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Thursday, September 3, 2009

Debt Consolidation 101

By Spencer Isaac

With the current global economic crises most people are looking for a way to improve their situations by consolidating their debts. Our goal is to help you know if debt consolidation really works and if you can benefit by consolidating your debts. Also you need to know how not to be scammed and how consolidating debt will effect your credit.

Debt consolidation usually transfers debt rather then eliminating it. Loans that can be consolidated typically include credit cards, student loans, retail credit, home loans and car loans. Typically people use debt consolidation to roll their smaller payments into one larger payment. they may also want to extend the life off the loan to bring their payment amounts. The most practical type of debt consolidation rolls existing debts into a home mortgage or variable interest line of credit on your home. In a way, you are just borrowing money from one creditor to pay off another.

Although the main purpose in doing debt consolidation is to lower payments, it is important to note that most forms of debt consolidation may actually increase the amount of interest you pay on your loan over time. Refinancing a house at a lower interest after five years may lower your payment slight but it may add another five year on the back of your loan.

Take great care in choosing to work with a debt consolidation company. Some make lofty promises like 'pay back only a fraction of what you owe' or 'government tarp money is here to bail you out' The reason why so many people advertise is because they make so much money off of you. Most of the time you can do most of the things they do for free and you can have a lot more control over how these things affect your credit if you put yourself in charge.

Here another tip, avoid adjustable rate line of credits or loans with balloon payments. These can be a lot more trouble then they are worth and make it harder for you to make your payments in the future.

Debt consolidation is a serious step. At best it is only a temporary fix to a bigger problem. You should find out as much as you can about debt consolidation before proceeding.

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