Start with teaching
If you're unsure what you need, watch the Bootcamp first. It gives the rest of the tools context.
A curated collection of resources I personally recommend: tools, guides, webinars, articles, templates, and educational materials you can come back to whenever you need direction.
If you're unsure what you need, watch the Bootcamp first. It gives the rest of the tools context.
Only grab the template that matches your current step. Too many files at once can make the process feel bigger than it is.
This page is meant to grow with the questions the family keeps asking.
Simple starting points you can download or watch without a paywall.
A clear guide to banking reports and account approval basics.
Download Free PDFA simple breakdown of what the newer scoring model watches.
Download Free PDFMore free resources are added as new questions come up in the community.
Free downloadable templates and workbooks for the Cousin who wants something practical to work from.
A clean starting template for requesting validation.
A simple identity clean-up template for outdated or incorrect personal details.
A guide for understanding banking reports and next steps.
A compact workbook for mapping your next year of credit work.
Webinar previews and replays for learning at your pace, with deeper sessions available through the shop and community.
Four live workshops a year. Quarterly deep-dives on what's actually shifting in credit and money — FICO updates, banking changes, BNPL, scoring rollouts. Plus the full replay library. Submit questions in advance. Learn live, when it matters.
A practical walk-through for understanding the process before you start.
How to know whether your file needs repair, rebuilding, or both.
Real questions from the family, answered in plain language.
The questions Cousins ask me most. If yours isn't here, drop it in the community.
The free Credit Cousins community is the front door. Live shows, free education, the family of Cousins on the same path. No card, no commitment.
The Credit Academy membership is the full toolkit: the Dispute Engine that scans all three bureau reports and writes the letters, the full letter library, monitoring, live Q&A with me, and the private member community. It's for the Cousin ready to put the system to work.
Most people start free, then step up when they're ready.
Everything you'll find here is educational reference material. Field guides. Workbooks. Workshops. Self-paced study tools.
I'm a board-certified credit educator and FICO-certified consumer advocate. The job is to teach you the language of credit, your rights under federal law, and how to do the work yourself. The work itself is yours to do.
Nothing on this site is legal or financial advice or a credit-repair service. For situation-specific guidance, talk to a licensed professional.
Outcomes depend on what's on your reports, how consistent you are with the work, and a thousand other variables I can't see from here.
What I can tell you is the structural work. Disputing inaccuracies, building the right account mix, getting utilization under 10 percent. Has a known timeline. Federal law gives bureaus 30 days to investigate disputes. Building credit history is measured in months and years, not days.
Anyone promising specific point increases in specific timeframes is selling a fantasy. The work is real. The results follow.
Yes. The federal law that protects you (the Fair Credit Reporting Act) gives you the rights, not a company you hire. Anything a credit repair company can do, you can do.
What companies sell is convenience, not access. They write the letters. They mail them. They call when nothing happens. That's it.
If you have time, the templates, and the discipline to follow up, you don't need them. If you want it done for you, that's what the Credit Academy VIP membership exists for.
FICO 8 is the legacy scoring model most lenders still use. It looks at a single snapshot of your credit on the day they pull. FICO 10T is the new model rolling out through 2026, and it watches a 24-month behavioral pattern (called trended data).
Practical difference: FICO 10T rewards people who pay credit cards in full each month and punishes people whose balances climb steadily over time, even if today's snapshot looks the same.
Should you worry? No. But you should adjust. The free FICO 10T Decoded guide above explains exactly how.
Because banks don't pull your credit when you open an account. They pull a different report. ChexSystems, Early Warning Services, or TeleCheck.
Those reports track banking behavior: overdrafts, account closures, returned checks. A negative entry there can decline you no matter what your FICO score says.
The free Banking Protocol 2026 guide above walks through it in detail.
Right here on the site at shondamartin.com/blog. New posts go up there first, then sometimes get cross-posted into the Credit Cousins community on Circle.
If you want to never miss one, drop your email in the bootcamp signup and I'll let you know when new writing goes live.
Everything sold on the Stan Store is digital. PDFs, workbooks, video access. You'll get your download immediately after checkout.
If physical materials become available later, I'll announce in the community first.
All the free education in the world is better when you're learning alongside people on the same path. Come into the neighborhood. The Cousins are saving you a seat.
See How To Join →