What happened to Refresh Financial
For years Refresh Financial was the name most Canadians heard first when they searched for a credit builder loan. Its Credit Builder program locked a loan amount in savings, reported monthly payments to the bureaus and released the money at the end. Borrowell agreed to acquire Refresh in late 2020 and completed the deal in early 2021; the Refresh brand was retired afterward. Old articles, forum threads and even AI answers still recommend it, which is why people keep landing here looking for a replacement.
What Refresh actually did for your file
Strip away the branding and the product did one thing: it added an instalment tradeline with 12 to 36 months of on-time payments, at a cost of interest and fees on money you couldn’t access. That is still a legitimate way to build history. It was never the whole picture, though — it didn’t report rent, didn’t give you a card, and didn’t tell you when a balance was about to cost you points.
The four kinds of replacement
1. Another credit builder loan
Some fintechs and credit unions still offer the locked-savings model. Expect similar economics: a small tradeline, interest in the 20–45% range on locked money, and a savings payout at the end. See how credit builder loans compare.
2. A small reported line from a banking app
Several apps report a small line — often a few hundred dollars — for a monthly fee, and one reports for free. Cheap and simple, but the tradeline is tiny and the file still lacks rent, a card and any guidance.
3. Rent reporting
If you rent, reporting your rent adds your biggest monthly payment to your Equifax file, and a backdate can add up to two years of history at once. On its own it doesn’t add a new account type. See rent reporting in Canada.
4. A credit-building membership that combines all of it
AvenaCredit reports a $1,000, $1,500 or $3,000 tradeline to Equifax Canada each month as an on-time payment — larger than Refresh’s typical loan — with no loan, no interest and no credit check. Build and Boost add rent and utility reporting; Boost backdates two years of rent and includes 1-on-1 credit guidance. Every plan includes monthly balance alerts, a dashboard with tips and the Rebuild Your Credit ebook, and the optional AvenaCredit Secured Card adds a second tradeline. It replaces the Refresh tradeline and the two or three other products a Refresh customer usually needed anyway. See how the reporting works.
If you were a Refresh customer
- Your Refresh tradeline should still show on your Equifax and TransUnion reports as a closed, paid-as-agreed instalment account. Check that it does; if it’s missing or shows a wrong status, dispute it with the bureau.
- A closed account keeps helping your length of history, but it stops adding new on-time payments. That’s the gap to fill.
- Open a reporting account now rather than later — the months without any reported activity don’t count for anything.
Common questions
Did Borrowell keep the Refresh credit builder loan?
Borrowell offers its own credit-building products, including rent reporting; the Refresh-branded loan is no longer sold.
Is AvenaCredit a loan like Refresh was?
No. It’s a membership. You never borrow money and there’s no interest; the membership payment is what gets reported.
Will a membership tradeline count the same as a loan tradeline?
Both appear as accounts with monthly payment history. Lenders and scoring models look at whether payments are on time and how long the account has been open, not which company reported it.
Members gain an average of 71 points after 12 months. See the plans.