So this might sound really hokey, but I used an alternative solution. (since I just came back to swtor and have few precious credits)
I used my first account (55 tank consular) as a helper for my second account (fresh knight). The 55 wrecked things and the slave just was on follow (I key bound target player and follow on buttons I could hit easy).
It seems like it would be slow or difficult, but actually I got from 1 to 42 in about 4 hours this way. 42-55 in less time today.
Then at 55 to "gear" the slave, I just used one of the adaptive armors from the starfighter packs that seem useless, used whatever comms I had to outfit them and only needed to make two armor mods and a hilt from my own mats.
So I saved credits, but unfortunately had to sacrifice my actual time.
I tried leveling the normal way but by the time I hit 30, I was getting slaughtered. And didn't have the means to play catch up.