Debt Consolidation Help

Choose The Method That's Right For You

You may want debt consolidation help when you are faced with numerous debts, or perhaps threatened by creditors or collectors:

There are basically three methods of debt consolidation...

>Debt management

>Debt settlement

>Bankruptcy

Debt Management

With this option, you make one monthly payment instead of multiple payments to credit card companies and various other creditors. There are two ways of doing this:

• Taking out a personal loan. If you can get a loan against your home you will be able to get a low interest rate, and pay off all your debtsat once.



• Work with a debt consolidation company. This is a good way to get debt consolidation help.
  For a small monthly fee they will pay off all your creditors, and will negotiate with them for a lower interest rate. This will have a positive effect on your credit rating. You can read more about it on my page Credit and Debt Counseling.

Transfer Your Balance

Don't forget this one if you have a large balance on your credit card, or owe money on various cards. There's always companies out there who will give you 0 APR for six months or maybe even longer if you transfer all the money you owe over to them.

In other words, you won't pay any interest for a specified period of time. Although I've never done this, I don't see why you couldn't change credit cards again if your time runs out, and never pay interest!

Needless to say, it wouldn't be a good idea to make a habit of this. Once you have everything paid off, discipline yourself to pay off the balance every month.

DEBT SETTLEMENT

With this method a deal is negotiated with creditors to pay off only a part of what is actually owing in a lump sum.

Unfortunately this will have an adverse effect on your credit rating. You will need to decide if you want to do everything on your own, or deal with a debt settlement company. Before you make this decision it would be a good idea to talk to one of these companies first.

Speaking for myself, I would look for a good debt settlement company to get debt consolidation help.

One of the negative aspects of doing everything yourself is that some creditors will give you the brush off, thinking that they can maybe get more money out of you by putting pressure on you. It can also be a little more involved than you think, and not that easy.

Debt settlement companies know how to handle the attempted brush offs, and they have the expertise in dealing with various creditors. A good company can reduce the amount you will owe to 40 or 50% of the original amount.

To sum up the benefits of debt settlement:

• You will no longer have harassing creditors or debt collectors; your settlement company will deal with them. They will also see to it that you don't get harassing phone calls.



• You will pay less. With a delinquent debt, late fees and over the limit charges are added to the total debt. As a result you will have to pay higher interest on the debt. Settlement companies will negotiate for you, and can save you thousands of dollars.



• You will have only one monthly payment.



• You will have more time to pay. The company you work with can have the payment period extended from two to four years.