Compare 574 credit repair companies, personal lenders, and financial services across 203 cities in OH.
574
Listed Companies
203
Cities Covered
14
Service Categories
704
Avg Credit Score
Use this state page as a regulatory and directory starting point, then compare local city pages, relevant categories, borrower questions, and CreditDoc data explainers. These links provide research context, not a recommendation, approval prediction, price quote, or licensing determination.
Public economic snapshot for Ohio residents. Use these figures alongside city-level provider comparisons and state regulatory rules to frame a borrowing decision. Every field below is public data and is updated on periodic refresh.
Median Income
$65,720
Poverty Rate
13.0%
Unbanked Rate
4.2%
Avg Credit Score
704
Usury Cap
28% APR cap on short-term loans (HB 123, 2018); 8% general usury
Payday Loans
Restricted
Ohio consumer protections: Ohio reformed payday lending in 2018 with HB 123, capping APR at 28% and requiring minimum 91-day terms. A statewide database prevents borrower abuse. The Division of Financial Institutions regulates consumer lenders, and consumers can file complaints with the Division or the Attorney General.
Primary state agency: Ohio Attorney General Consumer Protection Section — file complaints or check licensing at https://www.ohioattorneygeneral.gov/About-AG/Service-Divisions/Consumer-Protection-Section.
Licensing board: Ohio Department of Commerce Division of Financial Institutions. Every consumer lender and credit repair provider operating in Ohio should be licensed with this agency. If a provider cannot give you their Ohio license number in writing, treat it as a red flag.
Below are the state-level rules that govern Ohio lenders and credit repair providers. These are separate from the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and Credit Repair Organizations Act (CROA) protections that apply to every US consumer.
Governing statute: Ohio Credit Services Organization Act (Ohio Rev. Code § 4712.01-4712.14).
Upfront fees: Prohibited. No credit repair company may collect payment before services are performed.
Cancellation window: 3-day cancellation period from contract signing.
Bond requirement: Credit repair companies must post a $10,000 bond with the Ohio state to operate.
Registration: Credit repair companies must register with Ohio Division of Financial Institutions before serving Ohio consumers.
5 highest-rated Ohio providers with verified public review signals. Sorted by stored Google rating.
★ 5.0 · 6 reviews
Nonprofit CDFI lender providing construction and acquisition loans for affordable housing development in Columbus and Franklin County since 2001. Review pricing, refund terms, licensing, and public complaint context on the full profile before contacting a Ohio provider. Every Ohio listing on CreditDoc links to source-cited fields.
View Details →★ 5.0 · 39 reviews
Anew Start Solutions is a credit repair company established in 2009 that disputes errors on credit reports and offers credit-building tools to help clients achieve pre-approvable credit status. Review pricing, refund terms, licensing, and public complaint context on the full profile before contacting a Ohio provider. Every Ohio listing on CreditDoc links to source-cited fields.
View Details →★ 4.8 · 1075 reviews
Ohio-based direct lender offering personal loans ($100–$3,000) and car title loans for bad credit borrowers, with same-day funding and no hard credit checks. Review pricing, refund terms, licensing, and public complaint context on the full profile before contacting a Ohio provider. Every Ohio listing on CreditDoc links to source-cited fields.
View Details →★ 4.7 · 18 reviews
Advance Car Title Loans provides fast title-secured loans in Columbus using vehicle equity as collateral. Borrowers can access same-day cash while keeping their cars. Review pricing, refund terms, licensing, and public complaint context on the full profile before contacting a Ohio provider. Every Ohio listing on CreditDoc links to source-cited fields.
View Details →★ 3.9 · 135 reviews
Ace Pawn Shop is a collateral-based lending business located in Columbus, OH's Lincoln Village Shopping Center, offering pawn loans and related financial services. Review pricing, refund terms, licensing, and public complaint context on the full profile before contacting a Ohio provider. Every Ohio listing on CreditDoc links to source-cited fields.
View Details →CreditDoc lists 574 financial-service providers across 14 categories in Ohio. Jump to a category to compare listed providers side by side. Each category directory below shows the Ohio providers sorted by public review signal, with pricing, licensing, and refund-policy context on every profile. Comparing at least three providers within a category is the fastest way to spot outliers on cost or terms in the Ohio market.
Emergency Cash
26 listed providers in Ohio — sorted by public review signal on the category page.
Check Cashing & Money Services
8 listed providers in Ohio — sorted by public review signal on the category page.
Pawn Shops
7 listed providers in Ohio — sorted by public review signal on the category page.
Credit Unions
5 listed providers in Ohio — sorted by public review signal on the category page.
Mortgages & Home Loans
3 listed providers in Ohio — sorted by public review signal on the category page.
Banks
2 listed providers in Ohio — sorted by public review signal on the category page.
Credit Repair
2 listed providers in Ohio — sorted by public review signal on the category page.
Personal Loans
1 listed provider in Ohio — sorted by public review signal on the category page.
Credit Cards
1 listed provider in Ohio — sorted by public review signal on the category page.
ATMs & Cash Access
1 listed provider in Ohio — sorted by public review signal on the category page.
Bankruptcy Services
1 listed provider in Ohio — sorted by public review signal on the category page.
Debt Relief
1 listed provider in Ohio — sorted by public review signal on the category page.
fix-my-credit
1 listed provider in Ohio — sorted by public review signal on the category page.
Business Loans
1 listed provider in Ohio — sorted by public review signal on the category page.
Browse local financial services by city. Each Ohio city page shows top lenders, credit repair providers, and category groups with local licensing context. Local lending markets vary within Ohio — providers that operate in Columbus may not have branches or licenses to serve other Ohio cities. Use the city-level pages to filter for providers actually operating in your local market. The chips below are ordered by the number of listed providers CreditDoc has in each city.
Federal + state protections for Ohio consumers: The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) gives Ohio residents the right to dispute inaccurate credit report information for free with all three credit bureaus. The Credit Repair Organizations Act (CROA) makes it illegal for any credit repair provider — in Ohio or elsewhere — to charge before services are performed, and requires a written three-day cancellation window. Ohio may add its own state-level requirements on top of these federal rules: check the Ohio lending-laws page for the current usury cap, credit repair bond requirements, and payday-lending status.
Before signing any Ohio lending or credit-repair contract: confirm the annual percentage rate (APR) in writing, confirm all fees (origination, processing, prepayment, late), confirm the payment schedule, confirm total amount paid over the life of the loan, and confirm the refund policy. Cross-check the provider's license with the Ohio state financial services agency. If a Ohio lender is offering short-term or payday-alternative products, ask what happens if you cannot pay on the due date. Providers that are transparent about pricing and licensing will match this same level of preparation on their side.
Where Ohio residents can escalate a dispute: for credit report inaccuracies, dispute directly with Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion — this is free and does not require a paid intermediary. For lender misconduct, file a complaint with the Ohio state financial services agency AND the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau at consumerfinance.gov/complaint. For federally-regulated banks operating in Ohio, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) accepts complaints. For credit unions, the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA). All four bodies accept complaints from Ohio consumers at no cost.
Free resources for Ohio residents: get a free credit report annually at AnnualCreditReport.com — the only federally-authorized free credit-report site. HUD-approved counselors offer free housing, debt, and budgeting guidance through consumerfinance.gov/housing/. Every Ohio lender profile on CreditDoc links directly to these sources where the data is available.
Start by pulling all three credit reports for free at AnnualCreditReport.com and identifying the specific errors, collections, or negative items you want disputed. Then compare Ohio credit repair companies on four criteria: (1) do they operate under a written contract with a clear scope of work, (2) do they list monthly pricing plus setup fees transparently rather than requiring a phone consultation to get numbers, (3) do they publish a refund policy in writing, and (4) do they hold any Ohio state licensing or Better Business Bureau accreditation. Under the federal Credit Repair Organizations Act (CROA), it is illegal for any credit repair provider — in Ohio or elsewhere — to charge you before services are performed, and every contract must include a three-business-day cancellation window.
Payday loan legality varies significantly by state. Ohio has its own payday-lending rules — some states cap short-term loan interest rates through usury laws, some have banned payday lending entirely, and others restrict loan size, term length, or rollover count. Check the Ohio lending-laws page linked above for the current status. If a Ohio lender is offering a short-term loan at an APR you cannot easily calculate from the disclosure, ask them to write the effective APR in the contract before signing. When payday lending is restricted or banned in Ohio, safer alternatives include payday alternative loans (PALs) offered by federally-insured credit unions.
Personal loans in Ohio are offered by traditional banks, credit unions, online lenders, and community development financial institutions (CDFIs). Rate ranges depend heavily on credit score, income stability, and loan term. Ohio consumers with lower credit scores should compare CDFI options and credit-union personal loans before accepting a first offer from a subprime online lender — CDFIs and credit unions typically have both lower rates and softer eligibility thresholds. Use the CreditDoc borrowing power quiz to estimate the loan size and monthly payment that match your income before browsing offers, and cross-check every lender against the Ohio state financial services agency to confirm they are licensed to lend in Ohio.
Three quick checks: (1) search the Ohio Department of Financial Services (or equivalent state licensing board) for the lender's active license number — every consumer lender operating in Ohio should be licensed with the state, (2) look up the lender in the CFPB Consumer Complaint Database at consumerfinance.gov/complaint — a pattern of unresolved complaints against a specific lender is a strong signal, and (3) look up the lender in the Better Business Bureau — BBB does not verify quality but does verify that the business exists at its stated address. Every Ohio lender profile on CreditDoc links directly to these sources where the data is available.
Multiple free options are available to Ohio residents. For any consumer lender or credit repair provider, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau accepts complaints at consumerfinance.gov/complaint — CFPB routinely reaches out to the provider within 15 days and posts a public complaint record. For federally-regulated national banks, complain to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). For federal credit unions, complain to the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA). For state-licensed lenders and credit repair providers, the Ohio state financial services agency has its own complaint intake process. All four bodies accept complaints from Ohio consumers at no cost.
Start with the category, not the provider name. Choose the category that matches your goal — credit repair, personal loans, debt relief, business loans, credit unions, mortgages, or another. Every category directory linked above shows the Ohio providers listed by CreditDoc side-by-side, so you can compare pricing, licensing, and public review signals in one place before contacting anyone. This is much faster than filtering by provider name and often surfaces smaller local options that would never show up in a name-based search.
Then narrow to your city. Local lending markets in Ohio differ by city — rate ranges, licensing enforcement, and provider mix all vary. If you live in a major Ohio metro, the city page linked above will let you filter to providers actually operating in that market. Local providers are often cheaper for pawn, title, and short-term cash products because they compete on price with each other; large national providers are often cheaper for personal loans and business loans because they compete on scale.
Confirm licensing before any first meeting. Every consumer lender and credit-repair company operating in Ohio should hold an active state license. The Ohio state financial services agency publishes a searchable license lookup. If a provider cannot give you their Ohio license number in writing, they may not be authorized to serve Ohio residents, and any contract you sign with them may not be enforceable under Ohio law.
Never pay upfront for credit repair. This is worth repeating: under CROA, no credit repair company in Ohio or any other state may collect fees before performing services. If a Ohio provider asks for full payment or a large deposit before doing any work, they are in violation of federal law and you should walk away.
Free annual credit reports: AnnualCreditReport.com is the only federally-authorized site for a free credit report from all three bureaus (Equifax, Experian, TransUnion). This is available to every Ohio resident at no cost, without a subscription, and without any credit-repair company acting as an intermediary. Pulling all three reports before contacting any Ohio lender is the fastest way to identify errors that will affect your rate offer.
Free credit counseling in Ohio: HUD-approved credit counseling agencies offer no-cost budgeting help, debt management plans, and homebuyer counseling. Locate a HUD-approved counselor in Ohio at consumerfinance.gov/housing. These agencies are non-profit and are supervised by federal regulators, so their advice does not carry the sales pressure of a for-profit credit repair or debt relief company.
CFPB Consumer Complaint Database: Every Ohio lender, bank, credit repair company, debt collector, and money transmitter is searchable in the CFPB public complaint database at consumerfinance.gov/data-research/consumer-complaints. Before signing with a provider, spend five minutes searching their name — a pattern of unresolved complaints against a specific provider is one of the strongest signals available to Ohio consumers.
Ohio state financial services agency: for state-licensed lenders and credit repair providers, the Ohio state agency has its own complaint intake and licensing lookup. This is separate from CFPB and often handles state-specific issues (usury cap violations, unlicensed operations, Ohio-specific credit repair rules) faster than the federal process.
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