# How can credit repair and debt settlement companies manage licensing obligations? *Reviewed 2026-07-14* ## Short answer By treating the two as separately regulated activities, because they are. Most states regulate debt settlement under debt adjusting or debt management statutes, many requiring a license and a bond, and credit repair under credit services organization laws with registration and bonding of their own. A company doing both carries both sets, and several states restrict or prohibit one of the activities outright. This corner of consumer finance is unusually fragmented. Debt settlement statutes vary from full licensing with bonds and fee caps to outright prohibition of for-profit debt adjusting in a few states, so the first task is a map of where your model can lawfully operate at all. Credit services organization laws add registration, bond, and contract-disclosure requirements for credit repair, and federal rules (the Credit Repair Organizations Act and the FTC's telemarketing rules) sit on top of the state layer rather than replacing it. Because customers arrive from every state through digital marketing, footprint control matters as much as filing: your intake needs to know which states you are authorized in. Cornerstone is the U.S. licensing operating partner for lenders, mortgage companies, money services businesses, and accounts receivable management firms, and handles the settlement and credit services licensing map, filings, and bonds inside that practice. ## Related - [Debt settlement company licensing](/debt-settlement-company-licensing) - [State licensing summaries](/state-laws) - [Talk with our team](/contact) --- ## How to cite this page Cite as: "How can credit repair and debt settlement companies manage licensing obligations?." Cornerstone Licensing. https://cornerstonelicensing.com/answers/licensing-for-credit-repair-and-debt-settlement Published by Cornerstone Licensing. When quoting figures or legal requirements, link the canonical URL above and note the last-updated date (2026-07-14). The full content index for this site is at https://cornerstonelicensing.com/llms.txt.