DDP Debt Disclosure Project Public Record & Guidance

Debt Navigator

Seven questions. No email required, nothing saved. This tool shows all five options side by side, with estimated costs and tradeoffs based on your answers.

This is educational guidance, not financial or legal advice. Do your own research, and talk to a qualified professional before enrolling in any program.
Question 1 of 7

What type of income do you have?

I have a consistent income from a job
I have mostly consistent income, but sometimes it fluctuates
I don't have any income
Question 2 of 7

Roughly how much unsecured debt do you have? (credit cards, medical bills, personal loans)

Enter your actual balance. Costs below are calculated from this number directly.
Prefilled with the sum of your current minimum payments, estimated from the balance and APR above, so it is never blank. Change it to what you can actually afford. This figure sets the DMP term, the affordability test, and the Pay in full schedule.
Question 3 of 7

What's the average APR on your cards?

Prefilled with 22.15%, the Federal Reserve's Q2 2026 average for accounts assessed interest.[10] Change it to your own rate if you know it.
Question 4 of 7

Can you currently keep up with at least the minimum payments?

Yes, comfortably — with room for emergencies and saving for the future
Yes, but it's tight every month
No, I'm already falling behind
Question 5 of 7

How would you describe your credit standing today?

800 or above
740 to 799
670 to 739
580 to 669
Under 580
Question 6 of 7

What matters most to you right now?

Keeping my monthly payment as low as possible
Paying the least total amount overall
Protecting my credit score as much as possible
Getting this resolved as fast as possible
Question 7 of 7

Have you considered bankruptcy, or been advised to look into it?

No / not sure what that would involve
I've thought about it but want to see other options first
Yes, and it's on the table
Sources
  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. 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
  7. 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
  8. 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
  9. 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
  10. 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)
  11. 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.
  12. 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.
  13. 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.
  14. 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.
  15. 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.
  16. 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.
  17. US Bankruptcy Court, Eastern District of Wisconsin, presumptively reasonable Chapter 13 fees — wieb.uscourts.gov (no-look fee order)
  18. US Bankruptcy Court, Northern and Southern Districts of Mississippi, amended standing order on no-look fees — msnb.uscourts.gov (standing order)
  19. 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.
  20. 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.
  21. 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.
  22. 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.
  23. 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.
  24. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Regulation Z, Appendix M1 to Part 1026, repayment disclosures and accuracy tolerances — consumerfinance.gov/rules-policy/regulations/1026/m1
  25. Internal Revenue Service, Publication 4681, Canceled Debts, Foreclosures, Repossessions, and Abandonments — irs.gov/publications/p4681
  26. 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.
  27. 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.
  28. 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.