An economic crisis is gripping the world as of the end of 2008. Families around the world are squeezed and finding it increasingly difficult to meet their obligations. In order to provide a home for their family, transportation to get them around, a means to a better education and nice products for personal enjoyment, many families will extend additional debt beyond their means to pay them back.
Individual loans each carry a regular percentage of interest on top of the loans that must be paid back in addition to the loan amount. For example, if you purchase a new car for $20,000, typically there is a monthly interest rate of around 1-6 percent added on top of the principal. In essence, you are not paying back just the $20,000 but an additional premium on top of that for interest.
So we continue to use easy credit as our means of getting by as if we could continue doing that forever, eventually getting by more and more by making minimum payments. All of a sudden we have a ton of debt and are trying unsuccessfully to pay for things we purchased long ago. This is where debt consolidation can be the answer to a seemingly unsolvable problem.
A debt consolidation loan consolidates all outstanding loans into a single loan. This single loan may in turn have a lower interest rate than the combined monthly interest payments of the loans being consolidated. In this case, though you are borrowing you’re not going deeper into debt and in fact may be taking a first step towards crawling out of debt.
There are other approaches you can try. Either on your own or with help of a responsible third party you can seek to have loan terms revised, with lower interest rates and lower monthly payments being the things usually pursued. You’ll normally owe the same amount but will get payment terms which are more in your favor. If you are successful in doing this you need to make sure that you are applying discipline to your money management habits. If you default you probably won’t get a second chance.
The consolidation loan most widely used is probably the home equity loan. On the plus side you can usually get a lower interest rate with a lower total monthly payment and have only one loan to make payments on. On the negative side the available equity in your home will be reduced (which can at times cause huge problems) and your home becomes the collateral for the loan.
Just be aware that if you’re putting your home up for collateral it’s imperative that you make your payments or foreclosure may be in your future. Losing your car is one thing, losing your home is something else. As enticing as a home equity loan may seem, and they are actively promoted, make certain you’ll be able to handle the payments. Above all, don’t start borrowing all over again. It’s time to start cutting up the plastic
Finally, it is critical to ensure you are well positioned to pay off any restructuring agreement through a solid monthly budget of your income and expenses. If you do not have sufficient income to meet the repayment terms then you will likely default on the consolidation loan and lose out on opportunities to improve in the future. Use a solid budget, proceed with caution and restructure your debt when appropriate to fix your families finances.
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