Consumer Credit Debt Consolidation - What Are Your Options?

2007-11-26T09:37:00.000-08:00

The average person carries about eight or nine credit cards! And if you have that many--or even more--you may be looking for a way to consolidate your debt into one, easy monthly payment. Fortunately, you have some options to consolidating your debt. You may want to consider:

A loan.

If you're a home owner, a Home Equity Loan, Home Equity Line of Credit or second mortgage is probably the least expensive way for you to borrow a lump sum of cash for debt consolidation. By tapping into the equity in your home, you can pay off your creditors so that you only have one creditor--your Home Equity lender--to worry about each month. If you're not a home owner, you might still be able to secure a relatively low interest rate personal loan if you use an item of value that you own as collateral, such as your car, your boat, stocks or bonds, or jewelry.

Another credit card.

Sure, the idea of getting yet another credit card might sound crazy and irresponsible. But the key is to sign up for a low interest card and then transfer ALL the balances from your old cards onto your new one. That way, you've consolidated all your credit cards onto a single one. And you don't have to sign up for a new account if you already have a card that has a zero balance plus low interest. In that case, you can simply transfer your other credit card balances to the low interest card you already own. Either way, it's a simple and relatively painless way to consolidate your debt.

Get professional help.

Can't qualify for a loan or a new credit card? It's possible you need professional assistance. Debt consolidation companies--also called debt management companies--can help you lower your interest rates, lower your minimum payments and consolidate your debt into one monthly bill. You can find a debt consolidation company by searching online, asking friends and family, or checking your local yellow pages.

No matter which choice you make, debt consolidation can help you get back in control of your financial life. By consolidating multiple credit card payments into one bill, you'll find it easier to make your monthly payment on time. Moreover, many debt consolidation options allow you to lower your interest rate and minimum payments, which can help you save money and pay off your debt faster.

By: Carrie Reeder
From: http://www.bestsyndication.com/

I hope it could help you. :)

Debt consolidation

2007-10-23T08:46:00.000-07:00

Debt consolidation entails taking out one loan to pay off many others. This is often done to secure a lower interest rate, secure a fixed interest rate or for the convenience of servicing only one loan.

Debt consolidation can simply be from a number of unsecured loans into another unsecured loan, but more often it involves a secured loan against an asset that serves as collateral, most commonly a house. In this case, a mortgage is secured against the house. The collateralization of the loan allows a lower interest rate than without it, because by collateralizing, the asset owner agrees to allow the forced sale (foreclosure) of the asset to pay back the loan. The risk to the lender is reduced so the interest rate offered is lower.

Sometimes, debt consolidation companies can discount the amount of the loan. When the debtor is in danger of bankruptcy, the debt consolidator will buy the loan at a discount. A prudent debtor can shop around for consolidators who will pass along some of the savings. Consolidation can affect the ability of the debtor to discharge debts in bankruptcy, so the decision to consolidate must be weighed carefully.

Debt consolidation is often advisable in theory when someone is paying credit card debt. Credit cards can carry a much larger interest rate than even an unsecured loan from a bank. Debtors with property such as a home or car may get a lower rate through a secured loan using their property as collateral. Then the total interest and the total cash flow paid towards the debt is lower allowing the debt to be paid off sooner, incurring less interest. In practice, many people are in credit card debt because they spend more than their income. If that habit continues, the consolidation will not benefit them much because they will simply increase their credit card balances again.

Because of the theoretical advantage that debt consolidation offers a consumer that has high interest debt balances, companies can take advantage of that benefit of refinancing to charge very high fees in the debt consolidation loan. Sometimes these fees are near the state maximum for mortgage fees. In addition, some unscrupulous companies will knowingly wait until a client has backed themselves into a corner and must refinance in order to consolidate and pay off bills that they are behind on the payments. If the client does not refinance they may lose their house, so they are willing to pay any allowable fee to complete the debt consolidation. In some cases the situation is that the client does not have enough time to shop for another lender with lower fees and may not even be fully aware of them. This practice is known as predatory lending. Certainly many, if not most, debt consolidation transactions do not involve predatory lending.

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Consumer Credit Debt Consolidation - What Are Your Options?

Debt consolidation

Debt consolidation entails taking out one loan to pay off many others. This is often done to secure a lower interest rate, secure a fixed interest rate or for the convenience of servicing only one loan.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia