Sun 25 Sep 2011
Debt Consolidation is it the best way to get out of debt?
Posted by admin under Debt Consolidation, Debt Elimination
No Comments
One of the most commonly used practices to fight debt is Debt Consolidation. But is it the best path to take and will it achieve the desired results of getting out of debt.
The first thing to think about when addressing this question is what are you gaining by consolidating. Is it to reduce 4 payments down to 1 , certainly this of benefit but will it pay off in the long run? Are you doing for the reduced payment , but will the reduction in payment help you pay it off faster or hold you back.?
Lets address reducing your accounts from 4 to 1 , you will possible take combined payments of say 600 and reduce it to 400. Now due to the magical science of the consolidation this seems like a good deal right? WRONG and why is that not a good deal for you, because you now have a new loan at the maximum amount of interest costs to you. So having a lower payment will almost mean less is being applied to principal thus your debt will not necessarily go away any faster. It will also mean that the REAL costs to you may not be lower either, you first have to factor the cost of the consolidation itself.
Now as far as the reduced payment being your motivation, in many cases you may need this just to be able to afford your bills. Obviously this makes sense for you to do this but should be temporary and not to be considered final. What that means is you try and work on raising your payments as you can to increase your principal payments.
There are many dangers of consolidating debts into one account, most notably is that you have one large debt that will take you some time to eliminate. What usually happens is your car breaks, or your refrigerator goes south and now what… You need to whip out that credit card that you just consolidated balances from in the first place. So now you have to deal with the consolidation loan and the new balances on your credit card. This will now obviously have you now concentrating on multiple accounts again and the extra costs that this bring to your plate.
Now this doesn’t mean that debt consolidation cant work for you, but a lot of planning needs to go into the process. What will you do once you have consolidated to increase the principal payments, and what will you do to reduce the interest costs. I work with my customers them how to make their currents accounts more efficient before they even consider debt consolidation. Once you have the principals down on how to make your accounts efficient then a debt consolidation program will work to you favor.
So in conclusion would I consolidate debt.? Yes given the right circumstances. Using out of the box package of consolidating without the planning phase on how your going to take advantage of it the answer should be no. It is too dangerous to assume it will magically fix your issue on its own and still requires understanding an actions on your part.
This post was submitted by http://www.debt-elimination-services.net
