Are Goodbill and Resolve legit?

Both are real companies running legal success-fee models, and both publish their pricing. Neither is a scam. The real question is fit: Goodbill is built for hospital bills specifically and works self-serve, while Resolve assigns a human advocate to bigger, messier situations including denial appeals and bills in collections.

Which service handles bills in collections?

Resolve. Its advocate mandate covers messy situations including collections and insurance denial appeals. Goodbill's published process is aimed at hospital bills inside the provider's own billing cycle. For a collections fight you want to run yourself, validation demands and settlement negotiation are covered in our free collections guide.

Do I need either service, or can I negotiate the bill myself?

The levers both services pull are available to you directly: an itemized bill request, billing-code error challenges, 501(r) charity care screening at nonprofit hospitals, and a negotiation ask anchored to fair-price benchmarks. Hospitals negotiate with patients every day. Our free guide walks the process, and a $29 statute-cited dispute letter does the drafting; you keep 100% of the reduction either way.

When is Resolve worth the deposit over Goodbill?

When the situation is large and complicated: bills well past $15,000, multiple providers, insurance denials in the mix, or debt already in collections. There the 10% tier is competitive and you are buying a human advocate's persistence, not just one negotiation letter. For one hospital bill under that bar, Goodbill's capped 20% or a DIY dispute usually wins the math.

Published August 2, 2026 · 6 min read · Medical bills

Goodbill vs Resolve: two honest services, two very different fee models.

Q: Which is cheaper, Goodbill or Resolve?

On most single hospital bills, Goodbill: 20% of savings capped at $1,000, no deposit, no fee unless a settlement is accepted. Resolve requires a $249 or $499 deposit and charges 25% (bills $5,000 to $15,000) or 10% (bills over $15,000), with minimum-fee rules that can take up to half of small savings. Resolve gets competitive on very large, complex situations, where its 10% tier and broader advocate mandate earn the deposit.

If you are choosing between Goodbill and Resolve, you have already decided to pay someone to fight a medical bill for you. Both are legitimate. They are built for different bills: one is a self-serve negotiation service with a capped fee, the other is a human advocate with deposits and tiers. The right pick falls out of the math once you see it side by side.

Quick answer

Goodbill fits a single hospital bill: 20% of savings, capped at $1,000, no deposit, no fee unless a settlement is reached. Resolve fits large, messy situations (multiple bills, denials, collections): a $249 or $499 deposit plus a 25% or 10% success fee depending on bill size. And for bills under roughly $5,000, or any bill you are willing to spend an evening on, the levers both services use are available to you directly, free in our negotiation guide or drafted for you in a $29 statute-cited dispute letter.

The two models, side by side

	Goodbill	Resolve
Fee	20% of savings	25% ($5k-$15k bills) / 10% (>$15k)
Fee cap	$1,000	None
Upfront cost	$0	$249 / $499 deposit
Minimum-fee rules	None published	Up to 50% of small savings
Scope	Hospital bills	Bills, denials, collections
Who does the work	Self-serve + coding audit	Assigned human advocate
If no savings	Pay nothing	Deposit refunded

The structural difference matters more than the percentages. Goodbill is a focused product: upload a hospital bill, get a certified coding audit, a 501(r) charity care screen, and a negotiation letter, and pay only on success. Resolve is closer to hiring a professional to run your whole medical-billing mess: its advocates negotiate balances, appeal insurance denials, apply for financial aid, and take cases already in collections. You pay for that breadth with the deposit and the uncapped fee.

The math on two real-shaped bills

An $8,000 hospital bill, $4,000 in savings found

Path	Cost	Savings you keep
Goodbill (20%, capped)	$800	$3,200
Resolve (25% tier)	$1,000	$3,000
$29 dispute letter	$29	$3,971

Note what happens to Resolve on a partial win here: its smaller tier carries a minimum-fee rule (the lower of $1,000 or 50% of savings when savings land under $4,000), so modest recoveries can cost half of what the advocate found. Goodbill's flat 20% has no such floor. This is the tier where Goodbill wins almost every time the bill is from a hospital.

A $30,000 mess across providers, $18,000 in savings found

Path	Cost	Savings you keep
Goodbill (cap hits)	$1,000	$17,000
Resolve (10% tier)	$1,800	$16,200
DIY (guide + letter)	$0-$29	~$18,000

On paper Goodbill's cap wins again, but this is where scope decides it, not price. A $30,000 situation usually is not one clean hospital bill: it is several providers, an insurance denial or two, maybe a collector. That is outside Goodbill's hospital-bill lane and squarely inside Resolve's advocate mandate. If the mess is real, Resolve's $1,800 buys persistence you will struggle to substitute. If it really is one big hospital bill, Goodbill's cap makes it the better buy.

The tier neither is built for

Bills under about $5,000 are below Resolve's published intake floor and are where Goodbill's 20% buys the least (a $2,000 reduction still costs you $400). This is exactly the tier where DIY works: an itemized bill request alone kills a meaningful share of inflated charges, and a $29 statute-cited dispute letter runs the same coding-error, charity-care, and negotiation levers with you keeping every dollar.

How to pick in 30 seconds

One hospital bill, $5,000 to $15,000: Goodbill, or DIY if you will spend the evening. The capped, deposit-free model fits this shape best.
Over $15,000, multiple providers, denials, or collections: Resolve. The 10% tier is competitive and the advocate mandate covers the mess.
Under $5,000, or not a hospital bill: neither. Run the levers yourself: free with the guide, drafted for you at $29.
Any hospital bill, income under ~300% of the poverty line: check charity care first. Forgiveness beats negotiation, and screening is free.

Common questions

Which is cheaper, Goodbill or Resolve?

On most single hospital bills, Goodbill: no deposit, 20% capped at $1,000, no minimum-fee rules. Resolve becomes competitive on large complex situations where its 10% tier applies and you need the broader advocate mandate. Full details in our Goodbill review and Resolve review.

Are they legit?

Both are real companies with published pricing and legal success-fee models. Neither is a scam. The decision is fit and price, not legitimacy.

Which one takes bills in collections?

Resolve. Goodbill's process targets hospital bills still in the provider's billing cycle. If you want to fight a collector yourself, the validation-demand and settlement playbook is in our collections guide.

Can I get the same result without paying a percentage?

Often, yes. The levers are identical: itemized bill request, coding-error challenges, 501(r) charity care screening, and a benchmarked negotiation ask. Hospitals negotiate with patients directly every day. What the services add is expertise and your time back; what DIY keeps is 100% of the reduction.

What about free help?

If the bill is from a nonprofit hospital and your income is roughly under 200-400% of the federal poverty line, charity care can wipe the bill entirely, and the nonprofit Dollar For will help you apply free. Always run that check before paying anyone a percentage.

The bottom line

Goodbill and Resolve are not really competitors; they serve different tiers of the same problem. Goodbill is the better-priced pick for the bill most people actually have: one hospital bill big enough to hurt. Resolve earns its deposit when the situation is large and tangled. And below both of their floors sits the tier where you should not pay a percentage at all.

Or run the playbook yourself

Free: the complete negotiation guide with the itemized-bill and charity-care levers. $29 flat: a statute-cited dispute letter built from your bill's specifics. You keep 100% of every dollar you cut.

Build my dispute letter ($29) Read the free guide

More service reviews: Goodbill, Reviewed · Resolve Medical Bills, Reviewed · Is Dollar For Legit? · All Services Compared

Disclosure and sourcing: Claim Maximizer sells DIY medical bill dispute tools that compete with negotiation services, read this comparison with that in mind. Fee and process details come from Goodbill's and Resolve's public websites as of August 2026; verify current terms directly before signing up. We have no relationship with either company and have not tested their services. Not legal or financial advice.