Debt consolidation is understood as taking out a new loan or credit card to pay off other pre-existing loans or credit cards. By combining multiple debts into a single, larger loan, one would also be able to obtain more likable payoff terms, including a reduced interest rate, reduced monthly payments, or both. This blog post tells how to decide whether one should consolidate their debts and how to go about it if they do.
Key elements:
- Debt consolidation is understood as the act of taking out a single loan or credit card to pay off multiple debts.
- The benefits of debt consolidation include the following such as potentially reduced interest rates and consistently lower monthly payments.
- One can consolidate the debts using a personal loan, home equity loan, or balance-transfer credit card.
How Debt Consolidation Works
One can roll old debt into new debt in multiple different ways, such as by taking out a new personal loan, a new credit card with a high enough credit limit, or a home equity loan. Afterward, one can eventually pay off the smaller loans with the new one. If one is using a new credit card to consolidate other credit card debt, for instance, one can substantially transfer the balances on your old card to the new one. Certain balance transfer credit cards even offer high incentives, that includes as a 0% interest rate on the balance for some time.
Adding further to the possibility of reduced interest rates and very small monthly payments, debt consolidation can surely be a way to simplify financial life, with fewer bills to pay almost every month and fewer due dates to make a person worry about.
Risks of Debt Consolidation
Debt consolidation loan also has some drawbacks to consider. Beginning with, when one takes out a new loan, the credit score could suffer a minor hit, which could affect whether one would qualify for other new loans.
Depending on how one would consolidate their loans, they could be facing the potential risk of paying more in total interest. For instance, if one takes out a new loan with reduced monthly payments but a longer repayment term, one would end up paying more in total interest over a period.
One can also possibly hire a debt consolidation company to help an individual. But at times, they often charge large initial amounts and frequent monthly fees. It’s comparatively less difficult and more cost-effective to consolidate debt on your own with a personal loan from various banks or low interest.
Various kinds of Debt Consolidation Loans
One can consolidate debt by using various types of loans or credit cards. Which will be best for them will depend on the terms and types of the current loans as well as the current financial situation.
There are two kinds of types of debt consolidation loans: secured and unsecured loans. Secured loans are taken as backed by an asset just like a home, which serves as collateral for the loan.
On the other side, unsecured loans, are not backed by assets and can be taken as more difficult to get. They would also tend to have increased interest rates and reduced qualifying amounts. With either type of loan, interest rates are still typically lower than the rates charged on credit cards. And in certain cases, the rates are taken to be fixed, so they won’t rise over the repayment period.
With any type of loan, one would want to prioritize which of these debts to pay off first. It often ensures to begin with the highest-interest debt and work their way down the list.
