Intro

Recently, we looked into Kovo, a public benefit corporation that exists to “create an environment where economic mobility is more prevalent and people have more power to influence their financial well-being.” Founded in 2019, Kovo Credit Builder is designed to help users improve their credit scores over the course of 24 months. 

‍

Product

The premise of Kovo is pretty simple: users pay off a $10 charge from Kovo once a month for 24 months in a row, and every month Kovo reports those payments to four of the largest credit bureaus in the US: TransUnion, Experian, Equifax, and Innovix. This small yet consistent payment can work to improve a user’s payment history, which is a significant factor in determining an individual’s credit score. 

In return for the $10 monthly payments, Kovo gives users access to “personal growth tools,” ways to earn cash rewards, and credit boosts. Kovo can be accessed through a web browser or through downloading their app. 

‍

Creativity

While Kovo’s strategy somewhat differs from other credit builders we’ve looked at, we don’t necessarily think it’s better. For example, many credit building programs refund a user’s money at the end of the program. That isn’t true for Kovo – users don’t get their money back.* Instead, your $10 a month (or $240 total over the course of 12 months) pays for the services Kovo offers its users, making it almost like a BNPL installment plan.

With that in mind, it’s important to consider that if you’re unwilling to complete the 24 month subscription (i.e. you stop making payments), it could have a negative impact on your credit score since Kovo continues to report to the credit bureaus regardless of whether or not a payment is made.

‍

*unless users initiate a return which would result in a loss of access to the resources Kovo offers its users

‍

Website

Kovo’s website is very simple and clean. It seems like it’s designed to have just enough information about what Kovo is to get people to sign up. 

We appreciate the FAQ section at the bottom of the home page as it answered questions we ourselves had like “Are there fees?” and “Is there a credit check?” There’s even more FAQ-style info if you navigate to their Help page. Some of the language in this section, however, is pretty conditional (for example: “With Kovo, you can be on your way to improving your credit score” - emphasis added). This kind of conditional language doesn’t give us a lot of confidence that Kovo is effective for everyone. 

‍

There were several other areas of the website that were also vague. For example, we wish they would provide more specific information about how Kovo has benefitted users, like an average of how much their users’ scores improve over the course of 24 months. 

‍

User Experience

Finding things on the app and navigating around to the different “services” Kovo offers its users is very easy. One thing we found disappointing was the Courses section, which is where we looked for the personal growth tools that Kovo offers. Rather than being financial education resources, however, the courses are broad, covering everything from “How to become a top 1% influencer of a personal brand” to a course on self confidence and self esteem. This was disappointing since those topics are pretty far removed from financial education, which is most likely what Kovo users actually need to improve their financial health for the long run. In our opinion, the courses aren’t worth $240 since you could easily find similar videos elsewhere for free.

‍

Overall Recommendation

After considering everything above, we would only recommend Kovo as an option to people who are just starting to build credit or don’t have other options to try to raise their credit scores. 

Although Kovo is simple and has the potential to improve a person’s credit score over the course of 24 months, we recommend people look around at other credit builders that cost less or have higher quality financial education resources before committing.

‍