Freedom Financial, now operating under the name Achieve, is a debt settlement company that negotiates with your creditors to reduce the total amount you owe. The basic idea: you stop paying your creditors directly, save money in a dedicated account instead, and Achieve’s negotiators use that cash to offer your creditors lump-sum payoffs at a discount. Programs typically run two to four years, and fees range from 15% to 25% of your total enrolled debt.
Debt settlement is one of the riskier ways to deal with overwhelming debt, and understanding exactly how the process works, what it costs, and what can go wrong will help you decide whether it makes sense for your situation.
The Step-by-Step Process
The program starts with a free consultation where a representative reviews your debts, income, and financial situation. If you qualify, they’ll recommend a monthly deposit amount and estimate how long the program will take. You’re not locked in at this stage.
Once you enroll, three things happen simultaneously. First, you stop making payments to your creditors on the debts you’ve enrolled. This is a critical part of the strategy: creditors become more willing to accept a reduced payoff when they believe collecting the full amount is unlikely. Second, you start making regular deposits (monthly or biweekly) into a dedicated savings account that you own. This account is typically held at a third-party bank, and while Achieve manages the negotiations, the money remains yours. Third, Achieve begins contacting your creditors to negotiate settlements, usually once enough money has accumulated in your account to make a credible offer.
When Achieve reaches a settlement with one of your creditors, they contact you with the terms. You have to approve the deal before any money leaves your account. If you agree, the funds are sent from your dedicated account to the creditor, and that debt is considered resolved. The process repeats for each enrolled debt until all accounts are settled or the program ends.
Who Qualifies
Achieve enrolls people carrying between $7,500 and over $100,000 in unsecured debt. The types of debt the program can work with include credit cards, department store cards, medical debt, most personal loans, lines of credit, collections accounts, some payday loans, and some private student loan debt.
Debts the program cannot help with include federal student loans, tax debt, utility bills, active lawsuits, and any secured loan like a car loan or home equity line of credit. If most of your debt falls into the ineligible category, this program won’t be useful.
What It Costs
Achieve charges a fee of 15% to 25% of your total enrolled debt. The exact percentage depends on factors like the amount of debt, the types of accounts, and your state of residence. Importantly, these fees are built into your monthly program deposit, so there’s no separate bill. There are no upfront membership fees or sign-up costs.
Here’s what that looks like in practice: if you enroll $30,000 in debt and your fee rate is 20%, you’d pay $6,000 in fees over the life of the program. That $6,000 comes out of the same dedicated account where you’re saving for settlements. So your monthly deposits need to cover both the settlement offers and the company’s fee.
Under federal rules, debt settlement companies cannot charge you a fee on a particular debt until they’ve actually settled it and you’ve approved the agreement. This means fees are collected as settlements are completed, not upfront.
How It Affects Your Credit
Enrolling in a debt settlement program will cause significant damage to your credit score. Because the program requires you to stop making payments on enrolled accounts, those accounts will be reported as delinquent to the credit bureaus. If you were current on your payments before enrolling, the drop can be especially steep.
Each month of missed payments adds another negative mark. Late payments stay on your credit report for seven years. Settled accounts also appear on your report with a notation that the debt was settled for less than the full balance, which future lenders view negatively compared to accounts paid in full.
The credit damage is not permanent, and many people who complete a settlement program see their scores recover over the following years as they rebuild their payment history. But during the program and for some time after, expect limited access to new credit and higher interest rates on any credit you do qualify for.
The Risk of Lawsuits and Growing Balances
When you stop paying creditors, they don’t just wait patiently. Interest and late fees continue to pile up on your accounts, which means the total amount you owe can actually grow while you’re saving toward a settlement. If negotiations take longer than expected, or if a creditor refuses to settle, you could end up owing more than when you started.
Creditors also have the legal right to sue you for the unpaid balance. A lawsuit can result in a court judgment, which in many states gives creditors the ability to garnish your wages or place a lien on your property. Achieve cannot guarantee that creditors won’t take legal action during the negotiation period, and this risk increases the longer debts remain unpaid.
The Company’s Regulatory History
The company has faced regulatory scrutiny. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) filed a lawsuit alleging that Freedom Debt Relief (the company’s former name) violated federal rules by charging advance fees before settling debts, failing to inform consumers of their rights to the funds in their dedicated accounts, and misleading consumers about the company’s fees and its ability to negotiate with all of their creditors. The company settled the lawsuit, agreeing to pay $20 million in restitution to affected consumers and a $5 million civil penalty.
This history doesn’t necessarily mean the company operates the same way today, but it’s worth knowing that these practices were serious enough to trigger federal enforcement action.
What Debts You’ll Owe Taxes On
There’s a cost many people overlook: taxes. When a creditor forgives more than $600 of your debt through a settlement, the forgiven amount is generally considered taxable income by the IRS. If you owed $10,000 and settled for $5,000, the remaining $5,000 may be reported as income on your tax return for that year. Depending on your tax bracket, this can add up to a meaningful bill. There is an exception if you can demonstrate that you were insolvent (your total debts exceeded your total assets) at the time of the settlement, which allows you to exclude some or all of the forgiven debt from your taxable income.
How Long the Program Takes
Most debt settlement programs through Achieve run between 24 and 48 months. The timeline depends on how much debt you’ve enrolled, how much you can deposit each month, and how quickly creditors agree to settle. Some debts may settle within the first year if enough funds accumulate, while others might not resolve until near the end of the program.
You can leave the program at any time and keep whatever money remains in your dedicated account. If you drop out, you’ll still owe the remaining unsettled debts, plus any interest and fees that accumulated while payments were paused. You won’t owe additional settlement fees on debts that were never settled.