"Credit restoration" and "credit repair" are used interchangeably in marketing, but in industry shorthand they describe different starting points.
Repair
The case has a handful of recent negative items - a few late payments, one or two collections, maybe a charge-off - on a credit file that's otherwise reasonable. Disputes, validations, and pay-for-delete negotiations clean it up over a few months. The score recovery follows.
Restoration
The case has a major event in the recent past - a discharged bankruptcy, an identity-theft incident with multiple fraudulent accounts, or a long stretch (12 to 24 months) of late payments that finally stopped. The work is similar in mechanics but the planning runway is longer because you're not just removing items, you're also adding positive payment history one month at a time.
Which one is your situation
If your file has 1-5 negative items and no public records, that's repair territory. If you've had a bankruptcy in the last 5 years, an identity-theft event, or 10+ negative items across multiple accounts, that's restoration. The first 30 minutes of consultation is free either way - the practical difference is mostly in how we set expectations on timeline.
To see the full process step-by-step, the credit repair hub covers programs, dispute types, and timelines. To get a second look at your report, book a free review on the contact page.