Bad Credit Debt Consolidation

By: Olson Andrew


Today a loan is available for almost anything that you need, from student loans, to loans for buying flat screen TVs, houses, cars, basically anything that is worth buying has a loan available. What most people do not do is read up on the various interest rates that are involved, a loan for buying a car or a student loan, is usually an unsecured loan and hence entails a high interest rate due to the risk involved.

What is debt consolidation?

In simple English, debt consolidation is taking a loan to pay off other loans. Debt consolidation is usually carried out either to reduce the rate of interest one is paying, to simplify the loan payments by paying for only one loan, or in the worst case scenario because an individual is about to default on a loan payment. The simple concept behind debt consolidation is to save money, and other cases to save a bad credit rating by defaulting on loan payments.

Why should I go for debt consolidation?

Scenario 1: If you had initially procured an unsecured loan, and you are being offered a better deal by some other company, then you should seriously consider debt consolidation. A classic example of this is credit card payments, once you buy something of a credit card and get it split into into equated monthly installments, you will instantly notice that the rate of interest is pretty high. The best option is to look around for a loan that can pay of the amount you own the credit card company, at a lower interest rate, not only will you save money, but you will improve your credit rating by paying off your credit card debt faster.

Scenario 2: There is a high probability that you are currently running multiple loans, an educational loan, a car loan and a personal loan to name just a few, debt consolidation is the simplest method of managing multiple loans, think of it this way, if you have three loans one at 12%, the second at 9%, the third at 10%, its simpler to have a single loan at 10%, not only does it make it simpler for you to manage the loan payments, but you will probably save money on the interest too.

Scenario 3: Perhaps the most important reason you might carry out debt consolidation is because you are about to default on a loan payment, defaulting on a loan payment is the biggest contributing factor to a poor credit history, also a defaulted payment, instantly reduces your credit rating, as all loan companies share a list of known defaulters with other loan companies, this basically means you stand to loose not just your credit rating, but the your chances of getting a loan in the future are also lowered.

Apart from the the 3 major reasons listed, you could have other personal reasons that require you to carry out debt consolidation, but on the face of it debt consolidation is not a bad thing.



Andrew Olson is the author of this article on debt consolidation. Find more information about debt consolidation here.