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Featured Debt Consolidation Articles

Debt and Bill Consolidation - Signs You Need To Consolidate Your Debt
If your debt is becoming difficult to get on top of, here are some questions to ask yourself to help you determine if you need some help managing or consolidating your debt. If you answer yes to any of these questions, you should probably consider ...

Debt Consolidation Loans - Defining the Pros and Cons of the Method.
Debt consolidation agencies allege that debt consolidation loans can help create savings for its customers by reducing the amount to be paid for debts. The manner in which this will be realised is not immediately comprehensible to most people. Why will a ...

Nurse your credit rating with debt counseling
The most important first step you should take is to admit that you have a financial problem. As soon as you do that, you have taken a very big leap towards positive debt counseling and will soon recover from your debt problems. As they always say, the ...




Should I Get a Consolidation Loan?
 
If you've got a really unmanageable amount of credit card debt, you might be considering a consolidation loan. A consolidation loan is a loan that you can use to pay off all your debts, meaning that you can pay them off for less money without having to worry about lots of different bills. Like anything, though, consolidation loans have their advantages and their disadvantages, and it pays to take a careful look at what they offer before you commit yourself.


The Interest Rate.


You should always shop around to get the best interest rate you can if you opt for debt consolidation. This interest rate is almost as important as the one on your mortgage, but much harder to change after you've signed on the dotted line. Don't be fooled by any offers that give you a good rate for a limited time – you're going to have this loan for quite a while.


That said, the chances are that any interest rate you're offered on a debt consolidation loan will be significantly lower than the interest rates you're currently paying on credit cards. If you have lots of cards at a high rate and you've had no luck transferring the balances, then debt consolidation could be a very good idea.


The Length of the Loan.


The most dangerous thing about debt consolidation loans is that the ones with lower payments generally last a very long time – you could be paying it off for twenty years, or even longer. You should try to find a loan that doesn't last as long, and asks for payments that are as much as you can afford. If you look at what your payments would be and think 'oh, how cheap!', the chances are you'd be signing up to them for a long time to come.


Look Out for More Cards.


One of the most dangerous things about getting a debt consolidation loan is that, since your credit cards have all been paid off, it can be tempting to accept the next few offers you get for new ones. After all, now you're saving all this money, you can afford a few more cards, can't you? Don't fall into this trap! Consolidating your debt and then running up more is an extremely bad idea.


You Could Lose Your Home.


Of course, this is the absolute number one most dangerous thing about debt consolidation. Almost without exception, the loan will be secured on your home. That means that if you start missing payments, the finance company will kick you out, take ('repossess') your house, sell it, and pay back the debt with that money.


There's a whole industry around property developers buying repossessed houses and selling them on for a profit. The chances are that you'll come out of it with nowhere near enough money left to buy even the smallest home, and nowhere to live. Just imagine that. If you do take a debt consolidation loan, you need to read the small print as if your life depended on it (it does), and then be very, very careful. Good luck.



About the Author

Ken Austin is the webmaster at Debt Consolidation Information and Credit Card Debt Relief




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Debt Consolidation News

How to make the best of a debt consolidation loan - MyFinances.co.uk
When you start finding it difficult to keep up with your monthly bills because you have so many different accounts to pay each month, it may be a good idea to consider a debt consolidation loan. Debt consolidation loans help you manage your debt ...

Adam Thomas Announces Referral Partnership With Debt Settlement ... - PR Inside
2009-01-05 09:58:51 - A good number of Canadian people are plagued with a huge debt burden. Top Mortgage Company Agent Adam Thomas from Invis Inc. has become a business referral partner with Debt Settlement Service Companies launching a new website ...

Gordon Brown’s Department of Debt Dialectic and Other Jobbies - Anorak
GORDON BROWN says “the world must work harder to avoid a two-year recession.” History teaches us that two years is not enough. We must strive for three, four and the dream of decade-long recession. Says the Sun: “He also unveiled plans for100 ...

Credit Card Companies Willing to Deal Over Debt - Times Daily
Hard times are usually good times for debt collectors, who make their money morning and night with the incessant ring of a phone. But in this recession, perhaps the deepest in decades, the unthinkable is happening: collectors, who usually do the ...

Attorneys: Bankruptcy on rise - Bowling Green Daily News
As the recession continues to plague bank accounts nationwide, local attorneys said bankruptcy filings increased in 2008. “What I’ve seen in the last year in our office, it’s doubled, tripled,” said Deanna Lancaster, paralegal for local ...