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Debt Consolidation and its advantages

Posted by | Posted in Debt Management | Posted on 13-07-2010

Introduction

There are a number of different financial procedures available to a person in today’s modern financial world and one of the most important and interesting things about that is that the person that is aware of and uses all of the tools available to them is ultimately the person that is going to succeed. With as difficult as the world has become today from the point of view of handling one’s finances, the management of debt is definitely something that people should take a look at as well as the procedures that are available to help those same people get out of debt problems. One of the procedures is something known as debt consolidation and more information about debt consolidation is presented below.

Debt Consolidation

So what exactly is debt consolidation? Well, when you look at the different parts of the financial spectrum, what you immediately see is that for the average person in today’s world, there are a number of different sources of debt. When you take a look at things like debt from credit cards, debt from a mortgage, debt from car loans, debt from monthly bills and any other number of sources of debt that can exist in a person’s life, you can see how it would quite easily get to the point where the person would feel overwhelmed and not have a clue as to what they should actually do.

Well, one thing that these people can do is take out a loan that they can use to pay off all of their other sources of debt and therefore combine or consolidate them into one specific source of debt. Ultimately, this is the type of debt that is the easiest to manage and the type of debt that is the easiest to pay off. It is a scientifically proven fact that debt consolidation is quite frequently the easiest way for a person to get their debt into a position where they would be able to pay it off.

Advantages

There are a number of different advantages inherent to debt consolidation; the first of which was already mentioned briefly above. Paying debt off is easier when that debt is consolidated. From a logistical standpoint, this is specifically because keeping track of one source of debt or at the most two sources of debt is a lot easier than keeping track of five or six sources of debt and therefore when you have a lower amount of sources, keeping track is easier and ultimately paying it off becomes easier as well.

In addition to the logistical concerns, there are also financial concerns when it comes to debt. The most common way to consolidate debt would be a home loan and as we all know (or at least most of us do anyway), home loans have very low interest rates. Going from a 19.5% interest rate on a credit card to a 5.5% interest rate on a home loan is definitely something that could be considered great for a person. In addition to that, paying off the loan will also take lower amounts of payments each month. This is because of the lower monthly payments associated with home loans.

5 Reasons Why You Should Eliminate Credit Card Debt

Posted by | Posted in Debt Management | Posted on 12-09-2009

1.Credit card companies can change almost all of the terms of the credit card by giving just 15 days notice.

We get used to credit card companies adjusting their lending rate by 14% as interest rates fluctuate but did you know they can alter any of the terms for any reason. For example they can increase the late payment fee and they can increase the interest rate without the need to justify it. If you are late or miss just one payment the low rate you are currently being charged can double or even treble almost overnight.

2.Credit card companies can increase the cost of a purchase months after you bought it.

If you purchased a widescreen plasma TV 3 months ago, using a card which at the time was costing 9.9% apr, and you are late with just one payment, the credit card company can charge you a late payment fee, say £40, and increase the interest rate to 29.9% apr, or even more, and there is nothing you can do about it.

They can, in effect, increase the cost of your TV months, or possibly even years after you purchased it. The TV retailer wouldn’t be allowed to do this but your credit card company can.

3.Discount offers are only good if you keep up all your payments.

Interest free balance transfers and initial periods can dissapear for any minor omission. Failure to keep to all the terms of a card will result in special terms being withdrawn and possible penalty interest being applied. If you have interest free purchases and balance transfers make sure you keep up the payments.

4.It’s not just your card payments you have to keep up.

If you miss a payment on your mortgage, or your car or any other financial payment, your credit card companies can re-assess your credit score and increase your interest rate accordingly.

If you therefore miss a loan payment on your boat or car, but still pay the payments due on your cards, you can find that your credit card interest charges jump to 2 or 3 times the original rate.

5.Credit card companies are today making record profits from you.

If you don’t pay your cards in full each month credit card companies make the majority of their profits from you and a substantial portion of that is in the additional charges they levy.

It makes little or no sense to keep money in the bank earning 5% maximum and pay 29.9% or 19.9% or even 9.9% on your cards. Pay off the card and use the card for emergencies rather than the savings. Without the card payments you will be able to rapidly replace the savings.

Without your knowing credit card companies can hold you hostage at the very time you may really need financial assistance. Don’t allow credit card companies the continuing opportunity to make record profits at your expense, and at the same time the opportunity to benefit from any misfortune.

If you can pay the balance off withing 3 to 6 months do so otherwise consider some form of consolidation loan to remove the noose credit card companies have around your neck.