Debtors Anonymous
A twelve-step fellowship for people recovering from compulsive debting.
What the fellowship is
Debtors Anonymous is a fellowship for people whose common problem is compulsive debting. Its programme is to stop incurring unsecured debt one day at a time, and to build a life that fits inside what is actually earned.
What members describe
Not a checklist and not a diagnosis — just what people in DA commonly say brought them in.
- Credit, overdrafts or loans covering ordinary living costs
- Unopened post, unanswered calls, unchecked balances
- New debt taken on to service old debt
- Purchases and balances hidden from a partner
- Undercharging or underearning to the point of permanent crisis
Your first meeting
DA is practical and structured. It treats debt as a symptom rather than an arithmetic failure, and its tools are concrete: a Pressure Relief Group, a spending plan, and numbers said out loud to people who will not flinch.
Where 12Gradus fits
12Gradus is software for the sponsor, not a substitute for one and not part of any fellowship. Nothing here is affiliated with or endorsed by Debtors Anonymous.
A sponsee's profile records that they are in Debtors Anonymous and dates their clean time from their last compulsive debt. Daily check-ins, a self-reported urge score, high-risk days noted beside the chart, a rough-moment button that reaches the sponsor immediately, secure chat and a text bridge all work the same in every programme.
The step work is the part that does not. The built-in library is written for Gamblers Anonymous. A sponsor in DA assigns their own materials instead — which works, and is what sponsors have always done, but it is not the same as having DA's own step work in the app.