09/14/2026
"Credit restoration" and "credit repair" are the same service.
One is the term the law uses. The other is a marketing choice. That is the whole difference.
Here is why it matters to you: both federal law and Minnesota law define these companies by what they do, not what they call themselves. So a company advertising "restoration" has to follow every rule a credit repair company does:
✔ No fees before the work is performed
✔ A written contract before anything starts
✔ No promised scores or timelines
✔ 5 business days to cancel in Minnesota
✔ They must tell you that you can dispute errors yourself for free
If a "restoration" company asks for money up front, that is not a different business model. It is the same violation under a different name.
We wrote it all up, with the actual statute language, so you can check it yourself:
https://aimcreditfix.com/blog/credit-restoration-vs-credit-repair?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=credit-restoration-vs-credit-repair