Debt Plan Services, Inc works with people in Utah County who are behind on unsecured debt. This industry has a poor reputation, much of it deserved, so we start where an honest conversation has to start — with the rules, the risks, and the free options you should exhaust before paying a company anything.
Five checks. Apply them to us as well
Who we are
Debt Plan Services, Inc is based on State Street in Orem, Utah County. We work with people carrying unsecured debt — credit cards, medical bills, personal loans — who have reached the point where the minimum payments no longer make a dent.
Debt relief has a bad name, and pretending otherwise would be insulting. Companies in this sector have charged fees for work never done, promised outcomes they could not deliver, and left people worse off than when they started. Regulators wrote rules about it precisely because so many firms behaved that way.
So we would rather be judged on what we tell you before you commit. That means the free options first, the risks stated plainly, and no fee unless a debt is actually settled. If that costs us the customers who wanted to be told what they hoped to hear, we can live with it.
Anyone who tells you this is painless is either mistaken or selling. It works, sometimes, and it costs something every time.
Nothing charged until a debt is settled
Explained before any agreement is discussed
Nonprofit counseling, and how to do it yourself
Serving Utah County
Your options
The first three cost nothing or very little and should be exhausted before anybody is paid a fee. We have listed them first for that reason.
Sometimes the arithmetic works with changes nobody wanted to make. Unglamorous, free, and the only route with no downside at all. It should always be examined before anything else.
Free counseling is available from nonprofit agencies, and a debt management plan through one often lowers interest rates without the credit damage settlement causes. Try this before paying a for-profit company.
Creditors have hardship programmes and will often negotiate directly with a customer who calls before defaulting. It costs a few uncomfortable phone calls and no fee whatsoever. Many people never try it.
Replacing several debts with one at a lower rate, if you can still qualify for credit. It does not reduce what you owe, and it only helps if the new rate is genuinely lower and the spending that created the debt has stopped.
Negotiating with creditors to accept less than the full balance. It can genuinely reduce what you owe. It also damages credit, invites lawsuits and can create a tax bill — see the section below before considering it.
For some situations it is the right answer, and finding that out costs a consultation. A settlement company that never mentions this option is not giving you the full picture, whatever its reasons.
The risks
These are not fine print. They are the ordinary, expected consequences of the settlement process, identified by federal consumer regulators. If a company has not walked you through all four before asking you to enrol, you are not being advised — you are being sold to.
Settlement programmes typically involve stopping payments to creditors while money accumulates for a negotiation. Those missed payments are reported, the accounts go delinquent, and the effect on your credit lasts years. Any firm suggesting otherwise is not telling you the truth.
Creditors are under no obligation to wait while you save. They may continue adding interest and late fees, and they may sue for the full balance before any settlement is reached. Enrolling in a programme does not stop that from happening.
Under IRS rules, debt forgiven above a threshold is generally reported as income to you on a Form 1099-C. A debt settled for half its balance can therefore produce a tax bill on the forgiven half. Plan for it, and speak to a tax professional rather than assuming.
No creditor is required to settle, and some simply will not. Programmes commonly run two to four years, and fees are typically a substantial percentage of enrolled debt or of the amount saved. If a creditor refuses throughout, you have taken the credit damage without the benefit.
How it works
What you owe, to whom, and what actually comes in each month.
Including the free ones and the ones that do not involve us.
Credit, lawsuits, tax and timeline — before anything is signed.
Fees only after a debt is actually settled, never before.
FAQ
Get in touch
What you owe, to whom, and what comes in each month. There is no fee to have the conversation, and it may well end with us pointing you toward a free service instead. That is a perfectly good outcome.