when applying for credit
• Wrecked your credit with delinquent debts or missed payments

StellarFi can convert everyday bills into payments that are recognized by credit reporting agencies. By reporting your regular bills, StellarFi can help crowd out the bad credit history with positive credit behavior which may boost your credit score. This will only happen if you pay your regular bills on time.

Within a few months of establishing credit activity, you may become eligible to open a credit card or take out other types of debt.

StellarFi Features