Is Debt Consolidation Always To Your Advantage?

Is Debt Consolidation Always To Your Advantage?

by Devora Witts

You may wonder if by consolidating your debt you really will be able to reduce your income-spending ratio and obtain monthly payments you will actually be able afford. This is a question that needs to be answered by carefully considering your debt as debt consolidation cannot be successful with all kind of loans and other debt.
If debt and bills keep pilling up you may eventually have to make a decision. Whether that decision is to take a debt consolidation loan, contact a debt consolidation agency or resort to more critical decisions like filing for Bankruptcy, it is definitely a choice that cannot be rushed in.

Debt Consolidation = Debt Reduction?

Debt consolidation in particular can provide up to a 70% of debt reduction in certain situations, however, this is an ideal scenario. Only if your debt is composed of unsecured loans and credit card balances or store card balances you will be able to achieve such amazing results.

However, if too much of your debt is secured, it is less probable that you will be able to obtain such a significant cut on your debt. Moreover, there are certain loans that though not secured, have promotional interest rates that cannot be matched or reduced even more. Thus, it makes no sense to try to include them in a debt consolidation program.

To be more specific, the following loans are seldom consolidated: Home loans, home equity loans, home equity lines of credit, refinanced home loans, federal loans for first time home buyers, federal student loans, other government loans, private student loans from non-profit organizations, etc.

Secured loans can only be consolidated by means of a secured consolidation loan. In other words, you have to resort to refinancing in order to reduce the burden from home loans and home equity loans and lines of credit. When it comes to car loans, the problem is the same, an unsecured consolidation loan will never be able to match the low interest rate that car loans provide due to being secured and thus you will need to refinance the car loan if possible or consolidate via a secured consolidation loan guaranteed with another property.

Debt Consolidation

However, do not get confused; debt consolidation loans are not the only form of debt consolidation. Debt consolidation is mainly debt negotiation and sometimes, by means of a debt consolidation loan, all your debt (or most of it) can be reduced to a single loan with a unique and lower monthly payment.

Debt consolidation agencies however, first contact your creditors and agree with them a reduction on your debt by reducing the interest rate you pay and sometimes they can even obtain a cut on your debt's capital. As stated above, by these means you can achieve a debt reduction of up to 70% but most importantly you will be able to make your debt affordable again, thus driving away the risk of defaulting or having to go through a bankruptcy process. After this negotiation deal has ended debt consolidation agencies can provide a debt consolidation loan or not. In most cases, even without a debt consolidation loan, all payments to creditors will be made through the agency.