Your credit will decline. By how much depends on the original condition of your credit. The credit decline occurs due to late payments and the "charge off" of enrolled accounts. However, bankruptcy causes longer term credit damage. Paying off debt via a settlement also decreases the debt-to-credit ratio, which according to Fair Isaac, founder of the FICO credit score, composes one third of the consumer credit score.

The debt-to-credit ratio is a proportion of your credit and loan account balances to the accounts' credit limits. Lenders use this equation to determine if a borrower can qualify for more credit. To calculate your debt-to-credit ratio, divide the balance of your total debt by your accounts' total credit limit. As an example, if your balance is $3,000 and your credit limit is $4,000 your debt-to-credit ratio is 75%. A debt-to-credit ratio of 30% or better qualifies borrowers for loans with favorable interest rates. However, borrowers that have a debt-to-credit ratio over 50% are seen by lenders as a high credit risk. If you have a high debt-to-credit ratio, the best way to improve your credit is to pay off, or pay down high credit balances. Ideally, you should keep credit balances at or below 30%.

Debt settlement is 100% legal in most states. You have the right to hire a professional debt negotiator to help you negotiate a settlement of your debt. However, creditors and debt collectors depend on debtors' ignorance of this powerful debt reduction procedure.

Although you have a right to be treated fairly by a debt collector, there's no sure way to completely stop the collection calls. Debt collectors have a notoriety of violating consumer's rights. However, the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act (FDCPA) allows you to send out a cease and desist letter to require a third-party debt collector to stop calling you. After receiving the letter, the debt collector may contact you one more time, but only to inform you of what, if any action they intend to take to collect the debt. Note: The cease and desist letter does not apply to the original creditor.

Credit counseling debt management plans are known to have a very low completion rate. The main reason is that this debt consolidation approach targets the reduction of interest rates, which generally produces ineffective debt reduction for a debtor in a severe financial hardship. In contrast, debt settlement can reduce the debt's principal and interest, thereby allowing debtors to get out of debt in a much faster time.

Negotiating on your own can involve many frustrating hours and hostile, unproductive communication with debt collectors. You may also not be able to reach the same success as a professional negotiator.

You should consider bankruptcy as the last recourse. A bankruptcy remains in public records for 20 years and on credit files for 10 years. Filing bankruptcy can cause you to be turned down for credit and employment. Changes in the bankruptcy law also made it more difficult to qualify for Chapter 7, which allows you to discharge most debts. The remaining option is a Chapter 13 debt repayment plan, which requires you to repay a portion of your debt. The new law also extended the time to repay your debt from 3 to 5 years. And if you miss a court-ordered payment, your case can be dismissed.

Many companies actually "retail" debt settlement services that they then outsource to third-party debt settlement service providers. However, we are a professional debt settlement service provider with experienced negotiators. Most debt settlement companies charge excessive fees. This places your money at risk since more of your monthly payment goes to fees instead of building up your settlement funds. However, Debt Free League takes pride in offering a negotiation fee that is one third less than the industry average.

We work with a variety of UNSECURED DEBTS, such as credit cards, medical accounts, collection accounts, personal loans, and business debts. However, we can not accept SECURED DEBTS, such as mortgages, auto loans, loans for personal property that can be repossessed, IRS taxes, and student loans.

The Debt-to-Freedom Plan is our unique debt settlement program, which offers a number of unparalleled benefits: LOWER FEES -- 100% MONEY-BACK GUARANTEE -- RE-ENROLLMENT CREDIT (that allows clients that canceled our service due to a financial hardship, to later re-enroll with a credit of up to 100% of the fees they previously paid.

Complete our online form for a FREE consultation or call 1-800-213-9968. After assessing your financial hardship, a financial adviser will determine your eligibility and assist you in completing an application to submit to our underwriters for approval. You will know if you're approved within 24 hours.

You may be eligible to exclude certain accounts. However, we recommend only leaving out an account with a low balance for emergency purposes.

If you have joint accounts with your ex spouse, the debts may appear on your credit report. Even if a divorce decree can prove your ex spouse is 100% responsible to pay the accounts, you are still jointly responsible.

The forgiving creditor must give you a 1099-C tax form and you must report to the IRS for the forgiven or canceled portion of the debt that exceeds $600 as taxable income. However, the IRS does not require you to report the forgiven debt if you were insolvent, meaning the amount of your debt was greater than your assets when the creditor forgave the debt.

We respect your privacy and abide by all privacy laws. Our confidentiality agreement also states that your personal information will not be released to ANYONE!

Yes, we have a guarantee to return your money within the first 30 days of enrollment.

Our negotiation fee is 10% of the enrolled debt. Many companies excessively charge a negotiation fee of 15% or more of the total enrolled debt.

Yes, there is a $39.00 recurring monthly maintenance fee for administrative and customer service support. This fee ceases on the month of program completion.

The estimated time to complete the program is dependent on your financial situation, types of accounts, and monthly budget. Ideally, we would like to structure for you a program term under 36 months