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- By: MARK DAWSON
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If you are starting to struggle keeping up with your monthly repayments, possibly because you have so many different accounts to repay, or maybe your income is not sufficient to cover all your repayment requirements, now is the time to start looking at how a debt consolidation loan may be of assistance.If you have lots of high interest loans or credit cards, you derive great benefit from a debt consolidation loan. Not only will you save money from a lower interest rate, you will now only have to make one monthly repayment which makes managing your finances so much easier.
Another point to bear in mind is that if you have lots of and you can only afford to pay the minimum monthly amount required, you could be paying off those cards for the a very long time indeed. More often than not, the card companies design the minimum payment to repay all of the interest owed, but to pay very little off the actual capital balance. A previous article I wrote showed how it would take 97 years to clear a credit card debt of £5,000 by just paying the minimum monthly requirement.
So, you have decided that consolidating your debtsis the best way forward. What you need to do now is to sit down and write down all of your debts on a piece of paper. Add the name of the creditor, the total balance owed, what you currently pay each month, what the minimum payment is, and how much interest you pay.
Once you know how much you need to consolidate all your debts, the next thing to do is apply for the loan.
If you need less than £15,000 and have a good credit history, you should be able to apply to your bank. However. if you are already behind with some payments, then you will probably need to look for a company that specialises in debt consolidation loans, as they are usually able to provide loans for people with less than perfect credit records.
When you are offered a loan you may not be offered enough to clear all your debts. At this point, you will need to decide which loans would be the best ones to consolidate, and that the consolidation loan is actually going to be of benefit. If it is a high interest rate, it is possible that you may not be helping yourself out financially. You need to weigh up what the new loan will cost compared to what you are currently paying.
Having consolidated all of your debts, avoid racking up more debt on credit cards and loans before you have paid off your loan. Many people who get a debt consolidation loan later fall into the trap of using their credit cards again, long before the debt consolidation loan has been cleared.
If you do find that you require another loan, try to research the available products as best you can in order to get the best rate loan available.
Mark Dawson writes for the Loan Arrangers. Where visitors can compare UK loans online, and apply for the best rate UK loans available to them.