Cost Calculator
Enter your numbers below. This estimates total cost and time to become debt-free across five options, plus two reference points, using the same stated public assumptions for every option rather than any single company's self-reported results.
Your Numbers
Drives the self-directed payoff row.
Prefilled at 22.15%, the Federal Reserve G.19 rate for accounts assessed interest, Q2 2026.[10] Editable.
7.5%
Sourced range 6.6% to 8.4% across GreenPath, MMI and InCharge.[11][12][13] You will not know your actual concession until you enroll.
Prefilled from your credit tier. Built as G.19 base rate plus a tier delta.[10][14] Editable.
Every rate above is either something you already know or something you can look up. Settlement percentage and program length are not, so they are held as stated category assumptions rather than user inputs. Both are defined in the assumptions below.
The figures and assumptions below were compiled from the publicly available sources listed at the end of this section, current as of August 2026. This is general modeling, not financial or legal advice. Verify directly with a provider or a qualified professional before relying on it for a decision.
Assumptions used in this calculator, and where they came from
Self-Directed Payoff: you pay your full balance in one payment, today. There is no interest, no fee, and no timeline, since the balance is resolved immediately at 100% of what you owe. This row is fixed and does not use the monthly amount entered above.
Pay in Full Today: 100% of the balance entered above, paid immediately. Shown as a reference point rather than an option, since a household able to clear the balance today would not be comparing programs. Assumes no prepayment penalty, standard for credit cards and most personal loans.
Debt Settlement: the headline number includes fees. Every other option's total includes its interest, so showing settlement before fees would compare unlike things. The 75% to 80% range is triangulated from the all-in figures the largest settlement companies publish in their own disclosures, cited in the source list below. The 55% figure shown under the headline is what settlements cost before fees, on average, per those same disclosures. Individual results vary. Fees of 15% to 25% of enrolled debt are published across the profiled operators, and the fee structure itself is governed by the FTC Telemarketing Sales Rule advance fee ban.[6][7][8]. Where two of the profiled companies share common ownership, they are counted as one source, not two.
Program length is held at 36 months, the term every cost figure in this row is computed over. The published range is 24 to 48 months, with National Debt Relief's formal disclaimer as the primary cite.[2][3][4]
Balance growth is modeled, but it does not change the total shown in the table. It matters for two things only: the forgiven amount, which drives the tax exposure, and the disclosure that balances keep growing until charge-off. Its only jobs are the forgiven amount, which drives the tax exposure, and the disclosure that balances do not freeze. Accrual runs at your entered card APR only until charge-off, which federal bank regulators place at 180 cumulative days past due for open-end retail credit; after charge-off the balance is held flat until it settles.[28] Running the APR across the full 36 months would materially overstate interest. Accounts are assumed to settle evenly across the 36 months. Freedom Debt Relief's own disclosure that the first settlement typically falls between months four and six corroborates that window.[3] There is no standalone interest line: interest sits inside the balance, settles at 55 cents on the dollar like every other dollar, and raises the forgiven amount and therefore the tax. Adding a separate interest line on top of a 55% settlement would charge the consumer twice for the same dollars.
Not included in the 75% to 80% total, and flagged on the row: dedicated account fees, income tax on forgiven debt, and dropout. The dedicated account fees are a third-party charge paid to the account administrator rather than the settlement company, and sit outside the companies' all-in percentages. Freedom Debt Relief publishes $9.95 setup and $9.95 monthly; National Debt Relief publishes $9.00 and $9.85.[2][3]
Program length is held at 36 months, the term every cost figure in this row is computed over. The published range is 24 to 48 months, with National Debt Relief's formal disclaimer as the primary cite.[2][3][4]
Balance growth is modeled, but it does not change the total shown in the table. It matters for two things only: the forgiven amount, which drives the tax exposure, and the disclosure that balances keep growing until charge-off. Its only jobs are the forgiven amount, which drives the tax exposure, and the disclosure that balances do not freeze. Accrual runs at your entered card APR only until charge-off, which federal bank regulators place at 180 cumulative days past due for open-end retail credit; after charge-off the balance is held flat until it settles.[28] Running the APR across the full 36 months would materially overstate interest. Accounts are assumed to settle evenly across the 36 months. Freedom Debt Relief's own disclosure that the first settlement typically falls between months four and six corroborates that window.[3] There is no standalone interest line: interest sits inside the balance, settles at 55 cents on the dollar like every other dollar, and raises the forgiven amount and therefore the tax. Adding a separate interest line on top of a 55% settlement would charge the consumer twice for the same dollars.
Not included in the 75% to 80% total, and flagged on the row: dedicated account fees, income tax on forgiven debt, and dropout. The dedicated account fees are a third-party charge paid to the account administrator rather than the settlement company, and sit outside the companies' all-in percentages. Freedom Debt Relief publishes $9.95 setup and $9.95 monthly; National Debt Relief publishes $9.00 and $9.85.[2][3]
Credit Counseling (DMP): 100% of principal repaid at the concession rate set above. The term is not fixed. It is computed from the monthly amount you said you can put toward debt, which is also the affordability test that rules the option in or out. If the balance will not clear inside 60 months at that payment, the row reports the option as not viable and states what monthly figure would be needed, since a DMP payment is fixed once approved and cannot be lowered later. The National Foundation for Credit Counseling publishes a 36 to 60 month guideline.[9]
The toggle range is anchored to the agencies' own client-facing pages: GreenPath describes a drop from about 28% to 6.6%, Money Management International describes below 8%, and InCharge states the average is 8.4%.[11][12][13] The sourced range is therefore 6.6% to 8.4%, not the 6% to 10% previously carried. InCharge publishes 7% on its fees page and 8.4% on its program page; this model uses 8.4%.
Fees are included in the row total: a $41 setup fee and a $30 monthly fee, the averages of three agency schedules. The underlying figures are setup of $35 at GreenPath, $37 at MMI (capped at $75) and $52 at InCharge; monthly of $31, $26 (capped at $69) and $34.[11][12][13] A state cap is applied only where individually sourced. Worth stating plainly: fee ceilings in this industry come from state law, not industry self-regulation. Neither the NFCC nor the FCAA publishes a numeric cap.[8][9]
The toggle range is anchored to the agencies' own client-facing pages: GreenPath describes a drop from about 28% to 6.6%, Money Management International describes below 8%, and InCharge states the average is 8.4%.[11][12][13] The sourced range is therefore 6.6% to 8.4%, not the 6% to 10% previously carried. InCharge publishes 7% on its fees page and 8.4% on its program page; this model uses 8.4%.
Fees are included in the row total: a $41 setup fee and a $30 monthly fee, the averages of three agency schedules. The underlying figures are setup of $35 at GreenPath, $37 at MMI (capped at $75) and $52 at InCharge; monthly of $31, $26 (capped at $69) and $34.[11][12][13] A state cap is applied only where individually sourced. Worth stating plainly: fee ceilings in this industry come from state law, not industry self-regulation. Neither the NFCC nor the FCAA publishes a numeric cap.[8][9]
Consolidation Loan or Balance Transfer: a personal loan repaid over 48 months at the APR set above. The prefilled rate is built as a Federal Reserve base rate plus a credit-tier delta, so the federal figure stays load-bearing as it moves each quarter:
The base is the Federal Reserve G.19 24-month personal loan rate at commercial banks, Q2 2026.[10] The assumed rate is LendingTree's "all offers" rate for debt consolidation loans by the total, Q4 2025.[14] Two limitations worth knowing: the two figures come from different quarters, and the LendingTree rates are marketplace offers, not the rates borrowers actually ended up with. The Federal Reserve figure alone runs too low for borrowers with damaged credit, because it averages about 75 prime banks and leaves out every subprime lender. The tier adjustment closes that gap.
| Tier | G.19 base | Tier delta | Assumed |
|---|---|---|---|
| 800+ | 11.86% | +2.90 | 14.76% |
| 740 to 799 | 11.86% | +5.15 | 17.01% |
| 670 to 739 | 11.86% | +10.89 | 22.75% |
| 580 to 669 | 11.86% | +15.73 | 27.59% |
| Under 580 | 11.86% | +18.16 | 30.02% |
Bankruptcy: shown as a dollar range rather than a percentage, because the cost is largely fixed and does not scale with balance. Chapter 7 filing fee $338 and Chapter 13 filing fee $313, both inclusive of the administrative fee and trustee surcharge, from the US Courts Bankruptcy Court Miscellaneous Fee Schedule.[15] Attorney fees for Chapter 7 are $1,300 to $1,500, the medians reported in the National Consumer Law Center's attorney fee survey of 1,305 attorneys across all 50 states, D.C., Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, conducted 2017 to 2018; the figure carries its survey year.[16] Chapter 13 uses $4,800, from bankruptcy court no-look fee orders, which are set district by district by the judges; verified examples run from $4,100 in the Western District of Missouri to $8,500 in the Central District of California for business cases.[17][18][19][20] The district orders are current, 2022 to 2026, so NCLC's $3,750 Chapter 13 median is corroborating only.
Two sourcing notes. The US Trustee Program does not publish presumptively reasonable benchmarks for consumer cases: its 28 CFR Part 58 guidelines cover chapter 11 professionals, meaning attorneys and advisors retained in business reorganizations rather than the consumer chapter 7 and chapter 13 filings at issue here, so they set no benchmark for what a consumer debtor pays. Nolo has been dropped entirely as a source: paywalled, with no published methodology or sample size. This tool does not choose a chapter, because eligibility turns on the means test comparing current monthly income against the state median, which this tool does not collect.
Two sourcing notes. The US Trustee Program does not publish presumptively reasonable benchmarks for consumer cases: its 28 CFR Part 58 guidelines cover chapter 11 professionals, meaning attorneys and advisors retained in business reorganizations rather than the consumer chapter 7 and chapter 13 filings at issue here, so they set no benchmark for what a consumer debtor pays. Nolo has been dropped entirely as a source: paywalled, with no published methodology or sample size. This tool does not choose a chapter, because eligibility turns on the means test comparing current monthly income against the state median, which this tool does not collect.
Minimum Payments Only: the greater of $40 or 1% of the remaining balance plus that month's interest and fees, plus any past-due and overlimit amounts, simulated month by month until paid off and capped at 50 years. The $40 floor and the percentage-plus-interest shape both come from the Chase and Citi cardmember agreements rather than their marketing explainers; the contract floors are $40 at Chase and $41 at Citi.[21][22] Regulation Z at 12 CFR 1026.7(b)(12) and Appendix M1 to Part 1026 carry the calculation methodology and the federal accuracy tolerances, plus or minus two months on the payoff estimate and plus or minus 10% on the three-year payment figure.[23][24] Shown as a reference point rather than an option.
These are generic, stated modeling assumptions for comparing categories, not any individual provider's fee schedule or reported outcomes. Actual results from any specific company will vary. Rates and typical terms cited above reflect research conducted in August 2026 and may have changed since. The full source list, covering both this Calculator and the Advisor, is at the bottom of the page.
Sources
- Settlement percentage and fees, company-reported. Beyond Finance publishes approximately 55% of enrolled debt before fees; National Debt Relief's disclaimer publishes 45% before fees, or 20% including fees, over 24 to 48 months. The defensible range is 55% to 80% of enrolled debt, labeled company-reported and derived. Independence caveat: Accredited Debt Relief states on its own site that it is a DBA of Beyond Finance, LLC, and its footer disclosure is verbatim identical to Beyond's. So the "four profiled companies" are three distinct operators, and Accredited cannot be cited as independent corroboration of Beyond's 55% figure. Advertising caveat: in October 2025, BBB National Programs' National Advertising Division recommended National Debt Relief modify or discontinue certain of these claims, finding its 24 to 48 month messaging conveyed an unsupported implication about all debt rather than enrolled unsecured debt, and that a prior savings claim of 30% including fees was unsupported. The current 45%/20% disclaimer post-dates that decision, but any citation should note the proceeding rather than present the figure as unchallenged. NAD announcement: BBB National Programs, October 28, 2025.
- Freedom Debt Relief, Frequently Asked Questions — freedomdebtrelief.com/faq. Fee ranges between 15% and 25% of enrolled debt, varying by state of residence and amount enrolled. Program length averages 24 to 48 months. No upfront fees; fees collected only after a settlement is authorized by the client and the first payment made. Separately discloses the dedicated account fees excluded from that percentage: a one-time $9.95 setup and a $9.95 monthly servicing fee paid to Crossroads Financial Technologies, which FDR states it neither shares in nor receives. Also useful for timing: the first settlement typically occurs between months four and six, which corroborates the charge-off window used in the accrual model.
- Beyond Finance, Frequently Asked Questions — beyondfinance.com/faqs. The footer disclosure on this page carries all three load-bearing figures in one place: clients who make all monthly deposits on average pay back approximately 55% of their enrolled debt before fees; fees are based on percentages of enrolled amounts, are usually 25%, and are success based; and programs on average range from 24 to 48 months. The FAQ body separately states that program fees generally range from 15% to 25% and vary by state, and that fees apply only once a Resolution Offer is accepted and at least one payment made. This is the primary cite for the settlement model.
- National Debt Relief, formal disclaimer page. Primary cite for program length (24 to 48 months) because it sits in a formal disclaimer rather than a marketing page; Beyond, Freedom and Accredited corroborate. Also the source for 45% before fees / 20% including fees, and for dedicated account fees of $9.00 setup and $9.85 monthly. Subject to the NAD caveat in source 1.
- Accredited Debt Relief, "How We Help" — accrediteddebtrelief.com/how-we-help. Fees usually 15% to 25% of total enrolled debt, based on state of residence, success-based, no upfront fees. Program 24 to 48 months. Publishes a $5,000 minimum in unsecured debt to start, which is the source for the enrollment-minimum note on the settlement card, and cites $1,300+ for bankruptcy representation and court fees, independently matching the figure used in the bankruptcy row. Read the footer: the page states Accredited Debt Relief is a DBA of Beyond Finance, LLC, and its disclosure paragraph is word-for-word identical to Beyond's. Treat it as the same source, not a second one.
- Federal Trade Commission, Telemarketing Sales Rule, 16 CFR 310.4(a)(5), advance fee ban — ecfr.gov/current/title-16/chapter-I/subchapter-C/part-310/section-310.4
- Federal Trade Commission, "Debt Relief Services & the Telemarketing Sales Rule: A Guide for Business" — ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/debt-relief-services-telemarketing-sales-rule-guide-business
- Colorado Attorney General, Consumer Credit Unit, Debt Management program, consumer disclosures and statutory fee caps — coag.gov/office-sections/consumer-protection/consumer-credit-unit/debt-management/consumers
- National Foundation for Credit Counseling, "Debt Relief Programs: The Pros and Cons of Each Type" — nfcc.org/blog/debt-relief-programs-the-pros-and-cons-of-each-type
- Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, G.19 Consumer Credit release, Terms of Credit at Commercial Banks — federalreserve.gov/releases/g19/current (methodology: federalreserve.gov/releases/g19/about.htm)
- GreenPath Financial Wellness, "Common Questions About Debt Management Programs" — greenpath.com/blog/debt/common-questions-about-debt-management-programs. Carries both figures on one page: rates dropping from about 28% to 6.6%, and average fees of a $35 one-time enrollment fee and a $31 monthly fee.
- Money Management International, "How Much Can You Save with a Debt Management Plan?" — moneymanagement.org/debt-management/debt-management-plan-savings. Average aggregate rate below 8%; 2025 average monthly fee $26 and one-time setup fee $37, capped at $69 and $75 respectively.
- InCharge Debt Solutions, "Debt Management Program: What It Is & How It Works" — incharge.org/debt-relief/debt-management. States the average program rate is 8.4%. The 8.4% figure is corroborated in InCharge's own 2022 annual report (PDF). Note the same page describes counselors working toward "approximately 8%," and InCharge's fees page publishes 7%; this tool uses 8.4% as the top of the sourced range. The $52 setup and $34 monthly figures still need to be pulled from InCharge's own fees page rather than a third-party review.
- LendingTree, marketplace rate data, debt consolidation, "all offers" column, by credit band — lendingtree.com/personal/resources. Do not substitute the personal loan statistics page or the offers report; both use different bands and a non-comparable rate basis.
- Administrative Office of the US Courts, Bankruptcy Court Miscellaneous Fee Schedule — uscourts.gov/court-programs/fees/bankruptcy-court-miscellaneous-fee-schedule. The $338 and $313 totals are inclusive; do not re-add the $78 administrative fee or the $15 trustee surcharge. The Bankruptcy Basics pages still print the pre-2023 $75 figure; the Fee Schedule's $78 is current.
- National Consumer Law Center, United States Consumer Bankruptcy Law Attorney Fee Survey, States Report, 2017 to 2018 — nclc.org (report page) and full PDF. 1,305 attorneys, 21.7% participation. Chapter 7 medians $1,300 below-median income and $1,500 above-median; averages $1,337 and $1,528. Chapter 13 median $3,750, corroborating only. The report itself includes a section on methods to update its results to a current date, which should be applied before publication given the survey year.
- US Bankruptcy Court, Eastern District of Wisconsin, presumptively reasonable Chapter 13 fees — wieb.uscourts.gov (no-look fee order)
- US Bankruptcy Court, Northern and Southern Districts of Mississippi, amended standing order on no-look fees — msnb.uscourts.gov (standing order)
- US Bankruptcy Court, Western District of Missouri, Local Rules 2016-1(B) and 2016-2(B), no-look fees increased to $4,100 for below-median and $4,600 for above-median debtors — mow.uscourts.gov (2022 summary of revisions). This is the low end of the verified district range.
- US Bankruptcy Court, Central District of California, Chapter 13 presumptively reasonable fees — cacb.uscourts.gov/news/chapter-13-fees. $7,000 for non-business debtors and $8,500 for business cases, the high end of the verified range.
- Chase cardmember agreement, minimum payment terms. Pull the current contract from the CFPB Credit Card Agreement Database rather than the marketing explainer — consumerfinance.gov/credit-cards/agreements. The database holds agreements from more than 600 issuers, submitted quarterly under CARD Act section 204, and is searchable by issuer name.
- Citi cardmember agreement, minimum payment terms. Same source as above, searched under Citibank. Using the database rather than a hunted-down issuer PDF also gives us a stable, citable URL and a documented collection date.
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Regulation Z, 12 CFR 1026.7(b)(12), periodic statement repayment disclosure — consumerfinance.gov/rules-policy/regulations/1026/7. This is (b)(12); (b)(11) is the due-date requirement and the two are commonly confused.
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Regulation Z, Appendix M1 to Part 1026, repayment disclosures and accuracy tolerances — consumerfinance.gov/rules-policy/regulations/1026/m1
- Internal Revenue Service, Publication 4681, Canceled Debts, Foreclosures, Repossessions, and Abandonments — irs.gov/publications/p4681
- Internal Revenue Service, Publication 4731, Screening Sheet for Nonbusiness Credit Card Debt Cancellation — eitc.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p4731.pdf. Confirms that $600 is a creditor reporting threshold, not a taxability floor.
- Internal Revenue Service, Credit Counseling Compliance Project, summary of results and FAQ — irs.gov/charities-non-profits/irs-reports-on-credit-counseling-initiative. 63 organizations examined representing 56% of industry revenue; 41 examinations completed; organizations revoked or proposed for revocation represented 41% of industry revenue. The initiative predates IRC 501(q), enacted later in 2006, which changed the exemption criteria.
- Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council, Uniform Retail Credit Classification and Account Management Policy — federalreserve.gov (policy text), issued jointly by the Federal Reserve, FDIC, OCC and OTS. Open-end retail loans, which includes credit card balances, that become past due 180 cumulative days from the contractual due date should be classified loss and charged off. This is the basis for the six-month accrual cap in the settlement model. Two limits worth stating: the policy sets an outer boundary rather than a target, and institutions may adopt more conservative timelines; and the NCUA never adopted it, so credit union accounts are outside its scope.
Settlement now carries two regulator cites for fee structure, the FTC Telemarketing Sales Rule and the Colorado AG consumer page, so it is not purely industry-sourced. But no regulator anywhere publishes settlement outcome data, and the CFPB has said directly that furnishers do not typically report the final balance of a settled account or the amount the consumer pays. California's DFPI began collecting exactly this in March 2026 under the Debt Settlement Services Act; its form captures average amount owed at contract execution and average settlement amount, which divide into a true settlement percentage. A records request to DFPI is pending.