• Self

Self

Overview

Self has a rating of 2.36 stars from 211 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally dissatisfied with their purchases. Reviewers complaining about Self most frequently mention credit card, customer service, and late fees problems. Self ranks 105th among Loans sites.

  • Service
    108
  • Value
    107
  • Quality
    98

This company does not typically respond to reviews

Positive reviews (last 12 months): 31.6%
Positive
18
Neutral
1
Negative
38
34
See all photos

What reviewers want you to know

Positive highlights

  • By the 16th I was noticed that my credit score had went up by 50 points.

Critical highlights

  • Customer service was really bad when I had to get a replacement credit card.
  • Not only did they not send it customer service was some Indian guy and was very rude.
How would you rate Self?
Top Positive Review

“Why are people complaining”

Rodney V.
12/21/23

I had a 440 score and after one month my score went WAY UP to 620 with one payment. I read reviews and really don't understand why are they complaining when they signed up with a low score from the start.

Top Critical Review

“Score stays the same”

A H.
1/9/24

I closed my account because I have noticed that even after making on time payments, my scores stayed the same. May have went up slightly but nothing major and I paid on time for two years. I closed my account and now all I see is past due, so I make payments to keep the interest down and so they cannot report that I am not making payments. Guys be careful of the interest, if you close the account and left a small balance it will continue to keep going up. Do not use SELF~ I checked my scores with the three credit bureaus and amazingly the scores are not the same as SELF credit builder. Theirs are significantly lower. Now, why is that? So I no longer check their scores, I strictly check the bureaus instead. I regret using them and is on a mission to pay them off totally.

Reviews (211)

Rating

Timeframe

Other

Reviews that mention popular keywords

credit card (59) credit score (53) customer service (28)
Thumbnail of user ah740
1 review
5 helpful votes
January 9th, 2024

I closed my account because I have noticed that even after making on time payments, my scores stayed the same. May have went up slightly but nothing major and I paid on time for two years. I closed my account and now all I see is past due, so I make payments to keep the interest down and so they cannot report that I am not making payments. Guys be careful of the interest, if you close the account and left a small balance it will continue to keep going up. Do not use SELF~ I checked my scores with the three credit bureaus and amazingly the scores are not the same as SELF credit builder. Theirs are significantly lower. Now, why is that? So I no longer check their scores, I strictly check the bureaus instead. I regret using them and is on a mission to pay them off totally.

Thumbnail of user petalflower15
1 review
6 helpful votes
December 17th, 2023

Self stated on 9/23 I would receive my payout in 10-14 days now it is DECEMBER still WITHOUT any payout received These people closed my account without permission and still held on to my money. This is a scam. There are far better credit builder apps out there like kickoff or stellar fi. These people will only destroy your credit.

Service
Value
Quality
Thumbnail of user winonaleesutherland
1 review
13 helpful votes
April 11th, 2023

The credit bureau said it was definitely fraudulent and they ignored their calls and messages. I put $800 into the account. They allowed me to be hacked to the tune of 1,500. They saw nothing suspicious when there was 32 debits in one day for $5.10 to a cash app! I had some one order uber eats 8 times in one day in state over 3,000 miles away. They closed the account yet they charged me late fees and interest and my credit score keeps going lower and lower!

Products used:
Self credit building account. They allowed the hacker a line of credit.

Service
Value
Quality
Thumbnail of user erainf
3 reviews
2 helpful votes
February 27th, 2024

Self had been sending me notifications to their website I finally made a decision to fill out the application I put in all my personal information on the self website it accepted me once they got my banking information and started deducting money from my account the self website said information we have on file is not matching I was confused so I called the 800 number I explained to them what was going on the first representative was a gentleman I explained the situation I said it's too much going on I would just like a refund and when I told him that I'm sorry I don't want to hear the speech about the website let's just do the refund he got a attitude and he was all in his feelings he had held me on the phone for an hour and 20 minutes before he would allow me to speak to a supervisor once the supervisor got on the phone she pretending like she was trying to be helpful and when she realized that the information that I was giving her over the phone wasn't matching was on the computer instead of her saying to the customer let me email the right people so we can solve this situation she decided it was more important to call me by the wrong name three times over talk me instead of just sending an email letting someone know that the information in the file is not matching but we have Miss Days bank information and it is going to be deducting money out of her account on a automatic deductions every month instead of the supervisor doing that she chose to argue for another 45 minutes I was in disbelief all they had to do was just send an email to the right department this could have been solved less than 10 minutes but instead it was more important for them to over talk me be very disrespectful to show me that they were in control this was the biggest mistake I made on February 27 /2024 I wasted almost three hours arguing about an email and miscommunication on their website 👎👎👎👎👎

Service
Value
Quality
Thumbnail of user brianner22
1 review
2 helpful votes
January 7th, 2024

BEWARE: DO NOT USE SELF TO HELP YOUR CREDIT!

I'm going to share my experience because this is getting out of hand. I signed up for Self the credit builder program a few months back. I've NEVER missed a payment. I've always made my $25 payments each month. Out of the blue; I started receiving $15 late fees. Then on 12/24 & 12/28 they started charging my bank $15 late fees and claiming I was manually making the payments. This is false. They refuse to refund me to which I had to file a claim to my bank account. I removed my bank account and shut off auto payment after the first attempt. Last week they tried to make an attempt to pull a $15 payment again. Now, I still have the auto payment option turned off. My account is reflecting its past due which it shouldn't even reflect this and I now owe a lot in a payment to catch up my account which I shouldn't have to pay.

I've even attempted to speak to someone via chat after the two December payments occurred and speaking to someone over the phone was a $#*! show. They submitted a request for someone in the "dispute" department to contact me via email about this situation and that was a lost cause. They won't help resolve the issue.

I plan to do what I can to resolve this, get the money I'm paying this "loan" to receive and NEVER use SELF AGAIN!

Products used:
Self Credit Builder Personal Loan Program

Service
Value
Quality
Thumbnail of user lorenp63
1 review
6 helpful votes
September 11th, 2023

After an emergency I needed to close my self credit card and savings account. I called the customer service number and closed the account. I was told I would receive my refund check within 7 days. Now 3 weeks later my account is still not closed and my credit card is showing past due and has been reported to all 3 credit bureaus. Their call center is not in the Untied States so their is nothing they can do. Run don't walk use any other credit builder program but this one.

Tip for consumers:
Use any credit builder program but this one. They will promise you a refund but do not in fact refund your money. So if you can afford to lose your money do not open an account here

Products used:
Credit card

Service
Value
Quality
Thumbnail of user laylaj34
1 review
0 helpful votes
December 9th, 2023

Self Credit Builder is bad with customer service! They're good with everything else tho, I must admit. They don't allow you to pay over the phone and when you pay thru the app, it charges too much for debit, forcing you to use your bank account; then take the money off a week later and not the same day! If you call, they'll discuss but won't help with the payments. Like come on, i rather deal with a person over a bot anytime!

Tip for consumers:
Self Credit builder needs a better payment system. FAST! Theirs are outdated!...

Products used:
Credit builder. Finances!

Service
Value
Quality
Thumbnail of user traceel7
1 review
4 helpful votes
April 13th, 2023
Verified purchase

Overall it was a good experience. I was taught some valuable lessons. However, I wish I would have just stuck with the savings account portion and opt out of the credit card...I experienced financial income difficulty and though I was able to make my payment on time the overuse and high utilization was a disappointment. I could have done better.

Thumbnail of user ncjoe82
1 review
4 helpful votes
November 13th, 2023

You could never find a better example for why the US credit score system is a debt scam than SELF financial products. The initial credit building account has a predatory fee system right away, consuming 30% of your own money loaned back to you at ridiculously high interest just for the privilege of having them report to the credit masters. Then to make it even more predatory, they offer to let you use the balance of your money to secure a credit card, again for another 30% interest rate for using your own money. This is a disgusting way to take advantage of people trying to just survive and build basic credit for housing, insurance or other necessary things. I'd rather live without and pay cash for what I need than to ever be taken advantage of by this stupid broken predatory system again.

Products used:
Credit card and credit builder account.

Service
Value
Quality
Thumbnail of user stephenw1859
1 review
15 helpful votes
February 28th, 2023

I joined this company in 2019. Paid perfectly for 12 months as agreed and the account was closed. 2 years later they are hitting my credit saying there was $1.90 in interest and that now I'm $70 behind even though I had a zero balance at time of closure. I have all the documents proving this fact! They have killed my credit and refuse to correct it. I'm filing with the BBB. DO NOT SIGN WITH THEM. THEY WILL STEAL FROM YOU AND IF YOU DONT PAY THEY DESTROY YOUR CREDIT!

Tip for consumers:
I joined this company in 2019. Paid perfectly for 12 months as agreed and the account was closed. 2 years later they are hitting my credit saying there was $1.90 in interest and that now I'm $70 behind even though I had a zero balance at time of closure. I have all the documents proving this fact! They have killed my credit and refuse to correct it. I'm filing with the BBB. DO NOT SIGN WITH THEM. THEY WILL STEAL FROM YOU AND IF YOU DONT PAY THEY DESTROY YOUR CREDIT!

Products used:
Credit building

Service
Value
Quality
Thumbnail of user kaleij1
1 review
0 helpful votes
April 23rd, 2023
Verified purchase

It was really hard to balance toward self control to maintain my balance. When am I getting my check since I did so good. Even though I wanted my credit score to be better than it was it took a lot of me. But I still had that challenge to finish my goal.

Thumbnail of user keat6963
1 review
10 helpful votes
June 12th, 2023

This company stole my money, and then had the worst customer service ever. They had me make on time payments for two years straight, only to tell me that they closed my account, for not being able to get important documents from me they got 300 dollars from me. Not to mention never got my credit score to move more than 40 points. I will be contacting the BBB on this situation not fair l want what's rightfully my hard earned money NOW!

Service
Value
Quality
Thumbnail of user ss784
1 review
24 helpful votes
April 3rd, 2021

At first my score shot up. Then I noticed once I got closer to paying it off my reports were incorrect and my points began to drop. I did not miss any payments but they kept reporting I had a balance on my credit card account that I never really used. It says I used 60% when my balance was $7 with a credit limit of $350. How? I'm very upset because I thought I was doing a good thing to boost my credit. Total scam.

Service
Value
Thumbnail of user julioh84
1 review
2 helpful votes
September 22nd, 2023

I had a self account and became sick with cancer so I called to tell them that I was not going to be able to make the payments because I couldn't work due to my health condition. They didn't care and offered me no options, they reported late payments to my credit. I called them and they told me that they had to report to my credit because of the law. Don't use this company it's just a bad company with an I don't care attitude.

Products used:
Other

Service
Value
Quality
Thumbnail of user clairicec
1 review
9 helpful votes
March 27th, 2023

I saved $725 in 2 months and choose early payout now they are giving me the run around about when I will receive my payment it's been a month. I did it before and I got my payout Idk why they won't give it to me now its my money that I put in they didn't lend it to me so I'm confused. If you have any issues don't expect to get a clear answer they will tell you that they have to email hire up and they can never get a hold of a supervisor.

Tip for consumers:
They won't tell you when you'll receive your payout

Products used:
Credit builder

Service
Value
Quality
Thumbnail of user brigettec9
2 reviews
26 helpful votes
June 2nd, 2021

This company is a joke. Been with them for 2 years and trying to close my account. Paid off my balance and payment cleared my account. However this unethical company has still not posted my payment 6 days later. Use them to build up your credit then leave. Do NOT transfer your money to their pathetic secured Visa card. They'll never offer to unsecure, they never give you a CLI, and they'll charge you 22% for screwing you over.

Products used:
Credit Builder Loan and Self Visa

Service
Value
Quality
Thumbnail of user abbys193
1 review
11 helpful votes
April 18th, 2022

This company is not here to help you! It cancels my automatic payments without giving me any notice and sends me an email that it's late just in time to charge me a late fee. Then I try to pay that, and it sends me an email a week later that it can't find my bank or my card even though it worked the month before, it just keeps stacking late fee on top of late fee and it literally won't let me pay it off. It's so sketchy! Do not use this!

Thumbnail of user fullofs....s
1 review
2 helpful votes
August 22nd, 2023

Self was so freaking amazing in the beginning, credit score went up as promised, got a credit card in three months as promised, credit builder account helped my score as well, and then it was time for my payout! EVERYTHING THAT THEY PROMISED IN THE BEGINNING, IT'S ALL A BIG FAT LIE! THIS COMPANY IS FULL OF SH...! DON'T TRUST THE PROCESS!

Thumbnail of user baizejoslyn
1 review
7 helpful votes
April 11th, 2023

I had been struggling with late payments and collection items for years. I payed for the services of Self for several months and nothing changed. They are only a scam, will take your money but do nothing. I was in desperate need of fixing my credit. I found out about a credit expert called Blitz on Instagram (@ 1andonlyblitz). An amazing guy. Deleted all 12 charge offs, more than 16 late payments and all the collection items and hard inquiries. Don't waste your time or money with Self.

Tip for consumers:
Customer service is very poor.

Service
Value
Quality
Thumbnail of user corym278
1 review
5 helpful votes
February 7th, 2023

Name Cory. I started saving self credit builder for a few months now and when my contract ended on it's time for my payment I can't receive my money they told me that the money had deposited in my bank account when I called my bank to check if there is any money deposit in my bank account coming from self credit builder the bank told no I ask for ACH tracking number so I can fine out where my when on no one can tell me where did the money go.so if anyone out there saving with this company you need to close it no because it's Garrtee you are going get your money back

Service
Value
Quality
Thumbnail of user valhallaetc
1 review
2 helpful votes
October 25th, 2023

I came across Self a few months ago and debated on the effectiveness of its business model. I decided it was a no harm no foul way to build some extra credit so I did their max payment and figured I'd collect in three years. I set up an automatic payment for 150 per month for 3 years.

After my first payment I found out I was charged more than the 150 that I thought I signed up for. I figured it was a one time payment to get things started. The next month I got charged more. When I called up I found out they were charging me more than I agreed because I set up an automatic payment. I've never heard of being charged a penalty for setting up an automatic payment, additionally I was under the impression that was the only way to set up the account. They said no you could have done it manually. I asked them to refund me the last fee and I'd set up the manual payment. They said no. Every time I tried to talk to them they started to talk over me. I asked to close the account but that took me 30 minutes just to get them to understand why I was closing the account. They could care less.

Do business with them if they want I have no idea if I'm going to get my money anytime soon. I'm already out nearly $80 but it's not worth a company nickel and diming its customers.

Thumbnail of user bja26
1 review
12 helpful votes
July 1st, 2022
Verified purchase

This company is trying to keep my refund. My accounts have been closed and I am due a refund. I have spoken to several different reps in regards to my account being closed and that my refund should be issued, but it has not. I am constantly receiving different emails asking for different things to continue doing business with Self.inc which I DO NOT WANT TO. All I want is my money back and for them to leave me alone. My next step is to retain a lawyer and contact the media.

Tip for consumers:
Please stay away.

Products used:
Credit builder

Thumbnail of user dianau81
1 review
12 helpful votes
March 17th, 2022

After successfully paying off my credit-builder account they used some of the excess funds to pay a balance off that I owed on the credit card and closed the CC and kept the $350 secure deposit! It clearly states on the agreement that after two billing cycles you should receive a check for the security deposit but it is just lies! DO NOT TRUST THEM!

Service
Value
Quality
Thumbnail of user shaunh114
1 review
15 helpful votes
April 30th, 2021

I closed my credit card match 24th. They told mi would Have my money wishing 14 days. It's April 30th and still no money. Customer service sucks they just send the same email over and over. Nobody is there to actually talk to you or help. They just say to "wait" or we can send it again in mail. After it's been a month. $#*! self. Their services wasn't even worth it. They just make money off you to temporarily raise your score

Tip for consumers:
Don't use

Products used:
Credit builder

Service
Value
Quality
Thumbnail of user tarleshah
1 review
0 helpful votes
September 21st, 2023

I have had my account now for about five months with self and it keeps telling me I am approved for credit card. I applied and was denied my score has went up I have applied for other cards and been approved but denied through self. But they are still taking my money and I can not cancel this with self. I am pissed off cause it is showing up on my credit report. What is the purpose? Pissed just taking my money

Tip for consumers:
No

Products used:
Self credit building

Service
Value
Quality

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2.4
211 reviews
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