Trust
How this site makes money
You should be suspicious of a free financial tool. Somebody paid to build it, and the honest question is always who — and what they got for it. So here it is in plain language.
Where things stand right now
DebtFree Calculators currently earns nothing. There are no ads running, no sponsors, no affiliate links and no partnerships. If that changes, this page changes with it — before the money starts, not after.
What we will take money for
Advertising. Ordinary display ads, in clearly marked slots, kept away from your results. Ads pay poorly compared to the alternatives, which is precisely why most calculator sites don't rely on them.
Referral links to lenders. If we send you to a credit union or bank and earn a commission, the link will say so where you click it. What we will not do is hand over your details so someone can call you — you go to them, on your own terms, or not at all.
Sponsorship of the newsletter. A named sponsor at the bottom of an email, disclosed as one. Sponsors get no say in what the calculators say and never receive the list.
Licensing the calculators. Credit unions, financial coaches and employers can pay to embed these tools on their own sites with their own branding. This is the model we'd most like to grow, because the people paying want the same thing you do: a calculator that tells the truth.
Want to work with us on one of those?
If you're a credit union, a bank, a financial coach, an employer running a financial-wellness program, or a brand whose product actually helps people get out of debt — get in touch. Tell us which of the four you have in mind and roughly what you're picturing.
One thing to know before you write: the promises further down this page are not negotiable, and they are part of every deal. No partner gets paid placement, influence over what a calculator says, access to the mailing list, or a single visitor's contact details. If that works for you, we'd genuinely like to hear from you.
What we won't do
Selling leads
The standard business model for free financial calculators is to collect your details and sell them to lenders — often several, which is why the calls start. It pays far better than advertising. We're not doing it, because a site that warns you about people buying your attention can't fund itself by selling yours.
"See if you pre-qualify" forms
The ones that ask for income, employment and the last four of your Social before showing a number. That is a loan application wearing a calculator's clothes.
Steering the math
Some sites quietly default to the loan product that pays them best — a longer term, a cash-out refinance, a consolidation loan. Every default on this site is set to be representative, and every assumption is written out at the bottom of the page so you can check it.
The promises, in one place
- Your numbers never leave your browser. Every calculation runs on your own device — there is no server to send them to, so there is nothing to leak, store, or sell.
- We will never sell or share your contact information with a lender, broker, or lead buyer. Not for a fee, not as a 'partner introduction', not ever.
- There is no form standing between you and a result. You never have to enter an email, a phone number, or a name to use anything on this site.
- Advertising is labeled, kept out of the results, and never sees what you typed. Ad networks receive a page view, not your balance.
- If a link ever earns us money, it says so on the link. Not in the footer, not in a disclosure page you have to go find — on the link itself.
- No paid placement in results, ever. What a calculator tells you will never depend on who is paying us.
If this saved you money
You owe us nothing. The calculators are free, there's no account, no paywall, and no locked feature — and that stays true whether you give a dollar or never think about this site again.
But if one of these pages talked you out of a bad loan or into an extra payment, and you feel like putting something in the tip jar, it goes straight into keeping the site independent — which is the whole reason the “what we won't do” list above can stay as long as it is.
There's no tip jar set up yet. If you want to say something in the meantime, an email is worth more than you'd think — knowing which pages actually helped is how the next one gets built.
- A donation buys nothing. No ad-free mode, no extra calculator, no priority anything.
- It is never asked for twice. No pop-up, no banner that follows you, no reminder in the results.
- It is not a subscription unless you deliberately choose one.
How to check any calculator site, including this one
Don't take our word for it — the same four tests work anywhere, and you should run them on us too.
- Does it ask for anything before showing a number? An email, a phone number, a ZIP code. If yes, the calculator is the bait.
- Does it publish its assumptions? Compounding, fees, what the math ignores. A site that hides its assumptions is hiding how far off it might be.
- Who benefits from the default settings? Defaults are an argument. Ask who wins if you just hit go.
- Is there a page like this one? Almost none of them have one. That absence is information.
If we ever break one of these
Tell us, publicly and loudly. A tool like this is worth exactly as much as its reputation, and we'd rather lose the revenue than the point.
Read the privacy details