# Debt relief commercial **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 22, 2025, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debt-relief-commercial/1013266 "2025-01-22T20:44:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2025, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debt-relief-commercial/1013266/1 "2025-01-22T20:44:43Z")
I’ve seen this commercial numerous times but still don’t remember the debt relief service name. But that shouldn’t matter as the question I have is about the hapless over-spender. He claims to have $47,000 in debt that would take 59 years to pay off. The service manages to drop that to $27,000. At any rate what kind of interest and monthly payments does this guy have to take that long to pay off? ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2025, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debt-relief-commercial/1013266/2 "2025-01-22T20:56:08Z")
According to a ‘minimum payment’ calculator, 47,000 with 29% interest and a minimum payment of the interest plus 1% of the balance, it’ll take 43 years. So…higher interest or an even lower payment than that. ---
**Author:** ![Sigene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df788c/32.png) [@Sigene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigene)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2025, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debt-relief-commercial/1013266/3 "2025-01-22T20:57:01Z")
I don’t think you can answer this definitely without knowing either interest or monthly payments. You can go to ‘loan calculator’ sites and plug in $47000, and 59 years, and pick any interest rate to find what the monthly payments are. Examples: 6% will be a $242montly payment 20% will be a $783 monthly payment > **[Loan Calculator](https://www.calculator.net/loan-calculator.html)** > > Free loan calculator to find the repayment plan, interest cost, and amortization schedule of conventional amortized loans, deferred payment loans, and bonds. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2025, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debt-relief-commercial/1013266/4 "2025-01-23T14:07:58Z")
As indirectly pointed out above, the loan principal doesn’t really matter. On any credit card debt at the current (usurious) interest rates, making the minimum payment will take 40-50 years to pay off the balance. Or you can pay it off in a minute, _if_ you have the principal handy as loose cash to throw at the loan. They “years to pay off” is all about how much you can afford to pay each month. The debt service commercial is misleadingly using the minimum payment as a way to maximize the horror of the “before” case. After they get the lender to give some degree of debt write-off, _and_ get the debtor to pay far more than the minimum every month, miraculously the time to pay off drops from 50ish years to 5. With most of that heavy lifting being done by the greater monthly payment. Which if the debtor could afford after hiring these folks, they could also afford before hiring these folks. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2025, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debt-relief-commercial/1013266/5 "2025-01-23T15:39:57Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > The debt service commercial is misleadingly using the minimum payment as a way to maximize the horror of the “before” case. **After they get the lender to give some degree of debt write-off** , _and_ get the debtor to pay far more than the minimum every month, miraculously the time to pay off drops from 50ish years to 5. With most of that heavy lifting being done by the greater monthly payment. Which if the debtor could afford after hiring these folks, they could also afford before hiring these folks. Bolding a very important sentence that these services never tell you about. If there is a debt writeoff/write down, that is a big hit to your credit score. Hope you don’t need to buy a car, get a mortgage, or possibly rent a new place afterwards as that ding will cost you extra in your loan because of a higher interest rate. ---
**Author:** ![dougrb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/76d3ee/32.png) [@dougrb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougrb)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2025, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debt-relief-commercial/1013266/6 "2025-01-23T16:22:11Z")
Not a debt relief service, but after seeing one too many CashNetUSA commercials, I checked out their rates. 229% - 299% API. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2025, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debt-relief-commercial/1013266/7 "2025-01-23T16:24:00Z")
These places are quite scammy, sometimes outright scams. Because of their bad reputation creditors may refuse to work with them in debt reduction programs.