Monday, June 4, 2007

Become Debt Free Fast! Consolidating and Eliminating Credit Card Debt

Secured Consolidation loans

Getting a debt consolidation loan is the smartest way to go. Usually a debt consolidation loan requires you to offer some kind of collateral. This greatly reduces the risk involved for the lender and thus helps you getting lower interests and as a rule, considerable better conditions for the loan. On the other side, the use of collateral carries the risk of repossession which is a legal action that the lender can exercise against the property in order to get his money if you fail to meet the monthly payments.

Should you apply for a consolidation loan, bare in mind that you must avoid getting into more debt. This may be difficult as you may feel suddenly relieved by the fact that you now have only one monthly payment. Failing to realize that an increase in the number of outstanding loans will worsen your financial situation will inevitably lead you to bankruptcy and reduce your credit to nothing.

Sometimes you can put your car as collateral if there are not large sums of money involved or if your car has a high value. Otherwise if you are considering using your house as collateral, a home loan or a home equity loan are the smartest options.

Unsecured Consolidation loans

If you can’t offer any collateral, it will be very difficult to obtain a debt consolidation loan. Unsecured consolidation loans are very rare; there is much risk involved for the lender in this kind of loans and thus the interest rates will be too high, the amount of money much lower and the loan length too.

However, don’t despair; there are ways you can improve your credit and get a loan at better conditions. You should start by reducing the amount of money you loose by paying extremely high interest rates. Many people pay thousands of dollars on interests all over the year and this could be easily avoided by searching for the right source of finance instead of accepting any credit card or loan offer that falls to your hands.

Transfer Credit Card Debt

If you can get a 0% rate credit card, do so and transfer as much credit card debt as you can. You should start with the highest interest card in order to substantially reduce the amount of money spent on cards interest. Do not be at ease paying the minimum sum required, you should make sacrifices and try to pay as much as possible. Never miss a payment and avoid paying late.

By this time you should have learned the lesson. You should refrain from getting into more debt once you get some relief by following this advice. Always build a budget and stick to it. And you should never rush in; always make conscious decisions whenever your financial health is involved.

Kate Ross is a professional consultant at Speedybadcreditloans.com. You can click here to read more useful articles on this and other financial issues.

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