How the Site Works: Ascend's mission is to take the pain out of personal finance for everyone. Not everyone who comes to our site is currently best fit for the Ascend product, so we spend a great deal of time and effort finding partners that we hope will be beneficial to you.
How We Make Money: Our partners sometimes compensate us in the way of advertising. Some partners we recommend pay us referral fees for sending them new customers. If you click through an application link on our site and end up receiving the service, we may receive compensation when your application is approved, and you move forward with this product. Each partner is vetted based on the following criteria:
We prioritize lower interest rate providers.
We prioritize those who do not penalize checking your rate or have prepayment penalties.
We prioritize those that are customer experience focused. We measure this by the reviews on more unbiased review sites.
Debt Independence Reviews: Is this Debt Relief Program the Best Option?
This article is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as legal or financial advice.
Have you seen the Debt Independence social media ad below and wondered what the company's reviews say?
I recently saw an ad featuring a man claiming that you should never enroll in debt consolidation, arguing that it’s not real debt relief. Instead, he shares that two years ago, he joined something called the "Emergency Debt Relief Program." Now, according to him, he’s completely debt-free, has a 701 credit score, has saved $5,000 and counting, and expects to have multiple five figures in savings by the end of the year (2024). If you click the blue 'Sign up' button, you'll be taken to the website of a company called Debt Independence.
Let's Take Their Survey
To start, the opening question asks if you worked during the pandemic - if so that you may be eligible for emergency debt relief immediately, and that it will only take 15 seconds to see if you qualify. This is an interesting contrast, since nothing similar to this question was mentioned in the social media ad.
Use the slider to select how much debt you currently owe.
If Less Than $8k in Debt
If you choose that you have less than $8k in debt, you’ll be sent to TurboDebt.
If Over $8K in Debt
But if you select that you have over $8k in debt, you'll be taken to the next question, which asks if you’re currently paying on your debt.
Then it’ll ask what state you're residing in.
Finally, it’ll say that you qualify and to click to see your results after you provide your name, email, and phone number.
You’re then taken to a chatbot to discuss your results, and that will ultimately try to book an appointment for you to chat with one of their reps.
I do want to note that one of the times when I clicked the 'Get My Results' button on mobile, it skipped taking me to the chatbot, and instead said I may be eligible for a free iPhone while I wait for one of their reps to give me a call. (I didn't click this button for obvious reasons.)
Debt Independence Reviews
No reviews for Debt Independence can be found when I check Google.
But they do have a Facebook page that hasn't been active since 2023.
Additionally, you can find only positive reviews on their website's homepage, that say they're coming from Google. But when I click on the Google rating icon at the top, nothing happens.
TurboDebt and National Debt Relief
As I mentioned previously, I could not find anything that showed where to access the Google reviews linked on their homepage, so I went through 11 pages of reviews (out of 167)... In those 11 pages, I found 11 reviews that name TurboDebt and 2 reviews that mention National Debt Relief. Fun fact: National Debt Relief owns TurboDebt.
We've written about both TurboDebt and National Debt Relief in the past, I'll include links to those articles below if you'd like to check them out:
If you're looking for a debt consolidation loan, feel free to take our free debt consolidation loan calculator below! No personal information is required unless you want to provide it.
Using this calculator, you'll find three different debt consolidation loan options, along with an estimate cost for alternative debt consolidation methods, such as non-profit credit counseling (which helps lower interest rates through an agency).
What About Non-Profit Credit Counseling?
One of the options the calculator above provides is non-profit credit counseling, which can be helpful if you don't qualify for a loan. Non-profit counseling is a free or low-cost option where you're paired with a credit counselor to help you understand your debt and create a plan to help you lower your payments and interest rates.
Here's a video explaining that option:
Closing Thoughts
In conclusion, Debt Independence is a debt relief company associated with TurboDebt and National Debt Relief.
While debt relief can be one helpful option, it isn't the only option you have, and unfortunately you can't trust every social media ad out there. We know it can be overwhelming, but we'd encourage you to explore all of your options to make the most informed decision for your specific debt situation and to find the company that has your best interest in mind.
We'd love to chat through your options with you! Please feel free to give us a call at 833-272-3631 to discuss any questions you may have!
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