Debt consolidation means essentially taking out a single loan in order to pay off a range of your other loans. This is incredibly useful for those with debt problems for many reasons. Firstly this means that you don’t have to keep track of a range of different debts – you owe one company money and that’s all. Once you’ve paid off that loan you’re then free and there’s only one day each month when money comes out of your accounts. At the same time though debt consolidation also means that you can choose a loan with good interest rates. This interest rate might be better than those for the loans that you currently owed and that then means that you will be able to pay back a smaller total amount that you had to before. Often the debt consolidation company will also be able to offer you a more flexible loan repayment schedule too and this will mean that you can pay back the loan as and when is convenient and in smaller lump sums allowing you to generally forget about it.
If you are looking for debt consolidation companies for 2011 then, this might be a great way to save yourself some money and make the process of paying off debt simpler. However it’s important to shop around and to choose the best companies as in some cases you can end up paying a larger sum of money overall, while others have strict penalties for late payments. The good news is that 2011 is a good year to consolidate debt with the struggling economy means lower interest rates. As the economy improves this interest will rise, so the sooner you can consolidate the more benefits you will get to enjoy.
To get all of these benefits you need to look around and choose your debt consolidation company for 2011 well. This means choosing a company that has a low interest rate – and fixed interest rates that won’t increase, that is from a reputable and well known company to give you more comeback if things go wrong, that is lenient on late payments, and that is flexible with your loan repayment schedule.
In some cases you can make your interest rates lower by looking for a secure loan. This means that the loan will use one or multiple assets belonging to you (such as properties) as collateral. Thus if you are unable to pay your debt your home will then pay for the remainder this is a great way to make your debt consolidation for 2011 more affordable, but you should only consider this if you are certain you’ll be able to make the payments on time. If you are not certain you can afford to pay back your new loan and you get debt consolidation anyway, then you might risk losing your home. If turning your unsecured debt into a secured loan is an act of desperation then you should reconsider. Bear in mind that debt consolidation only addresses the symptoms of debt, not the root cause.
Lastly you need to think about the length of the loan you are taking out. Of course the longer you take the loan out for the more it will cost you in the long term, while shorter loans might be more difficult to manage on a monthly basis.
The following are some good debt consolidation companies worth investigating further. Make sure to check their terms and conditions and to think about what best suits your specific needs.
Some Good Debt Consolidation Companies
Debtmerica
Premier Debt Help
Freedom Debt Relief
Debt Settlement USA
Square One Debt Settlement
GHS Solutions
Credit Care Corporation
Note: You should also look into your debt repayment insurance – this is a good fail-safe for if you can’t make your repayments, but you should make sure to shop around for it and not just take the insurance offered to you by the debt consolidators as this is often not the best deal out there.
If you do decide to go with a debt consolidation company to consolidate your credit cards, cut them up. Or give to them to cut up. I had a friend who had lots of debt and she did this. She lowered her payments but the company never took her cards so she continued to use them. Duh on her part.
Why not consider a home equity loan to get your debt into control? Often HELOC have low interest rates. Right now I am paying only 4% on mine. A lot better than paying 20% if you ask me.
I have several credit cards. They have a higher interest rate. I am wondering if it would be good for me to combine all the cards onto one. I have about 5,000 in debt between four cards. Would this be an idea to do?
I only have one credit card. Years ago I got into trouble with a few and have now limited myself on what I can spend on credit cards. Back then I knew nothing about debt consolidation. I am not even sure if they had it.
I have never had to use debt consolidation. But it is wise to use if you have a lot of debt and want to get out. You have to want to get out of debt before you take that first step though. And so many people these days just do not care though.
I hope to never have to use debt consolidation. But it is a good thing for those who get themselves into trouble. But if they use it then they need to remember how easy it was to get into trouble in the first place. And cut those cards up.