Professional, personal service to alleviate debt.
Suspect you might need debt relief but aren’t sure what kind is right for you? Accredited Debt Relief might be able to help you. It works by matching clients to the best service with particular attention to how their credit score might be affected. Read on to find out if Accredited Debt Relief could be right for you.
Details
- Free consultation. Yes, either by filling out a form online or calling its toll-free number.
Costs. Debt settlement fee of 18–25% of enrolled debt; debt management fee of $100–$200. - Types of debt accepted. Secured, unsecured.
- Services offered. Debt consolidation, debt management, debt settlement.
- Minimum debt considered. N/A
- Typical turnaround. 24–48 months
- Accreditation: BBB, AFCC
- Ratings: BBB: A+, Trustpilot: 9.4/10
- Direct or third-party negotiations. Third-party.
- Service limitations. Not available in CO, CT, DE, GA, HI, IL, KS, ME, NH, ND, OR, RI, SC, VT, WA, WI.
- Free resources or tools. None.
- Customer service options. Phone, email.
What exactly is Accredited Debt Relief?
Accredited Debt Relief is a matching service that helps clients find services that best suit their personal financial situation. It can help you find a program that specializes in:
- Debt settlement. A bankruptcy alternative in which a debt settlement company negotiates with your creditors to bring down the amount you owe in unsecured debt. Accredited Debt Relief is a direct enrollment center for Freedom Debt Relief.
- Debt management. Lower your interest rates and monthly payments and get help dealing with collection agencies and creditor calls through a debt management program.
- Debt consolidation. Combine all of your loans into one by taking out a term loan that you use to pay off your lenders, typically at a lower interest rate.
How much does it cost?
Debt relief costs vary depending on what type of relief you’re looking for.
Debt settlement
Debt settlement fees typically range from 18% to 25% of the debt you enroll in the program at the time of settlement. Its debt settlement programs typically last between two and four years, although your first debt settlements typically begin after six to nine months of being in the program.
- For example, If you enroll $10,000 of credit card debt with an APR of 16% in a 24-month program, you could expect to owe $13,742.19 if no settlements are made during the program. You might have to pay around $2473 to $3436.
Debt management
Debt management programs come with a monthly fee that typically ranges from $100 to $200, depending on how much debt you have. Debt management and debt settlement programs involve making monthly deposits into a trust account, part of which goes toward fees and the rest toward paying off or settling your debts.
- For example, if you enroll $30,000 in a debt management program, you might have to make a monthly payment of $600 — $500 toward your debts, and $100 as a fee. This is a little high. Many nonprofit debt management programs charge a fee of around $25.
Debt consolidation
None of the lenders Accredited Debt Relief works with charge underwriting fees, so all it will cost you is interest. Typically, clients who are pointed toward debt consolidation can qualify for a loan with an APR of 5% to 7%.
How much could I save?
Your savings also depend on what type of program you enroll in:
Debt settlement
Debt settlement savings generally range from 32% to 25% of your enrolled debt — before taxes. The IRS treats most settled debt like taxable income unless you’re financially insolvent at the time of settlement. If you aren’t exempt, you could end up saving almost nothing, depending on your tax bracket.
Debt management
How much you save with debt management depends on the interest rate you start off with. Some debt management companies are able to lower your interest between six and nine percentage points.
Debt consolidation
Like with debt management, how much you save depends on the interest rates you started out with and your new loan’s interest rate. Here’s an example of how much you might be able to save with a debt consolidation loan through Accredited Debt Relief:
| Type of debt | Balance | Minimum Monthly Payment | Interest rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Credit Card | $5,000 | $130 | 17.99% |
| Credit Card | $6,000 | $160 | 19.99% |
| Personal loan | $3,250 | $90 | 18.99% |
If you consolidate these using a loan of $15,000 with a 7% APR and a five year term, you could lower your monthly payment by $83 and save $4772.3 on interest.
What are the benefits and drawbacks of Accredited Debt Relief?
Benefits
- Lots of options. Accredited Debt Relief doesn’t pigeonholed its clients into one type of debt relief — ideal for someone who isn’t sure what type of debt relief it can benefit from.
- Helpful staff. Clients frequently say that its customer service team does a good job of simplifying an otherwise complicated and overwhelming process.
- Good online reputation. Debt relief is a risky business and it’s not guaranteed that things are going to work out as planned. For a company to have so many positive reviews is no mean feat.
Drawbacks
- Fees vary between partners. It’s difficult to get an idea of how much debt relief will cost you unless you research each individual company — which can take some time.
- Not all partners have great service. Accredited Debt Relief is a service that matches you with debt relief companies, which might also vary when it comes to quality of service. It’s also not clear how much Accredited Debt relief vets its partners.
- Lots of calls from partnerships. Like with any matching service, Accredited Debt Relief gives your information to other companies.
Accredited Debt Relief can also help you find a bankruptcy lawyer in your area if that’s your best option.
What does the Internet have to say about Accredited Debt Relief?
Mostly good things. Accredited Debt Relief gets an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau (BBB) based on 35 customer reviews, 89% of which were positive. Nearly 700 Trustpilot users gave it a 9.4 out of 10, with 84% rating it “Excellent.” Only 1% of Trustpilot reviews were negative.
What did reviewers have to say? Most were in praise of the quality of its customer service, which was repeatedly called helpful, professional and knowledgeable. The few negative reviews were mostly complaints about getting too many calls from Accredited Debt Relief’s partners.
Is Accredited Debt Relief safe to use?
Relatively safe. It doesn’t go into much detail about its web security, although its site appears to be SSL-encrypted. Because Accredited Debt Relief is a matching service, you can expect your personal information to be shared with third parties. But these can include companies that are not directly involved in providing services, unless you opt out by either calling or emailing them. It limits access to sensitive information like Social Security numbers.
It’s an accredited member of the American Fair Credit Council (AFCC), an industry organization that defines and enforces industry standards. It’s also been accredited with the BBB since 2014.
How do I sign up?
Click Go to Site on this page and select the amount of debt that you want to reduce.
Enter your personal contact information and click Click Here to See if We Can Help.
An Accredited Debt Relief specialist will call you to ask you about more information so they can do a soft credit pull and review your credit report to make sure nothing’s missing.
If it looks Accredited Debt Relief can help you, it will call you again to to discuss your options and match you with a program. A debt relief specialist will guide you through your specific enrollment process.
I’ve signed up. What happens next?
What happens next depends on what type of debt relief you’re enrolled in.
Debt settlement and debt management
Accredited Debt Relief assigns you an account manager, who will be your direct point of contact for the duration of the program. They’ll guide you through the process of making monthly payments into a non-interest trust account that they use to pay off your creditors and later, deduct fees.
Debt consolidation
Debt consolidation loans are made directly to your lender, not Accredited Debt Relief, so how repayment works depends on who you’re borrowing from. Typically, debt consolidation lenders take care of paying off your creditors themselves, so you’ll rarely receive funds yourself.
The only that changes is to whom and how much you make your monthly payments. If it’s an option, consider setting up autopay — that way you won’t have to worry about making repayments.
Making the most out of debt relief
Debt relief companies can only do so much for their clients — it’s up to you to make it a smart financial move.
- Don’t take on any more debts. This isn’t much of an option for debt settlement or management clients, but if you have a debt consolidation loan, it might be tempting. Try paying off the debts you already have to avoid even more unmanageable debts.
- Watch your accounts and balances. It’s easy for things to go wrong with electronic or automated payments without you noticing anything unless you keep an eye on your accounts and balances.
- Stay in touch. Call your account manager — you get their direct number — or your point of contact at your lender if you have any questions or notice anything that doesn’t add up.
Bottom line
Accredited Debt Relief is an easy way to figure out what type of debt relief could work best for you without having to do much research before. Its staff has a reputation for being extremely knowledgable and more than one customer has said that it felt a lot better after using its services. If you’re leaning toward debt settlement, check out our review of Freedom Debt Relief first — it provides Accredited Debt Relief’s debt settlement services. Read more about how to find the right debt relief company on our debt relief guide.
I earn $400 per month so how much can be deducted from my salary ,if I borrow a loan of $5000
Hi Winnet,
Thanks for your question.
Your monthly repayment depends on the loan term. Fo example, using the loan calculator on the lender’s page, you will have an estimated monthly repayment of $59 if you get the maximum loan term of 4.5 years. But this is just an estimate and may also vary depending on your state.
You may want to directly get in touch with Accredited Debt Relief to get a free quote.
Cheers,
Anndy