Frequently Asked Questions

Find answers to commonly asked questions, so you can feel confident taking action to resolve your debt.
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What you should know

What is debt relief?

The type of debt relief Freedom Debt Relief offers is known by several names: debt resolution, debt negotiation, and debt settlement. Debt relief allows you to resolve your unsecured debt (debt that is not backed by collateral like a car or a house; most often credit card debt) by negotiating with creditors and reducing the amount you owe. You could negotiate with your creditors on your own or use a debt relief program like Freedom Debt Relief to help you settle your debt.

During the debt relief process, you usually voluntarily stop paying your creditors and start saving money in a special purpose account (what Freedom Debt Relief calls your ‘dedicated account’) that is used to hold the funds used to settle your debt. Once enough money is saved into this account, the debt relief company you hired contacts your creditors to negotiate a debt settlement amount that is lower than what you currently owe.

The Freedom Debt Relief program is designed to resolve your debt for significantly less than you owe, as quickly as possible. First, we provide a debt consultation to review various options you have for debt management (including credit counseling, bankruptcy, and consolidation loan), and help you decide if debt relief and our program specifically is right for you. If you decide that it is, we work with you to design a program that fits your monthly budget (keep in mind that it could be less than your monthly minimum payments). Once you enroll, our expert debt negotiators create a negotiation strategy, utilizing data that has been developed over 20 years, so that we can reduce your debt and help get rid of your debt as quickly as possible. Our company has used this method to resolve over $20 billion in debt since 2002.

Freedom Debt Relief could help you with debt from credit cards, medical bills, department store cards, and many other types of unsecured debt (debt that is not backed by collateral like a car or a house). Our program cannot help with secured debt, which is a debt that involves collateral (like auto loans and mortgages). Also, we cannot resolve federal student loans. We do help with private student loans and some business debts on a case-by-case basis.

The impact a debt relief solution has to your credit score depends on the specific information found on your credit report at the time of enrollment, and how the specific information found on your credit report changes while in the program.  Your credit report can be affected by the settlements you experienced while in the program (including how creditors report the information to the CRAs) as well as your credit behavior while in the program.

Depending on your existing credit score, in the debt settlement process you will likely see your credit score drop.

However, a key factor of your financial health is your debt-to-income ratio. As debts are settled, your total debt should decrease, thereby improving your debt-to-income ratio.

Across the industry, debt relief costs vary and are usually a percentage of the original amount of your debt or a percentage of the amount you’ve agreed to pay with the settlement. 

Freedom Debt Relief’s fee ranges between 15% to 25% of enrolled debt (the amount of debt enrolled to be settled)–your rate may vary depending on your state of residency and amount you enroll. 

In our program, clients pay FDR no fee whatsoever until a debt is negotiated, the settlement has been approved and the first payment has been made. You will know when a fee is charged because you will approve every settlement deal. Once we reach a settlement with a creditor, we immediately contact you for authorization. After you authorize a settlement and a payment has been made to your creditor, the fee associated with the debt is processed. The total fee associated with the program is included in the monthly savings quoted to you by a debt consultant.

FDR does not charge any upfront fees and only collects its fees after a settlement is authorized by the client and the first payment is made.

This fee amount is disclosed in full upfront and will never increase.

Note: As part of your debt settlement program, you open up a dedicated account with Crossroads Financial Technologies (CFT) to accumulate your settlement funds. You own this dedicated account and all funds in it. CFT collects fees for setting up and maintaining the dedicated account, and may also charge fees to make payments from the dedicated account. There is a one-time fee of $9.95 to set up the dedicated account, and a monthly fee of $9.95 that covers account servicing. Freedom Debt Relief does not share or receive any part of the fees paid to CFT.

Freedom Debt Relief is an established leader in debt resolution. Since 2002, over 1 million clients have been served by the Freedom Debt Relief program. We have resolved over $18 billion in debt. We have a team of committed experts working on your side: 500+ certified debt consultants, 200+ debt negotiators, and 300+ customer service representatives. We are an established employer with 1,300+ US employees in AZ, CA, and TX. 

Lastly, Freedom Debt Relief formally has a promise to customers in place to ensure that we deliver results to our customers. This promise is called the Freedom Debt Relief Promise and it assures that: 1. Each prospective customer has an opportunity to learn about their debt relief options, even those beyond our services. 2. Each customer receives a personalized assessment and recommendation of the course of action that offers the best opportunity for consumers to achieve their financial goals.  3. Each customer is fully informed at each step of the process. 4. Each customer has a Program Guarantee that Freedom Debt Relief succeeds only when our customers succeed. In addition to only charging fees when FDR delivers settlements, the Program Guarantee states that when a customer graduates or leaves the program, FDR will refund fees if their settlement and fees are more than the amount they originally owed when they enrolled in the program.

  • Credit counseling can help you learn to budget and stop overspending. Counselors can enroll you in a debt management plan where they typically lower your interest rates and set up a payment schedule, to simplify debt repayment and make it more affordable. Credit counselors control your (the consumer’s) money and when/how the money is distributed to the creditors. 

  • Debt settlement means convincing your creditors to accept less than you owe as payment in full. They may be willing to do so if you cannot afford to repay the full amount. With debt settlement, and specifically Freedom Debt Relief, you the consumer approve all actions by Freedom Debt Relief – i.e. Freedom Debt Relief does not control your money and when/how the money is distributed to creditors – everything must be approved by you, the consumer. 

  • Bankruptcy is a court-ordered plan in which you either surrender assets or pay into a plan to discharge some or all of your debts. 

  • Learn much more from this article about the differences between credit counseling, debt settlement and bankruptcy

Yes, you may withdraw from your Dedicated Account, which you control, at any time. This is an FDIC-insured account, and you control it, not Freedom Debt Relief, meaning you can withdraw from it at any time. However, FDR advises against withdrawing from your account as it prevents you from being able to make your monthly deposits, which in turn slows down your progress towards your settlement timeframe.

Qwest Debt Relief does not itself offer loan products. We can refer you to our affiliate companies that offer personal loans and home equity loans. We always take your unique financial situation into account, and will recommend alternative solutions that you may qualify for, that may meet your needs.

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