Understanding Debt Consolidation

By Author: Alex Ivanov
Total Articles: 3764
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For some people, getting into debt is inevitable because of emergencies or other unforeseen events. But for the majority of us, getting into debt is a result of carelessness. Take this scenario, you hesitate to pay your car in cash because it seems like you would be spending an awful lot of money if this is the case, instead, you take advantage of a monthly offer from your credit card which gives you the option to pay a hundred dollars a month as an installment for your car. You decide that you are a responsible person anyway who earns a decent living from a good job.

Then suddenly, you see a credit card offer in the mail which gives interest-free loans on the first year of subscription. You decide that you cannot miss this opportunity, who has heard of an interest-free loan anyway? Pretty soon though, you noticed that you have half a dozen cards, each of which has an outstanding balance from all the items you bought. You discover that you are in financial trouble already because of all these debts and you have not yet paid the mortgage for your house. You need to get out of this rut and fast. One solution you can consider ...
... is debt consolidation.

The concept behind debt consolidation is basically consolidating all your debts into one so that it will have a much lesser interest rate and be easier to manage. You need to develop a workable budget in debt consolidation because it will enable you to get out of your financial situation. There are many advantages you can take advantage of in debt consolidation including:

1. Lower interest rate - the nature of debt consolidation is that you will only have one creditor instead of a dozen creditors. So for example, if you fail to pay several credit card payments, the finance charge will be compounded many times over. But if you only have one creditor, the interest would be significantly being less than that.

2. Term extension - taking advantage of debt consolidation will also allow you to have the option of paying off all your debts in a longer time frame. This will enable you to reduce the monthly payment to suit your budget.

3. Convenience- since you also have to pay a single creditor when you take advantage of loan consolidation, you will enjoy the convenience of not worrying about different due dates. You will also lessen the risk of accruing penalties if one due payment is even one day late.

However, before you do sign a debt consolidation contract because of its advantages, you also need to know about possible disadvantages you may encounter. One of the major disadvantages of joining a debt consolidation program is that people may have the concept that you are irresponsible so you got into debt in the first place. Meanwhile, other debtors see debt consolidation as the quick fix to their problems so they may get into the same kind of trouble in the future.

Overall though, taking advantage of debt consolidation can be a wise move if you have a lot of debts. But remember that the best solution to debt is not having an unmanageable amount of debt at all.