Using Debt Consolidation To Take Control Of Your Debt

Posted by Nick Niesen on October 29th, 2010

If you're in debt, consolidation is an excellent way to get reorganized so that you can pay it off soon and avoid high interest rates and late fees. Anyone who has problems with debt management should be seriously considering consolidation. Here are some helpful hints.

Debt consolidation is likely the best way to manage large debt amounts. So many people have large amounts of credit card debt and it continues to build because they are only able to manage paying the minimum payment on the cards. The majority of that monthly payment is interest and so it is nearly impossible to get out of debt in a reasonable amount of time. Paying the monthly minimum payment can take 20 years or more to pay off a credit card, creating a deep hole for many individuals and families.

Debt consolidation is when you take smaller debts *such as credit card debts) and combine them into a larger loan. For instance, if you have 5 credit cards with a total debt of $10K that you are paying an average of 19% interest on, you can take out a consolidation loan for $10K at a lower interest rate (e.g. 12%) and pay off your loan in a set period of time, let?s say 5 years. You save money by doing this because your interest is lower and also because you're making payments on the principal instead of mainly paying interest.

Having this type of loan is really the way to go to get out of the debt that you are being buried under. By doing this you can take back control of your debt and begin to really start taking chunks out of it. There is no doubt if you need a way to really get out of the credit card debt that you should be seriously considering consolidation.