About Debt Literacy Center
Mission
Consumer debt advice has a structural problem. Nearly every source explaining your options is also a party to the transaction. Creditors, settlement companies, counseling agencies, and attorneys all have a preferred outcome before you've described your situation. Debt Literacy Center was founded to separate the explanation from the sale.
What we do
Every figure on this site traces to a named, checkable source: a government dataset, an academic study, a court record, or a company's own disclosure. Before anything is published, we verify the source still says what we're citing it for and that the number hasn't been superseded.
What we don’t do
We don't name a single option as best for everyone, because the right answer depends on your balance, your income, and what you can realistically sustain. We don't publish a figure we can't trace to a named source, and we don't take a position that source doesn't support.
How we handle industry incentives
Every path compared here sits inside an industry with its own way of getting paid. Settlement companies charge a share of the debt enrolled. Credit counseling agencies have historically drawn part of their revenue from the same creditors they negotiate with. Bankruptcy attorneys charge for a filing whether or not it's the cheapest option available to you. We report each of these funding structures the same way, for every industry covered here, rather than singling one out.
Corrections
Costs, rates, and program terms change. When a figure goes out of date or a source is superseded, we update it and note the change.
