You might be considering signing up or just signed up with Freedom Debt Relief and are wondering, is Freedom Debt Relief legitimate? How much is it going to cost you? Are there cons?
These are super important questions, so we're going to cover all that and more. So let's get started. Welcome to Ascend Finance's YouTube channel where we cover debt relief companies such as Freedom Debt Relief and help you understand the cost, legitimacy, pros and cons to help you make the most informative decision to get out of debt cheaper, easier, and faster. My name is Ben. I was the previous CEO of a debt relief firm, so I would say I have a pretty good understanding of which companies are legitimate.
So here's what we're going to cover in this video. First, we're going to cover is Freedom Debt Relief legitimate? It's why you're here, so we're going to cover that first. Second, we're going to talk about the question, should you...
hire a debt relief firm or settle a debt yourself and save on fees? Next, we're going to cover how much are the freedom from debt relief fees? Next, can you be sued in a freedom debt relief program?
After that, we'll cover is your credit score affected? And finally, let's talk about the question, should you sign up for freedom debt relief? Now, if you'd like to see additional content to help you get out of debt, cheaper, easier, faster, please subscribe as we make new videos weekly.
Okay, so let's get started. At the time of this video, I do believe that Freedom Debt Relief is a legitimate debt relief company. Let's go through three important things to consider specifically. First, it's super important to understand how much you'll pay, whether you can be sued, and what's going to happen to your credit score in a debt relief program. We're going to spend a few minutes on those later, so stay tuned.
Second, it could be helpful to compare quotes with other debt relief firms. I've added a link in the description below of two of our favorite debt relief firms that we've vetted and worked with for a while and where you can get a free quote from them. Next, we are going to cover the question, should you hire a debt relief firm or should you settle the debt on your own?
Now, with debt relief, you can hire a firm, but you can also settle the debt yourself. Now, hiring a debt relief firm can be a great option, but you may have to pay up to 25%. of the enrolled debt in fees.
So should you hire a firm to settle the debt or should you avoid the fees altogether and settle it on your own? We got this question so often at Ascend and it's a really important question. So what we did is we built a free DIY debt relief calculator that I included a link in the description below that asks a few questions and then shows you an estimated cost, a duration with or without a debt relief firm.
It'll ask you the same question. Questions that will hopefully help you understand which option is best for you. And it's 100% free and not even an email address is required unless you want to chat with us about your options in a free evaluation. Now, we realize that debt is very stressful. And so we wanted to build a free, unbiased resource that allows you to compare options, all your options, whether you should hire a debt relief firm or shouldn't.
And so hopefully this free resource will help you make the most informed decision about your debt. You're probably wondering how much are Freedom Debt Reliefs fees? Now Freedom Debt Relief and many debt relief companies will charge you based on a percentage of your enrolled debt amount. So let's say you have $10,000 and you're enrolling $10,000 in the debt relief program.
They're often going to charge you a percentage between 15 and 25% of your enrolled debt. So that could be $1,500 to $2,500. Okay. Now, what's really important to understand is that can be a big range, right? Let's say if someone has $100,000 of debt, the fees could be between $15,000 and $25,000, right?
That's a lot of money. And debt relief companies do a lot of work, but it's really important to understand that That's a lot of, yeah, that's a lot of money, right? And so I believe that Freedom Debt Relief had something on their site that said their average fee was 21.5%.
And so if you take that amount, it would be around $21,500. You may get a quote, right? Let's say you get a quote from $300 for 36 months.
You're looking at that and you're thinking, well, I'm paying $600 a month right now, right? So it's a lot better than what I'm currently paying, but it's... helpful to kind of ask that question like what is the percentage fees that i'm going to be paying and freedom debt relief has i believe that information in the client service agreement you can also ask them often they may say you know the fees are included in the plan which may be true but it's good to check that and you can compare it to other quotes that you get as well so the next helpful question is can you be sued while in the freedom debt relief program and Let's kind of talk about just exactly what happens in a debt relief program.
So when you join a debt relief program, you know, you're, you may stop paying these accounts and start putting your money towards a special purpose escrow account, right? Now the accounts that you're, let's say you're current on those accounts, all those accounts are going behind. That's why the creditor may be willing to settle with for less than owed, right?
Those accounts may go to a debt collection agency. Then those accounts may be sold to a law firm or that law firm then may try to sue you for that, that unsecured debt. What's important is that Yes, in a lot of debt relief programs, you can be sued, but it's often creditor specific, right?
So one creditor may be like more likely to sue than others. We kind of did a big deep dive data analysis on this kind of who's more likely to sue. So if you're interested, you can give us a text or call at 833-272-3631. We can kind of run through your creditor mix and kind of see kind of maybe who's more likely to sue than others.
And if just a free evaluation, but I think that's really important for you, right? Like, can you be sued? because a lot of people don't want to get a knock on their door with a debt collection lawsuit.
So just something to be considerate of. The third thing I'd want to talk to you about is, is your credit score going to be affected? Often your credit score is negatively affected, especially if your accounts are current, right?
So let's say you enroll 10 accounts and all those 10 accounts start going behind 15 to 30 days, 30 days, 60 days, 68 to 90 days. You know, it is a debt relief program, right? So your accounts may have had to fall behind anyways, but it is important to know that you know those accounts are going to go behind then your credit score is going to be going dropping because of like the late payments and everything so let's say though that all the accounts are already behind and they're negotiating so it may not affect it as much right like maybe you would have started paying and now you're not paying so if your accounts are already behind, it may not affect your credit score as much as if your accounts are current.
Now, everything's situational, everything's different, so it's important to know the nuance there, but it is important to know that your credit score is often negatively affected when you join a debt relief program. Now, when the Freedom Debt Relief or a debt relief company settles that account, your account may say paid settled for less, right? Instead of paid in full.
So that might be a little bit worse mark than paid in full, but it might be a better example. mark than charged off, right? So there's a lot of nuance, but to be clear, your credit score is often negatively affected when you join a debt relief program.
Finally, should you sign up with Freedom Debt Relief? The answer is ultimately your decision and you understand your finances probably better than anyone. So hopefully the DIY debt settlement calculator, the debt relief calculator can help you kind of estimate whether you want to do debt relief and whether you want to do it on your own or hire a firm.
You know, there's definitely pros and cons to both. So hopefully that calculator will show you kind of where you land in that and the costs. and how much you may be paying and so hopefully that resource is helpful give us a call or text 833-272-3631 if you have any questions or anything leave a comment below if you have any questions we are here for you hope this video was helpful and hope you have a great day