Options For Making Your Payments In Tough Economic Times

By Author: Todd Moore
Total Articles: 26
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With the downturn in the economy, many people are now finding themselves out of work and facing the prospect of collecting employment insurance. As a result, many families are in financial difficulties because they do not have the income they need to meet their monthly payments. Even with one partner being out of work places a tremendous amount of strain on the finances. If you find yourself in a similar situation, you do need to know there is help available.

One of the options that you have is to take out a debt consolidation loan. This is a loan with which you can repay many of your bills leaving you with one lower monthly payment. When you get approval for such a loan you will have to stipulate which accounts you want to pay off with the money you borrow. The lender will actually take care of this for you so you won't have to contact each of your creditors individually. If you pay off credit cards in this manner, you should cut them up so that you won't be tempted to use them again and find yourself back where you started.

You do have to meet eligibility requirements in order to qualify for such a loan though. ...
... For one thing, you do need to have an income of some kind that the lender can verify. You will also have to supply a list of all your monthly bills, not just the ones you are repaying with the loan, so that the lender can determine whether or not you can afford the payments. In some cases, if the lender thinks you will have difficulty with the payments making you a bad risk, you may need to provide collateral or have a co-signer for the loan.

There are other steps you can take if you find that you don't meet the eligibility criteria for a debt consolidation loan. Debt counselling agencies will help you negotiate with your creditors to take a lower monthly payment - if that will help in some way. Another option is to have the debt counsellor take over your accounts for you. He/She will assess your financial situation to determine how much money you can pay on your bills each month. You pay this amount to the counsellor and he/she will negotiate with the creditors distributing a percentage of your payment to each one.

When all else fails, you may have to file for bankruptcy. This is a very huge step to take and one that will remain with you for a very long time. The good news is that in bankruptcy proceedings, you can choose what you will give up and what you will keep. If you can keep up with your mortgage payments, for example, then you can keep your home. However, your borrowing power is gone for some time in the future and you will have a very poor credit rating.
Todd Moore is the owner of the credit help Wwebsite. At their website, you can learn more about free reverse phone lookup as well as many other things relating to the industry. We encourage you to visit our site today and see what we have.