3 Step Divorce Review – Instantly Print & Sign Your Divorce Papers?

3StepDivorce is the oldest divorce site reviewed on this website. Owned by Divorce Source (a company specializing in providing divorce services) and founded in 1997, 3StepDivorce has been offering affordable and fast divorce forms for over 20 years.

3StepDivorce has spent decades developing and improving upon their technology that greatly simplifies the process of obtaining an uncontested divorce online (with or without children). To date, 3StepDivorce claims to have generated over 750,000 divorce papers.

Divorce papers are available in the United States. At the time of the writing of this review, 3StepDivorce is not available to residents residing in the following states:

• Arkansas
• Mississippi
• Missouri
• North Carolina
• Rhode Island
• Washington, DC

3StepDivorce has an iron-clad 100% money back guarantee. If your papers are not satisfactory to the court upon filing them, 3StepDivorce will issue a no questions asked refund.

Customer support is available during normal business hours. 3StepDivorce offers real live customer support over a toll free telephone number, by e-mail or by a live chat system.

Overview of the simple three-step process

3StepDivorce lets you instantly prepare state and county specific divorce paperwork after answering a few brief non-legal questions. After these questions have been fully answered, your divorce papers are available immediately for you to download, print, sign and file.

3StepDivorce's three step process goes like this:

1. Pre-requisite questions to qualify

Before you can create your account, you must answer a few questions to confirm your divorce will qualify. These questions will include:

• What is your current state of residence?
• Can you locate your spouse?
• Do you have children under the age of 18 (from this marriage)?
• Do you and your spouse agree on all issues pertaining to this divorce?
• Are you and/or your spouse currently active duty military?

Based on your answers to these initial questions, 3StepDivorce will confirm that its service is available to you.

2. Answer a brief questionnaire consisting of non-legal questions

In order to prepare your divorce documents that you will ultimately print/sign/file, you will need to answer a brief series of non-legal questions. These questions can be answered at your leisure. These questions are broken down into the following categories:

• Spouse information
• Marriage information
• Child information
• Military status
• Martial residence
• Property and debt
• Spousal support

In total, it should take no longer than 20 minutes to fill out all the answers. If you would like to answer some questions now and other questions at a later time (such as when your spouse is around) you can save your answers in-between and resume without losing the answers to questions you already answered.

3. Download, print and sign your paperwork

After answering completing the questionnaire, your divorce paperwork will be created. Their system does this instantly. Once generated, you can download (in Adobe PDF format), print, sign and then file with your state court.

If you wish, you can have the final forms physically sent to you via snail mail. The only carrier offered is USPS Priority Mail. This is offered completely free of charge and does not cost anything extra.

Compatibility (computers, smartphones and tablets)

3StepDivorce is fully compatible with computers, laptops, tablets and mobile smartphones. This includes Windows, OSX, Google Android and Apple iOS. To access your account, you will need an internet connected device with a modern web browser (such Google Chrome, Apple Safari, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Windows Internet Explorer, etc).

What else is included with every purchase

Beyond providing you with court-ready divorce paperwork, 3StepDivorce includes numerous freebies with every purchase. These are included at no extra cost to you.

At the time of this review, the included extras breakdown as follows:

Access to the Divorce Negotiation Center

Unique to 3StepDivorce, this tool saves you time and money by allowing you to settle disputes between you and your spouse. This innovative tool is a nice added bonus, as you will not have to hire an expensive attorney to settle disputes between you and your spouse.

Child custody, visitation and support tracking software

If you have children in this marriage, you will be advised by courts, judges and lawyers to carefully track visitation, custody and child support payments. There are services you can buy that carry a monthly fee, but 3StepDivorce includes this for free.

With the innovative tool, you will be able to keep track of every visitation and every child custody payment. These records could be invaluable should ever need them.

Total access to the divorce encyclopedia

Filing for divorce can be complex as the process contains much legalese. 3StepDivorce offers an integrated encyclopedia that allows you to instantly pull up the definition of a particular word and what it means within the context of divorce. The encyclopedia will cross reference similar terms, allowing you to really drill down definitions to words and sentences.

Name change notification kit (for wife)

Upon filing for divorce, you wife will want to revert her name back to her maiden name. 3StepDivorce includes a Name Change Notification kit which will you in in filing the appropriate legal documents with the proper agencies and authorities.

Access to quick answers from real lawyers

When you create your account at 3StepDivorce, it integrates seamlessly with JustAnswer Legal. From within your account, you can instantly ask real lawyers legal questions about your divorce. All questions will be answered by a family law attorney at a significant discount.

Access to the divorce download center

The divorce download center is a comprehensive resource of downloadable material related to divorces. This includes over 40 electronic books and tons of research manuals.

Security and privacy considerations

3StepDivorce understands that you have to supply them with your personal sensitive information. Because of that, 3StepDivorce has invested heavily in their security infrastructure to protect your data. They house their data in an A+ bank-grade secure facility that surpasses all state and federal laws for storing sensitive data.

All communications are processed over a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) which fully implements 256-bit encryption. On a daily basis, both the 3StepDivorce website and its secure facilities (where data is stored) are scanned extensively for vulnerabilities by McAfee to ensure that there are no entry-points for malicious hackers to breach their system.

Customer reviews and user ratings (independently verified)

3StepDivorce is very transparent with user reviews. They utilize a third party verification system called TrustPilot which verifies all reviews posted come from real customers. Here is a sample of some of the user feedback I found:

Customer support and assistance after purchase

For post-purchase customer support and assistance, 3StepDivorce offers customer support over the telephone (via a toll free number), via e-mail or by live chat.

Toll-free telephone support

Toll free customer support is available 9am – 5pm EST (Monday through Friday)

E-mail and live chat support

Online based customer support via e-mail and live chat is available 24/7 but it can take up to 24 hours to receive a response.

My experience with 3StepDivorce: I used it to end my marriage

When I filed for divorce the first time, my ex-wife and I we were unaware that services existed that provided divorce paperwork online. As a result, we ended up seeking counsel from a local Family Law attorney that had high ratings.

Given that my ex-wife and I agreed on everything, there wasn’t much for the attorney to do other than create the paperwork and file it with the state. It was all standard boiler-plate.
When it was all said and done, it cost me roughly $5,000.00 (at the time I thought I got out cheap, but that definetely wasn’t the case as I would soon learn later on).

Fast forward to my second divorce and a close friend mentioned a service he had used with great success (the service he used is no longer in business). I decided to take a look at what services were out there and was blown away at how cheap it was to get the same exact divorce paperwork that I had paid big bucks for previously.

Ultimately, after a week or so of research and deliberation, I decided to go with 3 Step Divorce. I settled on 3 Step Divorce for a few select reasons:

• Cheapest all-in-one, all inclusive service I could find that also stood by their service by offering a satisfaction guarantee
• Generous $50 cash rebate if you file your divorce same day
• You can make unlimited revisions to your divorce paperwork
• There are thousands of independently verified reviews that are overall positive (unlike the majority of other online divorce services)
• 3 Step Divorce maintains an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau (BBB)
• Satisfaction guarantee with every order
• Name change form (for my ex-wife) and instructions were included
• Toll free telephone support (I generally prefer to talk to someone on the phone in the event I need assistance)
• If desired, 3StepDivorce will send hard-copies of every one of your divorce documents via USPS Priority Mail for no additional charge. I couldn't find another service that includes this feature for free.

Similar to my first divorce, my second ex-wife and I agreed on everything so I didn’t expect there to be much to it. I spent about 15 minutes answering each of the questions in the initial questionnaire. I had to track down the answers to a few questions, but overall, it was painless and self-explanatory.

I did notice that 3StepDivorce offered an integrated live chat help system within the questionnaire. If you have a question or unsure how to answer something, you can ask someone for help on the spot. I didn't need to utilize this feature, but it's certainly nice to know it's available.

After I answered all the questions, my divorce paperwork was created and immediately made available for me to download and print.

The forms you will need to file for divorce will vary by state. Based on the answers I supplied, 3StepDivorce automatically created the following divorce forms specific to my state of residence:

• Detailed State Filing Instructions (for New Hampshire)
• Personal Data Sheet
• Joint Petition for Divorce
• Permanent Agreement
• Schedule for Visitation/Parenting Time of Minor Children
• Appearance and Waiver of Service
• Financial Affidavit (Husband)
• Financial Affidavit (Wife)
• Child Support Worksheet
• Child Support Schedule
• Uniform Support Order
• Declaration Under the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act
• Notice of Hearing
• Decree of Divorce

After downloading each of the forms and printing them out, my ex-wife and I signed each document where instructed to. From there, I filed the papers with my state court. They reviewed the documents, found no errors and accepted them without any hiccups. I paid the court filing fee of $125 and I was on my way.

The entire process was fast and I didn't run into any problems filing my paperwork with the state. Compared to the time and money I spent on an attorney originally, the savings were significant.

All said and done, I paid $299 for the divorce forms and $125 for the court filing fee. I spent a grand total of $424 to end my marriage and it was worth every penny!

3StepDivorce's pricing and rebates

3StepDivorce offers a variety of ways for you to pay for their service. I have outlined these various payment methods below:

Pay one-time fee of $299 (cheapest option)

The cheapest way to pay for 3StepDivorce is to pay a one-time fee of $299. This fee covers the entire cost of the service.

3StepDivorce accepts all major credit cards: Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover. In addition to credit cards, they also accept PayPal.

Flexible monthly payments (pay over time)

Unlike other divorce services, 3StepDivorce offers pay over time flexible monthly payment options. This means that you can make payments over two, three or four months. The pay-over-time flexible payment pricing breaks down as follows:

• 2 monthly payments of $157. Total cost is $314 ($15 more than if you pay up front)
• 3 monthly payments of $109. Total cost is $327 ($28 more than if you pay up front)
• 4 monthly payments of $84. Total cost is $336 ($37 more than if you pay up front)

It's important to note that if you decide to take advantage of the flexible monthly payment option, it will not impede your ability to create and download your forms. You will have the exact same functionality as if you were to buy the service up front.

Get a $50 cash rebate for same day filing

If you intend to file your divorce quickly, you may be eligible for a $50 rebate from 3StepDivorce. The way it works is you must file your divorce with the court within one business day after your order.

When you submit your forms to the court, the documents will be time stamped (by the court). You simply need to contact 3StepDivorce and provide them with a scan of the time stamped document proving you filed the documents (tip: take a picture of the document with your smart phone and email the picture to 3StepDivorce). Once 3StepDivorce receives your scan/picture, they will then send you a $50 cash rebate via postal mail.

If taken advantage of, it would bring the total cost of the service down to $249. 3 Step Divorce is the only divorce service I could find that offers a discount of any kind (on top of a satisfaction guarantee).

The bottom line

3StepDivorce earns my top recommendation. They offer a simple, reliable and affordable alternative to spending thousands of dollars on a lawyer. Having used this divorce service personally to end my second marriage, I can confirm they stand behind their product and deliver accurate divorce paperwork.

Between its satisfaction guarantee, its guaranteed court-approved documents and help available over a toll free telephone number, it's easy to see why they are the number one choice and have helped over 750k people generate their divorce documents online.